Opencast lignite mines are mega-holes up to 200 meters deep that wander through the landscape.

The Garzweiler opencast mine in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, moves a good 300 meters west through the area every year.

The lignite excavators are as big as skyscrapers and as long as container ships.

They eat meadows, forests, places.

Many people have lost their homes.

Archaeological sites are also irretrievably destroyed year after year.

"It's an unbelievable, comprehensive loss," complains Erich Claßen, who heads the Office for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments at the Regional Association of the Rhineland (LVR).

"And yet the open-cast mine is also an opportunity for archaeology." Because in the run-up to the open-cast mine, archaeologists can explore the ground more extensively and deeply than anywhere else.

Pure burger

Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

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Since 1978, the Rhenish Office for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments has set up a branch in the small town of Titz for the Garzweiler, Hambach and Inden opencast mines, which now belong to the RWE energy company and form the Rhenish mining area – the largest European lignite deposit.

Since 1990 there has also been a foundation, unique in Europe, founded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the opencast mine operator to promote archeology in the opencast mining area, which has already funded more than 290 research projects.

A huge win for science

At the Inden opencast mine, the LVR teams were able to explore a Roman burial ground with more than 1,500 burials that stretches over a kilometer and a half.

"If one day everything is evaluated, then that will be an enormous gain for science," says the state archaeologist Claßen.

The excavations on the edge of the Hambach opencast mine are also considered a stroke of luck.

In Kerpen-Manheim, the scientists not only uncovered the foundations of the main and ancillary buildings of a Roman country villa, but also made numerous important finds in deeper layers.

A rare building offering with closely spaced metal objects, such as an S-shaped key, two bracelets and eight brooches, was found in a pit in the Villa Rustica.

The find allows numerous conclusions to be drawn about the living conditions of the residents at that time.

It's an "initial building sacrifice," says Robin Peters, who heads the Titz branch.

Presumably the first family left the objects in the courtyard as if at a topping-out ceremony.

It is also interesting that the key probably comes from the Late Iron Age and is therefore older than the Roman robe clasps.

"Maybe the key was a souvenir of the previous home," says Peters.

"The building sacrifice may have symbolized the farewell to an old house on the one hand and the new beginning for the family that moved into their new home here 2000 years ago on the other."

Close to the people of yesteryear

Archaeological excavations usually end at the depth of the excavation pits for modern new buildings – i.e. roughly the same depth that is necessary for the excavation of cellars and underground car parks – so the scientists in the open-cast mining area can look down into the damp environment, where there is also organic matter material is preserved.

The archaeologists were able to salvage an almost completely preserved left child's leather shoe from the well of Manheim's Villa Rustica, which had been filled with rubble and objects over the centuries.

The shoe, made from a single piece with a seam at the heel, is 12.7 centimeters long and thus corresponds to today's size 21, so it will have been worn by a child around two years old.

Signs of wear are clearly visible on the sole.

The kid could walk around in it for quite a while.

"Such traces bring you very close to the people of that time, and that alone makes the find significant," says archaeologist Peters.

In addition, no other comparable children's shoes from the fifth century are known north of the Alps.