Michaela BINDER | Leslie QUADE (Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut, Vienna, Austria) Keywords: bioarchaeology, paleopathology, Vienna, battlefield archaeology Abstract: From the 21st to the 22nd of May, 1809, Napoleon met his first defeat on land in a major battle near the villages of Aspern and Essling on the outskirts of Vienna. An estimated 55 000 French and Austrian soldiers died as a direct result.  In recent years, large scale building projects due to the expansion of the city brought about several salvage excavations in the area of the battlefield, carried out by the Stadtarchäologie Wien. In addition to a number of prehistoric site, several battlefield burial sites were uncovered as well. The presence of textiles, buckles and metal uniform buttons marked with specific regiment numbers has made it possible to identify some of the soldiers as members of the French army. 29 individuals were subject to bioarchaeological analysis and evaluated for demographic data, stature, dental and skeletal pathologies to elucidate the impact of Napoleonic military conditions on health during life and patterns of trauma leading to death on the battlefield.  The analysis revealed high mean stature and low prevalences of enamel hypoplasias, indicating relatively good health during childhood. This comforms to historical records stipulating that soldiers were required to meet certain height and health requirements to enlist in military service. The high percentage of individuals under the age of 20 (18.5%) supports documentation of Napoleon’s increased need for new recruits during this time period.  Carious lesions, dental calculus, sinusitis and indicators of infectious diseaas were very common, attesting to the effects of military life on health. Perimortem projectile gunshot wounds to the cranium, thorax and femora were the most frequently identified trauma, with little clear evidence of sharp force trauma. Relevance conference | Relevance session: This presentation showcases contextualised bioarchaeological work in...

Apostolos SARRIS1 | Paweł DZIECHCIARZ2 | Dylan KELLY3 | Paul R. DUFFY4 | Györgyi PARDITKA5 | Julia GIBLIN6 (1GeoSat ReSeArch Lab, FORTH, Rethymno, Crete, Greece | 2University of Warsaw, Poland | 3University of New Hampshire, USA | 4University of Toronto, Canada | 5University of Michigan, USA | 6Quinnipiac University, USA) Keywords: Geophysical Prospection, cemetery, Bronze Age, Hungary Abstract: Geophysical exploration has been an integral part of the BAKOTA (Bronze Age Körös Off-Tell Archaeology) project which is focusing on the archaeological investigations at the Békés 103 (Jégvermi-kert) site located on an old meander of the Kettős Körös in E. Hungary. The site comprises a flat Bronze Age settlement and an urn cremation cemetery. The small size of the graves, the shallow and disturbed deposits and the intensity of agricultural practices have affected the preservation of the archaeological record and provided challenging conditions for the prospection of the site. Investigations were carried out through the combined employment of magnetic gradiometry, EMI techniques, soil resistance and geochemical coring coupled with shovel testing followed by excavation. In order to enhance the interpretation of the fuzzy geophysical signals, the geophysical signatures of the detected features were cross-correlated to the excavation results and the attributes of the excavated features. The statistical analysis indicated the superiority of the magnetic techniques over electrical resistance methods in terms of correlating the magnetic anomalies with the number of ceramic vessels and their dimensions. The study signifies the importance of the construction of geophysical signature libraries that can be used as an archive to establish a framework for future investigations of similar sites. Relevance conference | Relevance session: Fusion of Geophysical and Excavation Data Innovation: Towards the construction of geophysical signatures References: DUFFY, Paul R. / GYÖRGYI PARDITKA, Julia I. / GIBLIN, László Paja / RODERICK B. Salisbury (2014): “Discovering Mortuary Practices in the Körös River Basin, Hungary.” Hungarian Archaeology Autumn (2014). SARRIS, Apostolos A. (2013): Technical Report: Bronze Age Körös Off-Tell Archaeology (BAKOTA): Geophysical Investigations at Békés Koldus-Zug, Hungary (Phase...

