MALÅ MIRA 3D Imaging Radar Array GPR system discovers gladiator training camp

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.

This is a world sensation, in the true meaning of the word”, said Lower Austrian provincial Governor, Erwin Pröll. Governor Pröll was referring to the discovery of the ruins of a gladiator school, near Petronell-Carnuntum in Austria, made by the MALÅ MIRA 3D Imaging Radar Array GPR system.

 

MALÅ MIRA front-mounted on a tractor at the Carnuntum site.

MALÅ MIRA front-mounted on a tractor at the Carnuntum site. – (c) LBI ArchPro

 

MALÅ MIRA front-mounted on a UTV at the Carnuntum site.

MALÅ MIRA front-mounted on a UTV at the Carnuntum site. – (c) LBI ArchPro, Geert Verhoeven