Pförring fort vicus

In the dry early summer of 2017, the eastern part of the Roman civilian settlement (vicus) of the well-known fort of Pförring (Celeusum) was revealed by crop marks in a wheat field. The formation of the vegetation features was impressively documented by multiple flights in the course of the early summer.

During the first aerial survey on 11.05.2017, the first slight discolouration features were already visible. The plants above some buildings and a street stand out from the rest of the plants with a lighter green leaf. Some foundation walls of stone buildings are visible as slightly deepened lines.

On 05.06.2017, the negative crop marks over the wall remains of the buildings became much more pronounced in the low morning sun. In addition, there were now also some positive crop marks from pits on the eastern edge of the settlement (upper edge of image).

A good month later, the wheat started to ripen. When the wheat was surveyed on 09.07.2017, it had a greenish-yellow colour. Dry areas had already turned into a brownish emergency ripeness, so that the findings stood out with a rare clarity in the grain and so that subdivisions within the buildings could also be identified.

Addendum 2018: As the early summer of 2018 again offered good conditions for vegetation features due to its dryness, the fort vicus was surveyed again. The area described above did not produce any vegetation features in 2018, but on 11.06.2018 parts of the vicus development on the south-eastern side of the fort were revealed as negative vegetation features in the rye field, which was ripening.