I would like to thank all of the people involved in my thesis for their invaluable suggestions and help. Without their effort the result of my diploma thesis would have been far less satisfactory.

First of all I would like to thank my assessors Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Pachur and Prof. Dr. Bernd Meissner. Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Pachur is conducting geoscientific research in the Eastern Sahara since many years and has made this topic a renowned part of the curriculum of the Department of Earth Sciences of the Freie Universität Berlin. Thereby he is inspiring academic novices like myself to follow his example. I am thankful to Prof. Dr. Bernd Meissner from the University of Applied Sciences Berlin not only for his scientific influence on the methodological part of my work but especially for constantly bringing people from different institutions together and challenging them to work in a team.

Next I would like to thank the entire team of the Multidisciplinary Collaborative Research Center 389 ACACIA in Cologne . I was very happy and proud to be part of their work team and be given the chance to join some of their expeditions. I am especially grateful to Dr. Stefan Kröpelin for employing me as a collegiate assistant in his project throughout my stay in Sudan . His doctor thesis on the Wadi Howar remains the benchmark of every geoscientific work concerning the Wadi Howar. I would like to thank Dr. Stefan Kröpelin also for his suggestions on literature and the contribution of further jerry cans of diesel while stopping by in the Lower Wadi Howar on his way to Chad .

I also want to express my gratitude to Dr. Friederike Jesse for her constant support, valuable suggestions and information concerning the archaeological part of the thesis.

Further I would like to thank my Arab friends in Sudan and Egypt . The staff of the Geolocigal Research Authority of Sudan GRAS was very helpful throughout my internship and supported my work in many aspects. My special thanks are due to my friend Magid Margan for helping me throughout my time in Khartoum starting with the compilation of relevant literature and helping me with the Arabic abstract. Many thanks as well to Amin for scanning maps and Noor for assisting in the typing. I sincerely wish all the wonderful people of Sudan a peaceful and prosperous future in a country that returns to be back at the educational and scientific forefront of Africa .

I would like to thank my friends in the oasis of Siwa in Egypt for enabling me to fully concentrate on my writing during the five weeks I stayed with them writing my thesis. I am especially grateful to my friend Bakri al-Shi'iri for his hospitality in his "Beduin Tent" which made continuous concentrated work feel like a vacation. My thanks go also to 'Aloush for allowing me to work in his most beautiful garden restaurant "Nour al-Wahat", to 'Ali for managing my recreation time and to Khaled for the daily supply of fresh orange juice.

Further I would like to express my gratitude for the support I received from my parents Hasko and Marion Haberlah, both financially throughout all the years of studies and orthographically.

For critically reviewing the final work Jutta von dem Bussche and Sonja Germer were invaluable.

Last but not least I would like to thank the expedition team and especially the leader Dr. Mathias Lange. Without their combined support and effort throughout the stay in the field and Dr. Mathias Lange's confident and flexible management of the campaign the scale of the survey would not have been possible. It has been a great experience and a lot of fun to work so closely with his team for more than a month in the desert.