Life in the pipe–zoobenthos in an eighteenth century water pipeline from Stralsund, north-eastern Germany

Abstract The drinking water supply in the Medieval and Early Modern Hanseatic town of Stralsund was not based on ground water wells, but a wooden pipeline system taking the water from the surrounding ponds, which was distributed by hydrostatic pressure to the private plots and public wells in the town. The Strandwerk pipeline system running below the street Wasserstraße at the waterfront was built of drilled pine pipes in the late seventeenth century and operated until the nineteenth century. During archaeological excavations an infill with sediment containing rich zoobenthos was detected in a pipe dendrochronologically dated to 1749 WK. The dominating mollusc taxa are the bivalve Sphaerium corneum and the gastropod Bithynia tentaculata. The microfauna is dominated by ostracods, chironomid head capsules and statoblasts of freshwater bryozoans. The fauna and their taphonomy document an artificial light-less but well populated habitat within the water pipeline, slow and episodic currents, and water coming from the ponds of the city.