Visualizing Antiquarian Excavations: Digital Reunification of the Mecklenburg Collection

Banner credit: Photograph of PM-34-25-40/8664 (left); archival document ARC-40-77/601 (middle); 3D model of PM-34-25-40/8721 (right). With permission from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Project Abstract:

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, numerous antiquarian excavations took place in continental Europe and the Mediterranean under the auspices of the German, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian Empires. These excavations provided the foundational archaeological collections of many museums in Europe and the United States. The artifacts are still held by these museums, and due to issues of distance and limited research funds, have remained largely unavailable to scholars and the public in the countries of origin. This has been the case with the Mecklenburg Collection, which was excavated prior to World War I by the Duchess of Mecklenburg when the modern nation of Slovenia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The project, Visualizing Antiquarian Excavations: Digital Reunification of the Mecklenburg Collection, uses digital techniques for documentation and visualization to facilitate the digital accessibility of this collection, making the material available for widespread scholarly research and public dissemination.

Although these items represent some of the most significant and well-preserved Iron Age artifacts from Slovenia, only a handful of archaeologists have ever had the opportunity to study the entire collection in person due to its dispersed nature. This is an important collection for the study of the Iron Age in continental Europe, consisting of the contents of nearly 1000 graves from over 20 sites. In addition, the material from this collection is in unusually good condition, including the preservation of human and animal osteological material, which is only rarely preserved in more recent excavations from these sites.

Princess Marie Gabriele Ernestine Alexandra von Windischingrätz, Duchess Paul Friedrich of Mecklenburg, was a prolific excavator and investigated 19 sites in modern-day Slovenia between 1905 and 1914. However, her largest excavations were at sites in the vicinity of Magdalenska gora, Vinica, and Stična, where she excavated over 850 graves. She should be considered an archaeological hobbyist rather than a professional archaeologist, though her assistant Gustav Goldberg started keeping excavation records after 1906 and often the later graves they excavated can be reconstructed. The outbreak of World War I ended her excavation career, and subsequently the excavated artifacts were put in storage until 1935, when they were catalogued for auction and sold to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University. Some artifacts had already been sent to Berlin and Marburg after the Duchess gifted impressive artifacts to relatives and patrons including Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Only a small fraction of the collection remained in Slovenia, given as a gift to the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana.

There has been significant work done in Slovenia to systematically analyze the artifacts and records from old excavations to try to reconstruct original grave contexts, which has allowed a more complete understanding of these sites. However, the reconstruction of certain contexts remains problematic due to the haphazard nature of antiquarian excavations and imperfect or missing excavation records. One of the primary goals of the Visualizing Antiquarian Excavations project is to make the reconstruction of grave contexts and assessments of their reliability more transparent through the provision of all associated museum and archival records.

The Dataset:

The data is structured hierarchically, site – tumulus – grave context – artifact/human remains/faunal remains, with artifacts, human remains, and faunal remains as the primary data points. Each object record contains full descriptive and metric data and multiple high-resolution photographs. When possible, 3D models of the artifacts are also presented. All archival documents related to the excavation and auction of these items have also been included in this dataset. Note: the project is continuously expanding to document the thousands of artifacts included in the collection. The current collection here includes only artifacts from Tumulus VI at the site of Magdalenska gora, Slovenia. Data from other tumuli at Magdalenska gora will continue to be added.

Potential Applications for Data Reuse:

The artifact data, including the media and archival scans, will help facilitate the study and accurate reconstruction of the artifact provenience. Additionally, these data would be useful to any study of the Iron Age in Central Europe.

Current Disposition of the Artifacts:

Artifacts from the site of Magdalenska gora are housed at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University and the National Museum of Slovenia. Additional artifacts from other sites in the collection are also housed at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University.