Client profile
LBI ArchPro (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology) is an interdisciplinary research institute for new large-scale and precise archaeological exploration and virtual reproduction.
The Institute, based in Vienna, is comprised of eight European cooperative organizations of academic institutions and research institutes.
Challenge
Archaeological excavation at Petronell-Carnuntum began already around 1870 but due to the enormity of what lies beneath and the painstaking process of restoring what already has been unearthed, less than one percent of the site had been excavated.
Solution
The state-of-the-art MALÅ 3D Imaging Radar Array (MIRA) GPR system produced a detailed three-dimensional image of the subsurface, revealing the gladiator complex. “MALÅ MIRA 3D Imaging Radar Array system delivers a clarity we normally find only in the field of medicine,” explained Wolfgang Neubauer, director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute.
Results
The Carnuntum ruins are part of a city of 50,000 people, 28 miles (45 kilometers) east of Vienna that flourished about 1,700 years ago, a major military and trade outpost linking the far-flung Roman empire’s Asian boundaries to its central and northern European lands. Mapped out by MALÅ MIRA GPR, the ruins of the gladiator school remain underground. Yet officials say the find rivals the famous Ludus Magnus — the largest of the gladiatorial training schools in Rome — in its structure. And they say the Austrian site is even more detailed than the well-known Roman ruin.
