Brunhes to burials – loess region of Krems, Lower Austria

Abstract. This excursion is dedicated to loess–paleosol sequences (LPSs) and the Quaternary research history in the region around Krems an der Donau (Krems a.d. Donau), Austria. The landscape at the eastern exit of the picturesque Wachau valley, carved by the Danube into crystalline basement rocks, is covered by thick loess and has a more than 100-year-long research history. Local Upper Paleolithic findings (e.g., Venus of Willendorf, Fanny of Stratzing, Wachtberg infant burials) are world famous. The outcrops of Paudorf, Göttweig-Furth, and Krems-Schießstätte were type localities of the Quaternary period until the 1970s. Recently, these complex LPSs with discontinuities and polygenetic units were reinvestigated, with a focus on the Middle to Late Pleistocene (Brunhes) record.