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Identifying the Great Synagogue of Vilna in Vilnius, Lithuania with GROUND PENETRATING RADAR WAVRIN, Thomas

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Identifying the Great Synagogue of Vilna in Vilnius, Lithuania with GROUND PENETRATING RADAR WAVRIN, Thomas Identifying the Great Synagogue of Vilna in Vilnius, Lithuania WITH GROUND PENETRATING RADAR WAVRIN, Thomas. 1, KLEINSCHMIDT, Alexander S. 1, ERICKSON, James S. 1, SEAMANS, Jackelyn M. 1JOL, Harry M. 1, FREUND, Richard A. 2, REEDER, Philip P 3, SELIGMAN, Jon 4 and DAUBARAS, Mantas 5 (1) Department of Geography and Anthropology, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, 105 Garfield Avenue, P.O. Box 4004, Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004, (2) Maurice Greenberg Center of Judaic Studies, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, WI 06117, (3) Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Duquesne University, 600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, (4) Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel, (5) Lithuanian Institute of History, Kraziu g. 5, Vilnius, LT-01108, Lithuania ABSTRACT RESULTS METHODS Since 1957 the remains of the Great Synagogue of Vilna in Vilnius, Lithuania has been GRID 7 Collecting Data hidden under an elementary school. An international team of scientists used ground - Grid 7 is located next to Grid 6 while Grid 8 is located above Grid 3 & 6 Figure 6 (right): The first area of interest in Grid 7 (Area A) is located in the corner at penetrating radar (GPR) to identify the buried remains of the synagogue and then Voxler 3D the 0 point which is the start of the collection of lines and continues - Dimensions of the grids are Grid #7 (32 m x 5.15 m) and Grid #8 (33 m x 5 m) excavate the most promising locations. GPR is a non-invasive survey technology which - Descriptions in field notes are written explaining the surface features in the grid representation of southwest for about two meters and northeast for about a meter. sends electromagnetic waves into the subsurface and records the reflected waves. A the subsurface of - Collection was a pulseEKKO 1000 GPR unit with 225 MHz antennae (Figure 5) Grid 7 The top of the feature appears to be about 0.5 meters below the pulseEKKO 1000 GPR unit with 225 MHz antennae was utilized to collect grid datasets. surface (Figure 7). This area is the closest point in the grid to the with both grids having a transect every 0.25 m and a step size of 0.05 m (Figure 4 The presentation will focus on two grids, #7 (32 x 5 m) and #8 (33 x 5 m), in which represents a diagram of collecting principles) Figure 7 (below): northern excavation site of the summer 2016 site and could be transects with a step size of 0.05 m were collected 0.25 m apart. Following data A SliceView related to the walls and modern electrical trench which were Processing Data analysis, Grid #7 has a linear feature which is interpreted as a pipe above the - GFP Edit is used to organize the lines into a grid image of Grid 7 at uncovered in that area. Two right angles are potentially visible but synagogue’s destruction layer as well as a several proposed archaeological features in 0.6 meters below - EKKO Project allows the lines in the grid to be viewed in LineView and SliceView these are not as clearly visible as others identified in Grids 2 & 7. the surface which • the eastern corner. Grid #8 has a variety of anomalies located throughout the grid. The However, this feature in Area A appears to not extend much below LineView is side profile of the subsurface (viewed as a profile) research results will aid in directing future archaeological work at the former site of the shows the two • SliceView allows the user to cut through the subsurface while viewing areas of interest the meter mark in the subsurface. This could mean that this feature Great Synagogue of Vilna. highlighted with could be too modern for a part of the Synagogue complex. The looking down into the subsurface • Advanced gain control the red circles. second area in Grid 7 (Area B) is located from 0 meters to 8.5 m with - Voxler creates a 3D model of the grid which helps visualize the data. the width of the grid and from 4 m to 7 m along the length of the grid (Figure 7). This large area, which is about 25.5 square meters, INTRODUCTION has no definable feature but has many small areas of high reflection based on the PlanView image. The areas which have the most visibility are at a depth between 0.7 m and 1.2 m. During the Second World War, the Nazi Army burned and looted the Great Synagogue complex but did not destroy the buildings. The buildings were in disrepair until 1955 when the Soviet Union tore down the Synagogue (Figure 1) and the Shulhof to make space for the widening of a boulevard which is situated behind the buildings on the main boulevard