Halle

Function through Diversity

Hauling, planting and weeding trees: when the spadework is finished, it will be the largest biodiversity experiment in the world. A new forest is being created on 60 hectares in Xingangshan, in Eastern China. Gardeners are planting 96 native plant species and more than half a million trees and bushes. As we watch the trees grow little by little and experience the daily life of the Chinese workers, the students from Germany, Switzerland and China explain to us the most important factors of the ecosystem. What roles do herbs, herbivores, bacteria and, of course, climate play?

 

Stone-Age Giants

What inspired people to move large objects? Some 5,500 years ago, our ancestors began to shape erratic blocks and use them to construct giant monuments. The archaeologists at CAU Kiel working with Professor Müller and at the RGK in Frankfurt working with Professor Lüth assume that both human cohabitation and human thought underwent a fundamental change at the same time. Did these structures, made of megaliths, serve as gravesites, as meeting points or were they intended to serve as markers on the open landscape? What can the stone legacies tell us about social differences within Neolithic mankind?

 
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