Profile

Biography

Matthias studied Geoecology (Diplom Geoökologe) at the University of Bayreuth, Germany with a main focus on soil science, biogeography and geomorphology. Thanks to a DAAD grant he was able to study for one year at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in Peru. His Diploma thesis focused on the investigation of “Soils, vegetation structure and floristic composition along an altitudinal gradient in the Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo in Northern Peru.” He joined the HEEAL project in 2007 to study the formation of colluvial hill slope sediments of the Pare Mountains, NE Tanzania in order to assess the contribution of past human land use to landscape change and land degradation.

Publications

Selected publications

Conference Presentations:

Heckmann, M (2009): Agricultural intensification and Landscape Change in the Pare Mountains, Paper presented at 1st World Congress of Environmental History, 4th-8th September 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Heckmann, M (2009): Human and climate induced phases of landscape instability and soil erosion in the Pare Mountains, NE Tanzania. Paper presented at UK Archaeological Sciences Biennial Conference 2009, 10th September 2009, Keyworth, UK.

Heckmann, M (2009): Examining landscape change and soil erosion histories in the Pare Mountains, NE Tanzania. Paper presented at the Association for Environmental Archaeology (AEA) 30th Anniversary Meeting, 3rd-5th September 2009, York, UK.

Research

Overview

Matthias' main research interests are landscape ecology, palaeoecology, and landscape development. In his geoarchaeological research he is especial interested in how human cultures adapted to environmental and climatic constraints and how their responses have shaped ecosystems and landscapes.

Current projects

A history of soil erosion and land degradation in the North Pare Mountains, NE Tanzania. Evidence for land surface instability and human land use inferred from colluvial and alluvial deposits.

Background:

Anthropogenic land degradation and severe soil erosion are widespread in East Africa and many efforts are made to reduce soil erosion and maintain ecosystem functions. In the Pare Mountains, NE Tanzania, bare peaks and secondary bushland have been reported by the first European travellers at the end of the 19th century and were interpreted as the consequences of deforestation and land degradation. Despite the well known abundance of iron smelting sites in the Pare Mountains archaeological evidence for the onset and the intensity of agriculture and iron smelting is still lacking. Meanwhile, historians have postulated a phase of agriculture intensification and an economic boom during the heyday of the 19th-century caravan trade. The severely eroded soils of the Pare Mountains and footslopes and the observations recorded by the first European travellers give rise to the question as to whether the severely eroded soils observed in the Pare Mountains today are the result of modern land use and management, or if they are the consequence of the agricultural boom stimulated by the caravan trade, or if the lack of forest has been part of the Pare landscape for a much longer time; perhaps caused by the initial occupation and maintained by ongoing iron smelting.

Research:

Past soil erosion is recorded in correlated colluvial hill slope sediments throughout of the Pare region. These deposits are a key to understanding past human land use and landscape change as they are directly linked to slope processes that may have been altered by human activities. Slope deposits of several Pare upland catchments have been investigated and, together with the palaeoecological evidence from swamp cores, allow  the reconstruction of soil erosion phases and regional landscape change in the Pare Mountains during the last two millennia. Distinct soil erosion commences in North Pare during the middle of the first millennium AD and is likely to be related to the onset of agricultural land use, iron smelting and the associated woodland clearances in this part of Eastern Africa. Soil features like sandlenses, clay coatings, and re-deposited soil aggregates are used to infer changes in land use and land use intensity. The study shows how soil erosion histories can be used in archaeological contexts to understand when and how early human land use started to shape the Pare landscape and to assess when ecosystem thresholds were crossed leading to land degradation.

Research group(s)

• Landscape and Society
• HEEAL

Teaching

External activities

Memberships

Memberships, etc.