to the west and northwest of the site. The Soviet constructors collapsed the buildings which made up the Synagogue and Shulhof and leveled the ground out. This technique inadvertently saved all the structure below ground level. On the site of the former Synagogue, an elementary school (Figure 2) was built which still exists today. The soil is a mixture of the original sandy loam, some black dirt (Figure 3 a&b) which was brought in before the construction of the school and all the rubble Figure 4: Illustration of GPR EM waves reflecting off reflectors in the ground from the Synagogue. The soil composition is important because the contents of the soil at the site makes any GPR survey a bit more challenging due to the complex nature Area B of the layering. Using new GPR analysis software, the Synagogue and the Shulhof can Area A be identified with greater accuracy. GRID 8 Of the two areas of interest present in Grid 8, the first (Area C) is located in the southwest corner of the grid and is between 0.5 meters and 1.0 meters below the surface. This area is of interest because at 1 meter over and 30 Figure 8 (left): Voxler 3D meters up there appears to be a right angle representation of the subsurface of Grid 8 which intersects two areas of high reflectivity shown in SliceView and continues off the grid Figure 9 (bottom): A in both ways respectively (Figure 9). The other SliceView image of Grid area of interest (Area D) in Grid 8 is a section 8 at between 0.8 – 1.0 which is between 11 m and 15 m and is most meters below the surface which shows the visible between 1 m to 1.2 m below the two areas of interest earth’s surface (Figure 9). There aren’t any highlighted with the red Figure 5: Picture of Alexander Kleinschmidt, Nicole Awad and Thomas definable features in this area but Area D circles. Wavrin collecting GPR lines with the pulseEKKO 1000 at the Synagogue site. remains a distinct unit which is visibly different from the surroundings in the rest of Figure 3a: Southern Excavation Pit Grid 8. DISCUSSION The goal of the project is to research, excavate, preserve and memorialize the Great Synagogue of Vilna and Shulhof site. The focus of the poster is on Area D Area C Figure 1: Picture of the Synagogue from early 20th century researching and finding the foundation of the building. While identifying the subsurface structure can be done with relative ease compared to older methods of archeology, finding the exact location to lay the GPR grid is still easy to deduce. Even using the excellent maps which were produced by our team’s world renowned cartographer, there still is a bit of a guessing game as to the location of the structures foundations which are preserved the best. This reflected by the lack of clearer structures in both grids. Figure 3b: Subsurface Material in Southern Pit Figure 2:Picture of Modern School Located on the Site ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -Nicole Awad of University of Hartford -IFP: Student Blugold Commitment funds through the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Student-Faculty International Fellows Program for Research, Service, and Creative Activity ONCLUSION -ORSP: Student Blugold Commitment Differential Tuition funds through the University of C Wisconsin-Eau Claire Student/Faculty Research Collaboration program As a whole, less features appear to be relevant to the archeological work at the -The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum Synagogue site are present than in Grids 1-6 which were collected in the summer of EFERENCES 2015. One potential reason for this could be that Grids 7 and 8 are located more R toward the periphery of the site and would most likely to include buildings which were Charlie Bristow and Harry Jol, Ground Penetrating Radar in Sediments (The Geological part of the Shulhof complex. In the corner of Grid 7 lies the most interesting area of the Society of London), 2003, 1-8 Lawrence B. Conyers, Ground Penetrating Radar for Archeology (AltraMira Press, London), two grids and this could be connected to one of the excavation sites from the summer 2013 of 2016. Grid 8 lies outside of the modern day school yard and returned very little in Lawrence B. Conyers and Dean Goodman, Ground-Penetrating Radar, an Introduction for the way of potential excavation sites. Following the completed analysis of these two Archaeologists, (AltaMira Press, London), 1997 areas, it is more than likely that the following project will continue its focus on Grids 1- Vladimir Levin, Synagogues in Lithuania (Vilnius Academy of Arts Press), 2012, 239-280 6 before moving onto Grid 7. The international group of partners for this project We thank the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for supporting this research, and Learning & Technology Services for printing this poster..
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