Markundersökningen som Österrikarna har gjort visar på att det eventuellt kan finnas gravar eller andra strukturer inom området. Ingen vet förrän det är grävt.
Just for the record:
The large-scale Uppåkra archaeological prospection project is not an
Austrian research project but one of about ten landscape archaeological case studies conducted by the
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, which is an international research institute consisting of Austrian, German, British, Norwegian and Swedish partners (academic, governmental and commercial organizations). The Swedish LBI ArchPro partner Riksantikvarieämbetet UV and the collaboration partner Lund University are active and mayor parts in this project, which enjoys the support of Stiftelsen Uppåkra Arkeologiska Center.
The question about the missing graves certainly is an interesting one. We will have difficulties addressing the site as a proto-urban centre if we cannot locate sufficient numbers of corresponding graves in its vicinity.
The claim that "ingen vet förrän det är grävt" reflects an outdated understanding of the potential of state-of-the-art archaeological prospection methodology. Not only did the discovery, correct and detailed archaeological interpretation and subsequent excavation of the grave in front of Uppåkra churchyard prove this claim wrong, but 20 years of professional archaeological prospection experience gathered by numerous experts throughout Europe and beyond permit often highly accurate archaeological interpretations of near-surface geophysical prospection data.
The point is, that when we for example observe a pit in magnetic prospection data (defined by a certain magnetization, shape and size), it is not always possible to say whether the pit was dug for a grave, as latrine or for some other purpose, but still we know there is a pit in the ground, and that this pit is of anthropogenic origin.
In general we can differentiate between hearths, pits, grubenhaus, postholes and ferromagnetic objects (iron).
The distribution of anomalies can permit the identification of patterns caused by rows of postholes (=buildings) and the like.
The reason why we did not declare the discovery of two long rows of pit alignments in Gamla Uppsala as a sensation was due to the fact, that earlier in 2010 we had mapped pit alignments in Uppåkra. They are pretty and of possible archaeological interest, but certainly not that uncommon. We prefer pit alignments to be arranged in funny shapes (
circles, spirals or heart shape
)