Claudia Maria MELISCH | Peter RAUXLOH | Natasha POWERS (Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany) Keywords: cemetery, Harris Matrix, relative chronology of archaeological contexts Abstract: The beauty of the Harris-Matrix for the understanding of the relative/ real chronology in cemetery excavations was up to now not really exploited. Such a statement might sound arrogant and exaggerated in the ears of experienced archaeologists, but it’s nevertheless true. The reason for this is the lack of a common tool that enables the archaeologist to join partial matrices and to implant additional data into the matrix. The importance of the Harris-Matrix was first and foremost seen in the graphical display of the relative chronology – but the Harris-Matrix is much more powerful than that. In fact, the graphical display of the relative chronology of contexts is only the surface. If the amount of contexts from an excavation exceeds a certain number, the conventional graphical display of the Harris-Matrix becomes useless. But the math behind the Harris-Matrix doesn’t! By using an interactive graphic format for displaying the relative chronology of archaeological contexts, we created a surprisingly mighty tool that unveils the capacity of this kind of information for the first time and revealed a great potential for further analysis and dating, especially for graves. We have introduced certain aspects of the project “Medieval Space and Population” before in CHNT, but now we can harvest from the previous developments and our interactive Harris-Matrix is the key tool to for choosing radiocarbon-samples, for understanding and correcting the map of the cemetery and for applying a time-component onto the succeeding burials, based on scientific dating. Relevance conference | Relevance session: New international research Innovation: The transformation of the Harris-Matrix into an interactiv graphic format revealed a mindblowing capacity. References: Harris Matrix – new format=new potential Dating graves, safely separating medieval and early modern period graves by sampling according to the...

Roman SCHOLZ | Luka BEKIĆ | Marco BLOCK-BERLITZ (HTW Dresden, Dresden, Germany) Keywords: Abstract: This preliminary report follows the structure from motion (SFM) method which has become increasingly popular in the cultural heritage world in recent years. That process (based solely on image data) allows for a relatively easy production of 3D models which can create very accurate drawings and video animations. Initial field tests have shown that this method can also be utilized underwater. In the future, the use of SFM will greatly ameliorate research in the underwater sector because it allows for the accurate reproduction of complex three-dimensional models. Moreover, SFM offers the first satisfactory solution for the examination of sites at greater depths (which necessarily curtail research divers’ working hours). The quality of this data shows that SFM can be employed underwater with great accuracy. Via the better recording of in situ archaeological material, it is now possible to document even the most complex archaeological situations. The first field tests which took place during diving campaigns in the Mediterranean and the Baltic seas utilized various different recording methods. Divers took photos with a full format camera as well as with a submersible robot with multiple GOPROs. To enable the creation of an accurate scale as well as to facilitate the geo-referencing required in the later creation of the model, a measurement framework or, more accurately, a multi-functional bridge was installed at the site in the Mediterranean. The results of this research as well as the team’s experiences in its utilization ‘on the ground’ are the subject of this article. Additionally, this text addresses the optimal extraction of data during research dives and the equipment which was used to this end. As these factors are crucial to the quality of the models which are later produced, this aspect should be emphasized in future...

Damian HETTMANCZYK | Marco BLOCK-BERLITZ | Benjamin GEHMLICH (HTW Dresden, Dresden, Germany) Keywords: UUV, 3D videogrammetry, image enhancement, automatic color transformation Abstract: Images taken under water are often of a monochromatic appearance, due to the physical interaction (absorption and reflection) between particles and light sources. Enhanced images with improved saturation, for which the monochromatic character has been corrected, are more suitable for generating 3D models and for identifying structures and materials by human experts. In this paper we present an automatic method to identify the mean water color from a set of images. This mean color represents an average gray and is used to describe a new axis in CIELab color space. An extended color variance and a histogram equalization are simultaneously applied to the image. The main advantage of this method is the fully automatic enhancement process. An UUV can operate without providing a color reference scheme. The software presented is written in Java and was integrated into the module JEnhancer. Beside color correction, defocusing and noise reduction are also useful for improving underwater images. JEnhancer was successfully tested in several documentation campaigns to enhance images with different mean colors like blue, green and red, and was integrated into the videogrammetric software pipeline Archaeo3D to produce 3D models from videos. We will showcase its application in diverse real-world case studies from Veruda/Croatia (blue colored salt water), the Surin Islands/Thailand (blue colored salt water), Zwischenahner Meer/Germany (red colored freshwater), Kamenz/Germany (green colored freshwater) and Mondsee/Austria (beige colored freshwater). JEnhancer is freely available for non-commercial purposes from our project page www.archaeonautic.de. Relevance conference | Relevance session: New free methods and low-cost solutions to document underwater archaeology sites are necessary to open up this research area for more archaeological institutes and people. Innovation: Fully automatic solution for color correction of underwater images and videos, to be used as the first processing step in an underwater videogrammetry...