By Julia Längauer
Archaeological actions, including Line Walking Surveys, must be approved by the Federal Monuments Office and conducted according to specific criteria. Each measure is assigned an official number, with which the survey can be clearly identified.
One of the requirements of the Federal Monuments Office is the creation and submission of a digital documentation, which ensures the long-term central storage of the collected data. This also includes the so-called "activity reports" for publication in the journal "Fundberichte aus Österreich" (Austrian find reports journal). This publication by the Federal Monuments Office has existed since 1930 and is a valuable source of information on all archaeological actions and finds from Austria.
The reports on the surveys conducted in 2023 will also be published there. However, we would like to provide a brief insight into the results in advance:
The most pleasing aspect is certainly that all surveys have led to positive results. With the help of Citizen Scientists, Early Neolithic finds were discovered and collected in all cases. Large distances and areas were searched. Thus, the total distance covered by all survey participants amounts to more than 180 km.
After the surveys, the finds were cleaned by the Citizen Scientists and entered into a database. Due to the quantity and quality of the finds, we are now able to create a georeferenced distribution map and project the density of finds onto the landscape. For the reports, we have created a variety of maps, which serve as a basis for our further research.
A temporal differentiation is now also possible. We were able to identify settlements from the Bronze Age and Iron Age in some of the areas examined. Although these do not belong to the preferred period of investigation for us, they are an exciting bycatch that gives us a deeper insight into the settlement history of the Weinviertel region.
