International Conference on GPR in Archaeology (Nara, February 2001)

Combination of High Resolution Geomagnetik and GPR Prospections of Roman Sites in Austria.

Alois Eder-Hinterleitner, Sirri S. Seren, Peter Melichar

Wolfgang Neubauer

Archaeological questions about the extent, structure and the preservation state of an archaeological site can be answered very quickly and cost effective by archaeological prospection. The use of both prospection methods, high resolution geomagnetic and ground penetrating radar (GPR), became very successful in investigating Roman sites in Austria.

High resolution geomagnetic prospection delivers not only information about the extend and structure of a Roman town or villa, but also important indications of former wooden- and burned archaeological features. By prospecting 300.000 square meters a day even huge sites can be surveyed within reasonable time with geomagnetic. GPR on the other hand is five to ten times slower but delivers detailed three-dimensional information. It is therefore usually applied after the geomagnetic prospection at selected areas. Important for successful GPR prospections in archaeology is a high density of the measured spatial grid of at least 0.5 m x 0.1 m. These high dense GPR prospections are processed completely automated to horizontal depth slices of the distribution of the amplitudes within few minutes on modern laptop computers immediately after finishing the survey. The combination of the results of both prospection methods in a geographic information system (GIS) enables a detailed archaeological interpretation.

We will present two distinct examples. The Roman villa of Wels in Upper Austria and the Roman town Flavia Solva in Styria.

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