Interpretation of archaeological finds

This project is based on the archaeological excavations done in the years 1995-1997 in the Bockhart mining area in the valley of Gastein. (FWF projects P10443-HIS and P10443-SPR). The main sites in the Bockharttal are a central group of houses consisting mainly of the miners` living quarters and the smithy and an ore mill. The group of houses has three chronological phases, beginning in the time before 1400 and ending in the second half of the 16th century, when the mines were closed. Due to the high altitude of the site (more than 2000m above sea level) the remains of the mining sites are exceptionally well preserved. The results of the archaeological excavation give a good idea of the working and living conditions of the miners in the 15th and 16th century. The diversity and the mass of the archaeological finds as well as the interdisciplinary research that was done have resulted in the international acknowledgement of this project. The archaeological finds are mainly pieces of pottery, glass windows and about 6000 iron implements, most of which were found in the workshop of the smith. This unique find complex is probably one of the most complete known inventories of a mining site of the time of Georgius Agricola. To ensure the successfull completion of this project it is necessary to find methods to document and interpret these numerous artifacts. Lists on the computer have to be made as a basis for statistical analysis and interpretation of these materials according to their function, typology and chronology. On the other hand drawings and photographs of the finds have to be made. In addition to this the finds have to interpreted in the context in which they were found. A second similar problem are the ores from the ore mill. It will be tried to reconstruct the process of dressing the ore by using the results of statistical analysis done on more than 2000 pieces of ore found on the site and by examining the context in which they were found. Communication with other scientist, restorators and people working in the museums is necessary to achieve the desired results. To ensure that the huge complex of archaeological finds and the results of this exemplary interdisciplinary research done in one mining area, namely the Bockhartrevier, that has been financed by the Austrian Science Foundation from 1995 to 1997, are published, it seems best to give Dr. Cech a work contract to enable her to prepare the publication.

The aim of the project is to develop a novel software for the analysis of the displacements and stresses that occur due tunnel construction. Particular emphasis is placed on the new Austrian tunneling method (NATM), where tunnel advance is by blasting and the primary means of support is shotcrete and rock bolts. The software is based on the Boundary Element method (BEM), whose capabilities have been extended in order to allow the consideration of sequential excavation, the installation of ground support and visco-plastic material behaviour. The boundary element method has the advantage over the more commonly used finite element method (FEM) in that no mesh truncation is required and that the number of elements which needs to be used is reduced by an order of magnitude. Boundary element meshes are also easier to generate and the solution is faster. The novel approch in this project, which makes the software extremely user friendly, is the adaptive generation of internal cells for the integration of the volume integrals that occur when dealing with plasticity in the BEM. In addition a facilty is implemented that allows to simulate the sequential excavation/construction processes that occur in NATM tunnelling. The resulting analysis software is intended to significantly reduce the effort for the three-dimensional numerical simulation of tunnel advance. As a consequence consulting bureaus will be able to perform these analysis on a routine basis. This is expected to contribute to the increase the safety of tunnels.