Learning from the past

An exciting project is underway, designed to create 3D models of pile dwellings that were built in Austrian lakes, in order to document how some of our ancestors lived 5000 years ago. As part of this project the University of Vienna has acquired a multibeam solution supplied by MacArtney.

Prior to placing the order for multibeam equipment, scientists of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology were attending a demonstration introducing them to the products in question and to their properties and features. The presenters were hydrographers from MacArtney’s German subsidiary who actually did the installations and preparations for the equipment.

The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology is a research institute dedicated to the development of new techniques and methodological concepts for landscape archaeology. Its research programme combines geophysics, aerial imaging, computer science and geomatics to develop efficient and universally applicable approaches for non-destructive detection, documentation, visualisation, analysis and interpretation of archaeological landscapes.

The scope of supply features a Teledyne SeaBat® T50-P multibeam sonar, data acquisition software QPS QINSy, data processing software (BeamworX AutoClean/ AutoPatch and QPS Fledermaus), training, and installation.

As Jörg Brunken, System Sales Manager Hydrography, MacArtney Germany noted, this sort of project is important, as ‘it helps us identify our past and learn from it for future successes.’