Welcome to the Workshop’s site!

Welcome to the official site of the Workshop for Reading Past and Present Landscapes. The workshop in 2012 is held in Hungary. It’s aim is to create a platform for an international think-tank exchanging experience and methods of reading historical landscapes. The project involves public institutions, private companies and scientists from Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. The Workshop is being financed partially by the International Visegrad Fund.

A glimpse of the “new” Old Nieszawa

As reported earlier, the work on the publication about 15 years of search for the Medieval first location of Nieszawa is being completed. Beside the historical documents query, reports on excavations, aerial survey and documentation, and non-invasive geophys survey a brand new digital reconstruction of the Medieval settlement has been prepared. The new digital model of medieval Nieszawa has been created by J. Zakrzewski and S. Rzeźnik and is based on current state of knowledge about the spatial organisation of the city. Presented below are few samples of the digital model that give a taste of the upcoming book, about which you can read more on the projects site: staranieszawa.pl

   Source: Staranieszawa.pl

Monograph publication about medieval Nieszawa’s discovery coming soon

The publication summarizing the past 15 years of research that led up to the discovery and reconstruction of the forgotten medieval city of Nieszawa is being completed. The monograph publication represents all aspects of research conducted in the past decades, ranging from test trenching, through long-term aerial observations, and finally geophysical prospection. The publication was financed by The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. You can read more about the project at it’s site both in English and Polish. The cover of the upcoming book is presented below.

Source: staranieszawa.wordpress.com

“To see the invisible” – exhibition on reading landscapes in Poland

The Regional Museum in Pińczow with Interdisciplinary Research Foundation of Godfryd Ossowski kindly invite to visit the exhibition “To See  The Invisible – Zobaczyć Niewidzialne” that will be opened on December 19th 2014 at 12CET in the building of the Regional Museum in Pińczów (Poland).

The exhibition’s theme centres on the results of non-invasive means of reading archaeological landscapes through various survey methods that are available to contemporary archaeologists. Recognition of archaeological sites currently is based not only on archaeological digs and trenching that lead to irreversible destruction of archaeological tissue. Recently a new standard takes on the main role of providing spatial archaeological data, involving a broad application of non-invasive and geophysical techniques. A case of such a modern shall be presented based on the survey in the vicinity of Nieprowice (Pińczów district) in the loess-highland region of southern Poland.

New publication based on the results of the Workshop

We would like to present Gábor Mesterházy’s article, published in Archaeologiai Értesítő 138 (2013) titled Regionális léptéku terepbejárás módszertani lehetőségeinek vizsgálata Magyarországon (Testing the possibilities of regional scale field survey methodology in Hungary). Published in Hungarian it also includes a summary in English. The article is available here and in our site’s Publications section.

Report about the Workshop in Hungarian Archaeology E-journal (Winter ed. 2012)

Gábor Mesterházy and Máté Stibrányi have prepared another publication about the Workshop. It has been published in English in E-journal of Hungarian Archaeology (winter edition 2012) and we would like to invite our readers to read it. The article is currently available on the page of the journal and on our page in the Publications section.

Panoramic picture taken from the Bronze Age Hillfort site.

Polish Press Agency’s summary on the Workshop

Another article about the Workshop is available online. Science in Poland portal – a specialised site of Polish Press Agency, has published an article (in Polish) with a summary of the 2012 project. You can read the whole article following the link given below:

http://www.naukawpolsce.pap.pl/aktualnosci/news,394203,podsumowanie-miedzynarodowego-projektu-badan-nieinwazyjnych.html

Reading Landscapes in Central Europe: A Documentary – World Premiere

Project’s latest feature – a movie documentary is here! Welcome to the world premiere of Reading Landscapes in Central Europe: A Documentary. Put together from numerous clips produced by the Workshop’s participants an 8-minute-long movie has emerged. Produced by Stanisław Rzeźnik of Archeomap, edited by Jakub Zakrzewski, the documentary focuses on crucial elements of the 2012 Workshop, depicting through participants’ footage the true side of wide-range survey and non-invasive methods of prospection. Some of the material consists of footage taken through digital cameras air-lifed by a multicopter belonging to Hungarian Interspect.Net company, whose staff has been aiding the Workshop.

The documentary introduces the following themes present at the Workshop in Hungary:

• Preparations,
• Surface Artefact Collection,
• Lectures,
• Kite Aerial Photography,
• Preparing the Multicopter for Flight.
• Geophysical Survey,
• Hillfort Survey,
• Roman Villa Survey,
• Multispectral Imagery.

We would like to invite you to this night’s premiere directly here or on any of the websites providing hosting services for the movie (below). We wish you a pleasant journey into the world of archaeology, geophysics, fast cars and beautiful Hungarian landscapes.

YouTube Version

Vimeo Version

Archeowiesci.pl on the Workshop

The most popular Polish archaeological portal Archeowiesci.pl which focuses on news about current research in country and abroad done by Polish scientists has published an extended version of the article on the 2012 Workshop. You can read if by following the link below:

http://archeowiesci.pl/2013/02/20/na-tropie-rzymskich-willi-i-dawnych-fortow-polskie-badania-nieinwazyjne-na-wegrzech/

New publication about the Workshop

Today morning Archeolog.pl portal has published a summary of the 2012 Workshop written by Marcin Jaworski. Much information about the Workshop itself and the newly developed GPS based survey system can be read there (only in Polish). To read the article just follow the link below:

http://www.archeolog.pl/pl15/teksty384/workshop_for_reading_past_and_present_landscapes_in_central

Prospecting the Landscape under the Bronze Age Hillfort.

