Weblog 2007 | The Willendorf Project | Willendorf Project

Work done, site saved.

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:26:29 +0200

A bit of rain

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:26:21 +0200

We had about 70 liters of rain per square meter in the night, wreckign the tarps covering the excavation. We spent several hours in the pouring rain trying to save the excavation.

Rockfall

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:24:19 +0200

Luc is excavating in the upper part of Unit D, where natural rockfalls are frequent.

Acrobatics

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:21:48 +0200

Some areas need an unconventional approach. Here we excavate the classical Aurignacian layer 4.

Documenting the section

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:21:26 +0200

We finished excavating Level 23 in some squares, we documented the sections afterwards.

Night in Aggsbach, as seen from our terrace

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:38:02 +0200

Roof 2

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:24:08 +0200

Tuesday we needed it against the sun, wednesdays against the rain.

Roof 1

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:22:17 +0200

We finally have a roof to shelter us against sun and rain. Mr. Perzl, one of the workers of the municipality helped building it (actually, we helped him...).

Everybody was excited...

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:24:55 +0200

to fill three more trailers with dirt.

Lunchtime idyll

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:20:55 +0200

We passed the second half of the lunch break by carving loess venuses

Michael Götzinger, our raw material specialist

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:58:23 +0200

Work continues in the three squares of the new cultural horizon (Layer 23)

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:57:22 +0200

Visit by the Krems-Wachtberg team

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:54:10 +0200

Our colleagues from Krems Wachtberg visited us this morning, we will repay the visit on friday.

The reason for continuing in the rain

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:00:03 +0200

The easiest solution would have been to simply cover up the site and go home, but we had exposed another decapage of our until know unidentified horizon. Here we use the laser point to aim the total station, and then use reflectorless measurements for the positions of the artefacts.

Working in the rain

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:56:54 +0200

We got quite a bit of rain in the afternoon. We do not have a roof above the excavation yet, so we had to hold up tarps - not a very good solution!

Visitors from Brno

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:45:51 +0200

Karel Valoch, Zdenka Nerudova and Petr Neruda from the Moravian Museum visited us today. The weather was still nice then.

The youngest team member...

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:42:53 +0200

His main interest in loess is as food.

Help from Vienna

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:39:23 +0200

We could use every hand for removing the sediment from the 1955 trench, so we were very happy Fabian Siegle from the Anthropology Department of Vienna University is such an able shoveler!

Another new cultural layer...

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:27:29 +0200

Thursday we finally reached a rich artefact bearing horizon in zone 4. The problem is, that it is neither Layer 4 nor Layer 3, but something in between! We'll probably need a few more days to figure out what is going on there. The stratigraphy is complicated by the fact that this is still strongly bioturbated area, as can be seen in the upper part of the old section.

Our local supporters

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:18:32 +0200

Mr. Kappelmüller, the head of the Willendorf Museum Society, is one of our staunchest local supporters. He allowed us to use their old house as our lab, and helps us with all local arrangements. Here he watches Philip removing artefacts.

Dinner

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:16:53 +0200

The person for whom this is intended knows what it is... And there are some more left!

Before documenting the section of the 1908 excavation...

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:30:11 +0200

you have to rehydrate the section!

Mornings at the site have a certain beauty!

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:28:25 +0200

But it sure is cold and wet there at 7am!

Our first visitors

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:31:22 +0200

Zsolt Mester and György Lengyel from Miskolc visited the site today

Working hard in Zone 4

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:25:36 +0200

Measuring points (continued)

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:17:47 +0200

Johanna aims the total station at the reflector. The position information and other data are stored in a Pocket PC® running the program EDM CE (by Shannon McPherron and Harold Dibble).

Measuring points

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:13:20 +0200

We continued excavating Layer 5 in Zone 3 on thursday. Here, Barbara holds the reflector for the total station to measure the 3D coordinates of a charcoal piece.

Excavating Layer 6 in Zone 3

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:33:01 +0200

Luc excavated in Layer 6, recovering a few in-situ lithics

Removing the 1909 backfill

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:21:31 +0200

Today, we managed to remove big parts of the backfill of the old excavations, part of the 1909 western section can be seen in the center of the image. The upper parts of the section were destroyed by illegal digging in the 20th century.

Clearing the new excavation area between Zones 1 and 3

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:17:32 +0200

This is how the area looked yesterday early afternoon

Clearing the backdirt from the Felgenhauer trench

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:02:19 +0200

We finished removing the backfill from Zone 3 in the morning, so we could start with the excavation there. Removing the about 10 cubic meters of backfill from Zone 1 was more work!

Another scene of our celebration

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:00:54 +0200

Michi is anointed - we used sunscreen, for added practical use!

We did not want to let the birthday pass without celebrations either!

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:59:48 +0200

Passing around the sacred umbilical chord

Happy Birthday Venus!

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:56:29 +0200

Today was the 99th anniversary of the discovery of the Willendorf Venus. This led many visitors to the site today, among them a small group who held their "meditation" with prayers, anointments and other rituals at the Venus statue during our lunch break...

Removing the backfill from the last excavation

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:03:51 +0200

We spent days to fill it back, now we spend days to remove it again...

Introduction to the site

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:45:37 +0200

Even the tourists are listening in awe when Philip explains the site