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Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology

High-Tech Archäologie im TV

Die TV-Sendung Newton dreht sich am kommenden Samstag ganz um High-Tech-Methoden in der Archäologie (18.30, ORF1). Im Mittelpunkt des Wissenschaftsmagazins stehen die aktuellen Forschungen des LBI ArchPro zu den steinzeitlichen Kreisgrabenanlagen in Österreich. Großflächige archäologische Prospektion und virtuelle Rekonstruktionen haben den Experten vom LBI ArchPro völlig neue Aufschlüsse über diese rätselhaften Anlagen, die zu den ältesten Monumentalbauten in Europa gehören, erbracht.

Archaeological prospection is celebrating one of its very first pioneers: Irwin Scollar turns 90 in November 2018. Since the early 1960s, the ingenuitive US-born engineer, archaeologist and early computing expert has fundamentally formed, defined, advanced and influenced archaeological prospection methods and technology in the fields of near-surface geophysics and aerial archaeology.

Archaeologists armed with a motorized high resolution georadar have found a Viking ship and a large number of burial mounds and longhouses in Østfold County in Norway. The discoveries were made by archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) with technology developed by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro). The Viking ship find is just below the topsoil, at a depth of approximately 50 cm initially buried in a burial mound.

In July 2018, a team of the LBI ArchPro together with specialists from its partner ZAMG went to Italy to test the suitability of modern archaeological prospection methods for the large-scale investigation of Etruscan cities. Motorized ground-penetrating radar measurements with different systems for extensive surveys and complementary near-surface geophysical prospection methods were used at Vulci, Cerveteri and Tarquinia, to evaluate their potential for the large-scale exploration of the Etruscan cities that have existed there.

The Institute is dedicated to the development of new techniques and methodological concepts for landscape archaeology. It combines geophysics, computer science, geomatics and archaeology to develop efficient and universally applicable methods and techniques for the non-destructive detection, documentation, investigation, visualisation and integrative interpretation and spatial analysis of the cultural heritage of archaeological landscapes.