2014 – 2018 Geography studies (B.Sc. “Geography”) at the JGU Mainz

2018 – 2020 Geography studies (M.Sc. “Climate and Environmental Change”) at the JGU Mainz

2020/02 – 2021/03 Working student at the State Office for Geology and Mining Rhineland-Palatinate

since 2021/01 Research assistant at JGU Mainz

2021/04 – 2021/08 Research Assistant State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse

2021/09 – 2022/09 Project support for SPP Ports “The Rungholt Trading Center”

since 2022/04 PhD student DFG project “LANDGRABEN”

Main research areas

• Geomorphology
• Geoarchaeology
• Human-environment interaction
• LANDGRABEN project

Study area

• Upper Rhine Graben, Hessian Ried

Summer semester 2025

• M1/M1ED Exercise: Geomorphology E
• M3ED Field internship: Excursion in Germany with preparatory seminar “Northern Upper Rhine Graben”

Summer semester 2024

• M11b/M9ED Field internship: Major excursion with preparatory seminar “Germany”

Summer semester 2022

• M1/M1ED Exercise: Geomorphology C

Winter semester 2021/2022

• M3/M5ED Exercise: Cartogaphy E
• M12 Seminar + field practical: Special physical geography “Geoarchaeology and natural hazards”

Summer semester 2021

• M1/M1ED Exercise: Geomorphology E
• M1/M1ED Exercise: Geomorphology F

2025

• Presentation: E. Appel, T. Becker, M. Scholz, D. Wilken, S. Bäumler, H. Schäfer, A. Stobbe, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, A. Vött: Geoarchaeological identification of the oldest man-made canal in Germany – The Roman Landgraben (Hessische Ried, Germany) (11th Developing International Geoarchaeology Meeting & 20th Annual Conference Working Group Geoarchaeology, Tübingen)

2024

• Lecture: The Landgraben – a Roman waterway in southern Hesse. (Lecture series “Waterways” of the Verein von Altertumsfreunden im Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt e.V., digitial)
• Lecture: E. Appel, T. Becker, M. Scholz, D. Wilken, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, A. Vött: The LandGraben project: River landscape from human hands – Roman interventions in the water network of southern Germany. (1st workshop of the Montanarchäologie & Kulturlandschaft research center, Mossautal)
• Poster: E. Appel, D. Wilken, T. Becker, S. Bäumler, P. Fischer, L. Obrocki, H. Schäfer, M. Scholz, T. Willershäuser, A. Vött (2024): Detection of a Roman canal in the immediate vicinity of the burgus at Trebur-Astheim (Hessisches Ried, Germany) by geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations. (19th Annual Conference Working Group Geoarchaeology & 41st Annual Conference Working Group Palaeopedology, Wilhelmshaven)
• Lecture: History of the river systems in the Hessian Ried. (Bergstrasse Nature Conservation Center, Bensheim)

2023

• Poster: E. Appel, T. Becker, D. Wilken, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, O. Bubenzer, B. Mächtle, L. Obrocki, A. Vött (2023): Man – environment interactions in the fluvial landscape of the Hessische Ried (Germany). (Annual conference of the German Society for Geomorphology 2023, Aachen)
• Poster: E. Appel, T. Becker, D. Wilken, L. Obrocki, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, F. Henselowsky, A. Vött (2023): The Roman burgus at Trebur-Astheim and its relation to the Schwarzbach/Landgraben watercourse – geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations. (XXI INQUA Congress, Rome)
• Presentation: E. Appel, T. Becker, D. Wilken, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, O. Bubenzer, B. Mächtle, L. Obrocki, A. Vött: Reconstructing the fluvioscape of the Hessische Ried (Germany) – Roman canals and natural river channels. (18th Annual Conference Working Group Geoarchaeology & 40th Annual Conference Working Group Palaeopedology, Würzburg)

2022

• Lecture: E. Appel, T. Becker, D. Wilken, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, L. Obrocki, A. Vött: The Roman burgus at Trebur Astheim (Hessisches Ried Germany – Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations. (17th Annual Conference of the Geoarchaeology Working Group, Mainz)

2025

• R. Prien*, E. Appel*, T. Becker, O. Bubenzer, P. Fischer, B. Mächtle, T. Willershäuser, A. Vött (2025): A Roman Fortlet and Medieval Lowland Castle in the Upper Rhine Graben (Germany): Archaeological and Geoarchaeological Research on the Zullestein Site and the Fluvioscape of Lorsch Abbey. Heritage, 8 (5), 180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8050180
• L. Slabon, S. Bäumler, E. Appel, S. Fiedler, P. Fischer, L. Obrocki, G. Pantelidis, S. Scherer, B. Thein, T. Willershäuser, B. Eder, H.-J. Gehrke, F. Lang, E.-I. Kolia, O. Pilz, D. Wilken, A. Vött (2025): A Previously Unknown Building Structure in Ancient Olympia (Western Peloponnese, Greece) Revealed by Geoarchaeological Investigations and Its Interpretation as a Possible Harbor. Heritage, 8 (2), 38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8020038
• *sharedfirst authorship

2024

• E. Appel, T. Becker, D. Wilken, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, L. Obrocki, H. Schäfer, M. Scholz, O. Bubenzer, B. Mächtle, A. Vött (2024): The Holocene evolution of the fluvial system of the southern Hessian Ried (Upper Rhine Graben, Germany) and its role for the use of the river Landgraben as a waterway during Roman times. E&G Quaternary Sci. J., 73, 179-202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-73-179-2024
• E. Appel, T. Becker, D. Wilken, L. Obrocki, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, F. Henselowsky, A. Vött (2024): The Roman burgus at Trebur-Astheim and its relation to the Schwarzbach/Landgraben watercourse (Hessisches Ried, Germany) based on geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations. Journal of Geomorphology, Special Issue Geoarchaeology 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1127/zfg/2024/0791

2023

• T. Becker, M. Scholz, A. Vött, D. Wilken, L. Obrocki, E. Appel, H. Schäfer (2023): The LandGraben project. River landscape from human hands – Roman interventions in the water network of southern Hesse. hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2022, Jahrbuch für Archäologie und Paläontologie in Hessen, Wiesbaden: 118-122.
• D. Wilken, E. Appel, P. Fischer, L. Obrocki, T. Willershäuser, S. Bäumler, T. Becker, A. Vött (2023): The Roman burgus of Trebur/Astheim in FDEMI multi-system data. Advances in On- and Offshore Archaeological Prospection: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection. Kiel: 299-303. DOI: 10.38072/978-3-928794-83-1/p60

2022

• Becker, T., L. Obrocki, D. Wilken, E. Appel, P. Fischer, T. Willershäuser, A. Vött (2022): On the connection of the late Roman burgus of Astheim. Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations at the Schwarzbach near Trebur, district of Groß-Gerau. hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2021, Yearbook for Archaeology and Paleontology in Hesse, Wiesbaden: 197-201.

2020

• Wiesner, T., U. Zollfrank, S. Sauer, E. Appel (2020): Soil science requirements for the construction or expansion of cemeteries. Topic booklets on preventive soil protection 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23689/fidgeo-5410

• Archaeological, geoarchaeological and geophysical investigations into Roman intervention in the watercourse network between the Odenwald and the Rhine in the area of today’s Landgraben (Hessisches Ried) – LANDGRABEN –
• The river landscape of the Weschnitz and its interaction with Lorsch Abbey
• RUNGHOLT – Combined geophysical, geoarchaeological and archaeological investigations in the North Frisian Wadden Sea (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) in the vicinity of the medieval trading center Rungholt