Written and environmental archives can provide evidence of human influences as well as of natural, climatic events. In this research project, lake sediment cores from the city lake are examined with geochemicalbiological methods and local dendrochronological analyses (tree-ring dating) are carried out on wood from Bad Waldsee. At the same time, the written tradition will be evaluated according to economic, environmental and social-historical aspects. The data obtained and evaluated will be brought together in a model of the human-climate-environment system for Bad Waldsee and its surroundings in the Middle Ages and early modern times.

The interdisciplinary cooperation of geo-biosciences and historiography as well as the investigation and interpretation of data and phenomena in a resolution that in some cases makes it possible to determine the exact year distinguish this project and promise a greatly expanded potential for knowledge. The city of Bad Waldsee offers the ideal conditions for the research project: Firstly, the city lake is located directly next to the medieval city centre. Secondly, the sediments of the city lake can be examined and dated back, in some cases even to a precise year, to the early modern period. In addition, a broad written tradition enables historiographical investigations.