A Database-Driven Excavation of a Waterlogged Neolithic Settlement: The Case of Küssnacht-Immensee Dorfplatz (Switzerland)

ABSTRACT

A settlement excavation of a site with waterlogged conditions was conducted in Küssnacht-Immensee (Lake Zug, Canton Schwyz, Switzerland). The documentation abandoned the idea of drawings and verbal description. Instead, based on prior research on the deposition mechanisms of this type of settlements, clearly specified sediment features were documented in a semi-quantitative fashion in a database, allowing for generic 3D modelling of the deposits and efficient 2D GIS-based evaluation of the excavation results. We present the database design and some example results that characterise the depositional processes. Strain-free profile photographs were mounted in the same 3D virtual model. We discuss different procedures and their pros and cons.

KEYWORDS:

• Database-driven excavation
• digital excavation
• wetland archaeology
• 3D documentation
• 3D GIS

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Martin Geilhausen for the solution with the 3D modelling of the profile photographies. We are further thankful to Valentin Kessler and Ralf Jacober from the Canton Schwyz (CH) for their support.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was funded by the Canton Schwyz with support of the Swiss federal office for culture [BAK, 2020-1437].