Femern A/S & Museum Lolland-Falster inform

about the archaeological excavations and the construction

of the Fehmarn Belt tunnel.

Museum Lolland-FalsterFrisegade 40

4800 Nykøbing F. + 45 54 84 44 00

@ post@museumlollandfalster.dkwww.syltholm.dk

Femern A/SVester Søgade 10

1601 København V + 45 33 41 63 00@ info@femern.dk www.femern.dk

www.femern.dk • www.syltholm.dk

For more information:

The World’s longest immersed tunnel from Denmark to GermanyFemern A/S is designing and planning a fixed link between Denmark and Germany under the Fehmarn Belt. The tunnel project will be the largest construction project in northern Europe and scheduled to begin in 2015, and the tunnel to opened in 2021.

A thorough evaluation of environmental and safety standards – including secure navigation – as well as technical, scheduling and economic factors make an immersed tunnel the best technical solution. The immersed tunnel for cars and trains under the Fehmarn Belt will be the longest of its kind in the world. We use established designs and construction methods, however the scale of the project and depth of the belt pose major technical challenges.The tunnel will be 18 km long. By car, the journey from coast to coast will take 10 minutes at 110 km/h. By train, it will only take 7 minutes.

Past Climate Change and Sea Level RiseWhen the last Ice Age released its grip on the Northern Hemisphere (c. 15,000 BC), it left a landscape transformed by the heavy ice sheet that had covered large areas of Denmark. However this was not the end of dramatic climate related changes of the area.After the end of the glacial period, the south coast of Lolland, where the Dan-ish tunnel portal will be located, has alternately been dry land and flooded by the sea. People had to adapt to a landscape with perpetually changing coastlines. The archaeological excavations have revealed flooded settlements in Rødby-havn, which provide clear evidence of these landscape changes. They also give us important, new information about prehistoric settlement patterns on the southern coast of Lolland.

Archaeological MethodsThousands of years of climate changes have caused repeated flooding of the south coast of Lolland. This has affected the 286 hectare construction site fun-damentally. Traditionally archaeological surveys are done by digging long test trenches to search for prehistoric remains. This method, however, proved to be impossible to implement in the 187 ha imploded part of the excavation site.

Therefore, we adopted a more suitable method from the Netherlands, where a special drill is used for these kinds of surveys. In the boreholes, we found the first traces of prehistoric settlement sites and archaeological finds. Not only that, with our dense net of boreholes, we were able to reconstruct the coastline and landscape around 4000 BC. We are thus able to predict where settlements not discovered by the boreholes might be hidden.

Tunnel portal, Rødbyhavn

Bore samples from the archaeological survey

View from the dike at Syltholm, east of Rødbyhavn, South Lolland

Denmark’s First Farmers?Around 11,000 years ago, people in the fertile crescent of the Middle East supported themselves by hunting, fish-ing and gathering. As temperatures rose after the end of last Ice Age (the Weichsel Ice Age), things started to change.The population started to grow crops and tame wild animals such as goats and sheep. This was the beginning of the epoch making process that turned hunters into farmers.There was a long way from the Middle East to Denmark. However archaeo-logical research shows that in Den-mark the transition from hunting to farming societies did not happen until the beginning of 4000 BC. The archaeological investigations in Rødbyhavn have already generated data which show that the area was inhabited by some of Denmark’s first farmers - people who cultivated the land and domesticated animals.

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Weichselian glaciation

(began approx. 100.000 years B.C.)

The timeline showes the different prehistoric periods in Denmark.

A Huge Construction SiteResponsibility for building the tunnel will be shared by multiple contractors. In autumn 2013, Femern A/S opened for the international submission of tenders for the tunnel itself, the portals and the land ramps, as well as the excavation of the sea bed and reclamation of coastal land. On top of these come contracts for the railway construction and other technical installations. The construction contracts are expected to be finalised in 2015, after which work on the tunnel can begin.

The estimated total cost of the coast-to-coast connection between Rødbyhavn and Puttgarden is 5,5 billion Euro (price level of 2008). All the standard elements for the tunnel will be produced at a purpose-built factory to the east of Rødby-havn. The factory is expected to cover an area the size of 420 football pitches.

