Digitisation as a chance for restoration and visualisation

• Project number: FTI17-010
• Project Management: Dieter Pahr, Karl Landsteiner University for Health Sciences / Division of Biomechanics
• Project partners: Natural History Museum Vienna / Department of Anthropology, Danube University Krems / Collection Studies and Management, Austrian Academy of Sciences / Institute of Oriental and European Archaeology
• Project duration: 47 months from 1 November 2018

Background

When in 2005 during archaeological excavations at the Krems Wachtberg site a double burial of two newborns, more than 30,000 years old, was discovered, this attracted great attention in the public as well as in international scientific circles. Worldwide, finds of young people and children of early modern humans are extremely rare. After its discovery and uncovering, the ritually arranged burial was recovered as a block and carefully stored in order to preserve the excellent state of preservation of the find. In 2015, this block was then removed in layers in the laboratory, with each step of the process documented using state-of-the-art technology.
Digitisation is now the method of choice for the analysis, reconstruction and pictorial representation of such finds. High-resolution micro-computed tomography is currently the only way to create a digital copy and visualisation of the human remains. This enables 3D reconstruction of both the surface and the internal microstructure, thus making "the invisible visible". Corresponding equipment will be provided to the KL Department of Biomechanics in 2018 as part of the Core Facility at the Krems Campus. This will overcome the current limitations of analytics and enable digitisation of the findings for future investigations. With the inclusion of the laser scan data from the excavation, the entire find can be reconstructed. Apart from this three-dimensional reconstruction, it will be possible to represent both the "chaîne operatoire" of the activities in the course of the burial process and the post-sedimentary displacement processes (4D = spatial development in time). In addition to the reconstruction of the burial, the contemporary documentation and archiving of the data is extremely important for future research.
important for future research. Therefore, one of the main goals of this pilot project is to create a catalogue of criteria for a long-term open-source data archive that makes the data of the excavation and the excavation finds accessible to scientists of all disciplines according to the latest scientific criteria. The digitisation of the Krems-Wachtberg double burial is challenging in all its aspects and therefore requires experts from different fields to deal with the different aspects inherent in such a spectacular discovery. Now it is possible to investigate this outstanding finding under the leadership of Lower Austrian research institutions. As one of its main goals, the project will lead to further professionalisation in collection management and museology - one of the fields of the
Lower Austrian RTI strategy. The project will significantly increase the perception of Lower Austria's cultural heritage, using the latest technical developments in scientific research at an international level.