Archaeology of Buildings

Dr. Gabriele Scharrer-Liška

 

Within VIAS, building research with archaeological focus is pursued as part of basic research. Archaeological (or historical) architectural research has a long tradition. It overlaps with many other (historical / archaeological) disciplines and can be considered as a sub-discipline of archeology. Building research explores historical buildings with an archaeological-historical approach.

Building research works with predominantly non-destructive methods. This includes above all the documentation of buildings (construction survey) with the help of suitable methods. In addition to the written documentation, one of the most important aspects is the production of an oversize, which can be done in the form of a classical hand measurement, a computer-aided hand measurement or photogrammetry.

The aim of archaeological building research is to reconstruct building sequences and thus the history of a building as well as its function(s). As in the case of any archaeological-historical discipline, the goal of building research is to develop images of landscape-archaeological, economic-historical and social-historical topics in a continuous interdisciplinary discussion.