<p><strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> This paper deals with the issue of documenting hydrological drought with the
help of drought marks (DMs) which have been preserved on dozens of hunger
stones (HSs) in the river channel of the Elbe in Bohemia and Saxony. So far, the
hunger stones have been regarded rather as an illustration of dry seasons.
Our aim was, among other issues, to draw attention to the much greater value
of hunger stones and individual dry year marks inscribed on them. Therefore,
we wanted to verify their reliability and better understand the motivation
of their authors. For this purpose, we used the current extreme drought
period of 2014–2019, which allowed detailed documentation of a hunger stone
in Děčín, Czech Republic, with marks dating from 1536 to 2003. Thanks to the
helpful position of the stones relative to the water gauge, we could compare
the measured mark heights to the corresponding water levels. Sim