Article about the Workshop in Magyar Régéset 2012 (winter edition)

On behalf the authors, Gábor Mesterházy and Máté Stibrányi, we would like to invite our readers to read the article about the Workshop that originally appeared in the Hungarian quarterly journal Magyar Régéset (winter edition). The article is currently available only in Hungarian on the page of the journal and on our page in the Publications section.

Reading of archaeological landscape with GPS RTK

Article about the Workshop at Asonyomon.hu

The Hungarian portal Asonyomon.hu, which is ELTE’s Institute of Archaeology’s unofficial blog, has posted an article with pictures about the Workshop. It is currently available to read only in Hungarian and can be found at the following link:

http://www.asonyomon.hu/13-negyzetkilometer-terepbejarassal-non-destruktiv-regeszeti-kutatasok-a-sarviz-volgyeben/

Check it out as soon as possible!

Múlt-kor documentary about the Workshop online!

The official site of Hungarian MTV has released the online version of the Múlt-kor show, that featured over 8 minutes of documentary about the Workshop for Reading Past and Present Landscapes in Central Europe. You can see it on the original page by clicking this link or the link below. This cultural show’s aim in this episode was to present the activities of the Hungarian National Museum – National Heritage Protection Centre (official partner of the Workshop), among which there are excavations, laboratory analysis, archeometry, exhibitions and so on. Among them a special notice was made of the Workshop project. The part about our activity is between 8:13-16:30.

Link to the movie:
http://videotar.mtv.hu/Videok/2012/11/29/09/Mult_kor_2012_november_28__Regeszet.aspx

TV Documentary about the Workshop

The first documentary about the Workshop is going to be aired this week! Hungarian TV channel M1 will show the documentary on November 28th at 23:05. Later the show will be available online and the links will be provided from this site. So save some time on Wednesday evening and check for further updates on this matter on this page.

Wednesday, November 28th
Hungarian TV – M1
23:05

New page about the Workshop in IA UW database

Thanks to our partners, a new sub-page (although only in Polish) concerning the Workshop has been created within the site of of Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. It is located in the Research (Badania) subsection and is a short description of the Workshop and it’s aims. You can view it here!

Over 1000 visitors!

Today the statistics page of the project’s website announced that it has been viewed over

1000 times!

It’s a small step for science – a giant step for our project. Thank you for reading and checking for news. We’ll be updating as much as possible in the future.

Group photo from the Workshop!

Below you can check the group photos from the Workshop taken on the last day. Not all people who took part in the project are present, but they’re presence was nonetheless valuable. Thank you all for participating and aiding our common research.

Group Photo 1 (Author: Stanisław Rzeźnik)

Group Photo 2 (Author: Stanisław Rzeźnik)

See more photos in the rest of this note…

Seven days of hard work and discussion – report from the Workshop

Between 15th-21st of October the Workshop for Reading Past and Present Landscapes in Central Europe has been held in the Sárvíz-valley region. Operating from a field base in Nagyhörcsökpuszta an international team of scientists has conducted extensive field surveys aided by GPS techniques in a study grid of 4 x 6 km. This research was assisted by intensive case studies applying geophysical methods of prospection and aerial photography. The project is now in the phase of post-processing of the results. The research was possible to conduct only through close co-operation of the institutional partners: Archeomap, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungarian National Museum – National Heritage Protection Center, Institute of Archaeology at University of Warsaw and the financing and professional help from International Visegrad Fund and its administration. Here’s the day-by-day report from the Workshop.

Photo 1 – Poster of the Workshop (Author: Marcin Jaworski).

First days of prospection

Here is the brief update after first days of prospection. Everybody arrived safely. Work in the field has already started. The survey is currently being conducted in the East parts of the survey grid and with a bit of success as some artifacts have already been found. Archaeologists have already located new archaeological sites. Despite rainy weather, today we will continue with the survey and conduct a discussion panel.

You can also chack for updates in the Public Relations section to see who is currently writing about the project.

Stay tuned for more info as the project develops.

The Workshop starts tomorrow

As we get closer to the opening of the Workshop, we added more features to the site. You can read about the methods and the approach to the field studies in the Methods section. Also, the closed list of participants has been added to the Staff & Partners section. Some minor parts of the site have been revised and minor content added.

Just a reminder – during the weekly stay at Nagyhörcsökpuszta (3 km south-west from the study area), we will conduct field walking surveys with the developed method for six days and compare the results of the new method with classical field walking techniques. Also, aerial photography and geophysical prospection are planned for 3 days each. Something exciting to the project with a bit of mystery will be brought by a low-flying airplane conducting tests upon whether it is possible to detect pottery and artefacts with multispectral images. It will also contribute to the project with a quite accurate Digital Surface Model (DSM).

Please don’t forget to take your GPS devices, batteries, sleeping bags, raincoats, warm clothes and waterproof boots and what’s most important – the visibility jackets because it’s deer hunting season!

To the participants – see you on site!
And to the readers – keep on checking for news as they will be updated as the project develops.

New shorter link to our page!

Dear readers,
From now you can access our site through a shorter and more precise URL:

http://readinglandscapes.eu

Stay tuned for more updates!