The tunnel will be c. 18 km long and consist of 79 standard elements and 10 custom-made elements. A standard element measures about 9 m in height, 42 m in width and 27m in length. A custom-made element measures about 13m in height, 45m in width and 39m in length. The custom-made elements will be placed at 1.8km intervals along the length of the tunnel.

Archaeological ExcavationsIn conjunction with the construction of the tunnel under the Fehmarn Belt, Museum Lolland-Falster has been given a unique opportunity to learn about Lolland’s past. The first archaeological records on Lolland were made in the mid 1800s, before the industrialisation and the intensification of agriculture altered the cultural landscape fundamentally. These records clearly indicated the potential for finding more traces of Stone Age people in the area.

The preliminary archaeological surveys have proven this theory to be true. During a long period of the Stone Age, the south coast of Lolland was inhabited by people, who adjusted themselves to the continuously changing coastline by moving their settlements accordingly. The occupations cover a vast area through many millennia, and our excavations gives us the opportunity to follow the developments through the Stone Age. Most importantly, we can explore the fundamental shift from hunting to farming around 4000 BC.

A Large Workplace with Local CompaniesAt its height, the Fehmarn Belt construction work will employ more than 3,000 people. The world’s largest immersed tunnel project will create approximately 55,000 man-years of work. 25,000 of these will be spent on the construction sites of the main contractors on and around the Fehmarn Belt, the remaining 30,000 on the project’s many subcontractors and suppliers.

Thus, for every person directly employed by the contractors involved in the building of the tunnel, another person will be employed by a subcontractor. This is good news for employment and growth, not only in in Denmark, but also in Germany.

Work has already started in the area. Since May 2012, a large team of archaeologists has been conducting preliminary surveys for Museum Lolland-Falster, in close cooperation with local contractors.

The Excellent Preservation ConditionsThe major climate change, superseding the last Ice Age, which started around 9500 BC played an important role in forming the landscape of Denmark. On the southern coast of Lolland the landscape changed constantly, and the coast gradually moved further and further inland, covering the coastal settlements of the Stone Age.

A high water table in the area prevented oxygen from reaching the Stone Age landscape after it was flooded. Therefore, tools of wood and other organic materials are still preserved. Usually, flint is the only material that remains on such settlements.

Recreating an Ancient LagoonAs part of the Fehmarn Belt project, a redevelopment of the landscape will be established along the coast. This new landscape on Lolland will contain beaches and sand dunes, as well as dry and wet pastures - areas of recrea-tional value and natural beauty. Part of the area will replace some of the nature lost to construction work. The new area will have a network of paths and bike lanes, which will provide easy access to the new beaches.The new area will be built with the app. 19 million cubic metres of earth dug out of the tunnel and production site. It will extend across 330 hectares, and jut 500 meters out into the Fehmarn Belt. Among other things, the two lagoons of the Stone Age will be reconstructed. Some of the last hunters and first farmers of Denmark lived around these lagoons protected from the sea by a peninsula and a row of barrier islands.

Goat’s skull with the oldest goat’s brain ever found in Denmark (app. 3500 BC)

Die drei Linien geben an, wo sich die Küstenlinie 5500 – 3000 v. Chr. ungefähr befand. Die Küste war allerdings nicht geradlinig, sondern hatte die Form einer Lagune. Copyright: Kulturstyrelsen und Museum Lolland-Falster.

The area assigned to the construction of the railway connection, the motorway connection and the plant for producing tunnel units is marked in blue. This entire area will be subject to archaeological surveys and excavations. Copyright: Femern A/S and Geo-datastyrelsen (the Danish Geodata Institute), Rentemestervej 8, 2400 København NV.

One of the 79 standard elements on the seabed of the Fehmarn Belt.

Fantastic Finds from the Archaeological ExcavationsDuring the excavations, Museum Lolland-Falster has made several unique discoveries. Flint tools such as axes and daggers are proof of human activity and settlements in the area. These tools were used for everyday chores such as working wood or hide.

Bone was also used to make tools. Bone needles and awls were used to sew as well as to make and enlarge holes in leather. Bone points with or without carved ornamentation - probably used in eel spears or similar fishing tools - have also been found. A fish weir made of ashwood stakes was so well preserved that it seemed to have been built yesterday – despite the fact thatit is almost 5,000 years old. Another unique find is the skull of a goat, with parts of the brain preserved. The brain was 14C-dated to 3630 3370 BC and is therefore the oldest goat brain found in Denmark.