Propylaeum

The early to high medieval deserted village of Twesine is situated at the foot of the mountain plateau of Eresburg Castle – today's Obermarsberg. Twesine has a special significance for the history of Westphalia, as early relics of copper smelting were discovered here. The waste products of copper and iron extraction are found in Twesine in a dump up to 60 cm high and 3000 m² in size. They bear witness to all stages of metal processing for which the deposits at Obermarsberg were exploited. Kristina Nowak-Klimscha investigates whether the settlement and the wide-ranging metallurgical knowledge available here, together with Eresburg Castle, became a pawn in Charlemagne's power and economic-political interests during the Saxon Wars.
This thesis was accepted as a dissertation at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 2014.