Archaeological Prospection Case Study Kreuttal

The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI AcrhPro) hosts the Kreuttal case study as one of a number of national and international projects. Due to the fact that it is situated only 30 minutes to the north of Vienna by automobile, many key questions of the LBI Archpro's research program are focussed on this area, including Remote Sensing, Geophysical Prospection, Geoarchaeology but also traditional archaeological methodology as field walking and testing excavations.

Many different experts have been invited for specific investigations within the case study area concerning palaeoenvironmental studies, geology, soil chemistry, accumulation and erosion processes, analysis of historical sources such as historical aerials and maps, just to mention a few.

In terms of topography a mainly wooded mountain ridge heading N-S separates the "Bay of Korneuburg" (Korneuburger Bucht) from the Viennese Basin (Wiener Becken), forming a first natural barrier to the eastern planes. The valley of the Russbach (Kreuttal), which gives the case study its name, cuts this ridge and thus connects the mentioned areas. For the LBI-Archpro case study, an area was defined covering this mountain ridge and its slopes for a length of about 15 km. This case study will give the chance for a complete prospection of two connected prehistoric landscapes and might be extended after the first four years of the LBI ArchPro towards E and W.

The LBI ArchPro is a research institute of the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft and was founded in 2010. The institute carries out its research activities together with several international partner organizations and aims to create a network of archaeological scientists supporting interdisciplinary research programmes for the development of large-scale, efficient, non-invasive technologies for the discovery, documentation, visualization and interpretation of Europe's archaeological heritage.

The lead partners of the institute based in Vienna, are the University of Vienna, the Vienna University of Technology, the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, the Province of Lower Austria, Airborne Technologies, the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz, the Swedish Central National Heritage Board, the IBM Visual & Spatial Technology Centre Vista at the University of Birmingham and Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research.