Last Updated: Version 7.3 (May 31, 2026)

**Geodynamic Reinterpretation Model for Ptolemy’s Germania Magna (Full-Text):** General Model Description, Cartometric Foundations, Extended Evidence Analysis, and Impact Hypothesis

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Mildner, S. (2026). Geodynamic Reinterpretation Model for Ptolemy’s Germania Magna: General Model Description, Cartometric Foundations, Extended Evidence Analysis, and Impact Hypothesis. EarthArXiv (Preprint). https://doi.org/10.31223/X5KB51
([📥 **Download v7.3-PDF** ](https://zenodo.org/records/20474381/files/Geodynamic_Model_Description_for_Ptolemys_Germania_Magna___eartharxiv__7.3.pdf?download=1)) (mathematical model description)

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**Builds upon:** Mildner, S. (2025/2026). *A new interpretation of Ptolemy's Germania Magna: Employing computer-assisted image distortion of a medieval map by Donnus Nicolaus Germanus to examine post-glacial geodynamics in Europe*. EarthArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31223/X5313T
([📥 **Download v5.0-PDF**](https://doi.org/10.31223/X5313T)) (descriptive main publication)

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***Disclaimer***

*This article presents an interdisciplinary working hypothesis that integrates cartometry, geodynamics, sedimentology, and historical sources. It proposes a geodynamic and climatic rupture in the 6th century AD and formulates concrete, falsifiable predictions. The model challenges aspects of the current mainstream interpretation and is intended to stimulate further empirical testing. It does not claim to be a definitive reconstruction.*

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This four-part publication series presents Mildner’s Geodynamic Reinterpretation Model at increasing levels of mathematical and geophysical depth. Part 1 (this document) provides the general conceptual and interdisciplinary framework. Parts 2–4 are companion documents and develop the cartometric, geophysical, and impact-mechanical foundations in quantitative detail.

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**General Model Description based on the primary source:** Mildner, S. (2025/2026). *A new interpretation of Ptolemy's Germania Magna: Employing computer-assisted image distortion of a medieval map by Donnus Nicolaus Germanus to examine post-glacial geodynamics in Europe.* EarthArXiv (Preprint). https://doi.org/10.31223/X5313T
([📥 **Download v7.3-PDF**](https://zenodo.org/records/20474381/files/Geodynamic_Model_Description_for_Ptolemys_Germania_Magna___eartharxiv__7.3.pdf?download=1))

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Sven Mildner contends that the dramatic geodynamic and climatic rupture of 536 AD likely involved a reactivation of the ancient Caledonian Deformation Front (CDF) and the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ). He argues that large-scale inversion tectonics, fueled by Alpine compressive forces, reshaped Germania Magna during this period. With the Lausitz Block anchoring these stresses, neighboring massifs like the Harz and Thuringian Forest underwent significant rotation and deformation. The consequences were environmental and societal collapse: catastrophic floods, firestorms, and the formation of the 'Event-Dark-Earth' (ED-E) layer, alongside a major regression of the North Sea. This transformation explains why the ancient, compact shape of Germania Magna vanished, leading to the abrupt end of its settlement history.

## **1\. Introduction and fundamental reorientation of the discourse**

The postglacial development of the Baltic Sea, particularly the transition from a lacustrine to a brackish-marine system, represents one of the most significant paleogeographic, paleoclimatological, and paleoecological transformations of the entire Holocene.1 The central chronostratigraphic event of this far-reaching development is the so-called Littorina Transgression. Triggered by the eustatic sea-level rise, which was primarily caused by the final melting of the large continental ice sheets of the Pleistocene (especially the Laurentide Ice Sheet), marine water masses flooded the topographic barriers of the Danish straits and penetrated deep into the hitherto largely freshwater-dominated Baltic Sea basin.1 This complex, multi-phase process profoundly changed not only the entire hydrographic system of the region but also completely reshaped the coastlines of Northern and Central Europe.1 

In the classical geoscientific paradigm, the course of this transgression is understood as a gradual process dominated by climatic and eustatic factors, which culminated in the early to middle Holocene – roughly between 8,500 and 4,000 years before present (cal. BP).8 After reaching the transgression and salinity maximum, according to the established doctrine, the system transitioned into a phase of relative stability or slight regression, driven primarily by the isostatic rebound of the Scandinavian landmass interacting with a decelerating eustatic rise.9  
Recent interdisciplinary research, specifically the detailed geodynamic, geochemical, and cartometric re-evaluation of the geographic data of *Germania Magna* transmitted by Claudius Ptolemy (c. 150 AD), now fundamentally challenges this paradigm of calm, fading coastal dynamics in the Late Holocene.\[13, 13\] The modeling of the ancient geographic coordinates based on a strictly affine transformation suggests that the coastline of the *Oceanus Germanicus* (the southern North and Baltic Sea) in late antiquity was located about 120 kilometers further south than it is today.\[13, 13\]  

If this interdisciplinary hypothesis proves true, it forces the scientific community to massively revise the current understanding of the exact course, duration, and above all, the definitive end of the Littorina Transgression. It implies that the transgression did not transition into a static Post-Littorina stage in the middle Holocene but continued continuously over millennia into the Roman Imperial Period, and was only abruptly ended in the 6th century AD by a catastrophic, primarily tectonically driven event.\[13, 13\] This report analyzes the empirical evidence of the classical model, systematically contrasts it with the new geodynamic findings, and evaluates the far-reaching implications for Quaternary geology, geoarchaeology, and the understanding of postglacial geodynamics in Europe.