Figure 1

(a) Ice marginal positions of the main ice advances into central Germany¹⁷ and (b) map showing the distribution of the Saalian Main Terrace (SMT) in the study area and the location of investigated sites. (a) The green box marks the study area. The 2 ice advances (Older and Younger Elster) during the Elsterian stage are also termed Zwickau phase (1^st ice advance) and Markranstädt Phase (2^nd ice advance) in the Leipzig Lowlands. The tills are separated by melt- water-sands of the so called “Miltitz- Intervall”. Both significant ice advances during the Elsterian stage are estimated to have occurred during the late Elsterian^17,96,97. During the Saalian glacial cycle, the first and southern-most ice sheet extension into the Leipzig lowlands (Older Saale) reached the city of Zeitz (Zeitz-phase). The Zeitz-phase correlates to the late Saalian Drenthe stadial^1,17. The Younger Saalian ice advance (Warthe) did not reach the study area. Warm stage deposits between the different Saalian ice advances are not documented¹. We composed the map using SRTM 1Arc-Second Global data for elevation (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/) and processed it with the GNU General Public License software QGIS Version 2.18 (http://www.qgis.org/en/site/). (b) The SMT was formed by several rivers within the Saale-Elbe area and the term “Saalian” refers to the formation of the fluvial units during the Saalian glacial cycle. The terminus Main “Terrace”⁹⁸ is not used in a morphological sense. The stacked fluvial units accumulated in several phases between the Holsteinian interglacial and the Saalian ice advance of the Zeitz-phase^17,39,52. The map was redrawn from Eissmann⁹⁹ using Adobe Illustrator CS6.