Jakob Kainz

Title
Integrated archaeological prospection and geoarchaeology for assessing the prospectability of archaeological features within a spatiotemporal landscape archaeology.

Supervisors
Dir. PD Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Wolfgang Neubauer
Dr. Erich Draganits

Case study
Kreuttal

Summary
The project will focus on the visibility / invisibility of archaeological features in various archaeological prospection data. The prospection data will include magnetometry, GPR?, aerial photography, lidar and multi- / hyper- spectral prospection data.

A geoarchaeological approach will be applied, as this will answer questions relating to the basic context of all archaeological materials – soils and sediments. This means it is broadly applicable in many types of archaeological investigations to provide information critical to an understanding of the dynamics of archaeological features and terrains throughout time.

Furthermore, landscapes consist of surface and subsurface features of different temporal layers and spatial distribution and these are identified in archaeological prospection data. Therefore it is vital to consider the identified features not just as “spots / sites” on a map, but as locations that need to be understood in the context of all the other “spots / sites” on the map: as part of a complete landscape. Often these associations can be ambiguous and therefore determining their spatiotemporal relationships in landscape archaeology can be frustrating. Thus it is essential to establish a framework for understanding the formation as well as the deformation processes of archaeological features and landscapes.

A combined study of archaeological, geoarchaeological and archaeological prospection data will allow analysis of the effect of natural- & human- induced processes on the prospectability (visible temporality) of various archaeological features in different sets of prospection data, as well as giving an insight into their spatiotemporal relationships.