the Carboniferous. With the onset of the Cretaceous and Tertiary, the Earth's crust here formed itself into drape folds. In the mid-Tertiary, subtropical temperatures held sway on Nordhorn's plains. Thereafter began the gradual cooling, which reached its high point in the ice ages. After the last ice had melted, lowlands developed. Strong winds swept dunes up in the lifeless surface. Even today, the remains of such dune complexes can be found at the nearby Tillenberge (mountains). Archaeological finds from the Old Stone Age and the Bronze Age that followed bear witness to human settlement on Nordhorn's sand plains more than 6,000 years ago. In the rainy and colder Ice Age, early people settled on the dry riverside heights along the river Vechte. Archaeologists come across traces of Iron Age settlements, the foundations of later farming communities such as Frensdorf, Bookholt, Altendorf, Hesepe and Bakelde, in almost every field. From 12 BC to AD 10, the Roman commanders Drusus, Tiberius, Germanicus and Varus undertook in all thirteen campaigns in what was then still free Germany. From their camp in Xanten, these Roman troops would have undertaken forays into the lands of the Chamavi and Tubanti who then dwelt in the Nordhorn area. It is believed that the Romans used the prehistoric banks of the Vechte and sandy paths along the moors as military roads. This east-west overland connection would later become an important trade road, joining cities such as Brussels, Amsterdam, Bremen and Hamburg. In the late 4th century, with the onset of the Migration Period (or Völkerwanderung), the Saxons were pushing in from the north and towards the west. They forced the Tubanti farther westwards into Twente. After Charlemagne's conquest of the Saxon lands, the first border between the Frankish Empire and Saxony, albeit as an internal boundary, came into being. This line has largely survived history's changing fortunes and still forms the German-Dutch border today. In 687, Bishop Wilfrid of York sent missionaries across the sea to Christianize the former Tubanti land. Willibrord founded the Bishopric of Utrecht and Werenfried spread Christianity into the Vechte Valley. About 800, the settlement at Nordhorn was assigned to the Bishopric of Munster. Bishop Ludger built a wooden church on a spur of ground that thrust into the river's floodplain. About 900, the settlement's name was first mentioned in the Werden an der Ruhr Monastery's Heberegister as Northhornon. About 1180, the Counts of