Loess deposits and the conservation of the archaeological record—The Krems-Wachtberg example

Recent archaeological excavations at the Upper Palaeolithic open-air site of Krems-Wachtberg in eastern Austria exposed a late Pleistocene loess sequence. An interdisciplinary sampling strategy was applied to the 8-m high North profile. The extraordinary conservation of a Gravettian living floor with several complex features is discussed in this paper.