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ARCHIVE OF THE FUTURE

A film by Joerg Burger

- This is from the time...
- The colours.

Wow. Yes.

- This is ...
- Incredible.

the coloured version, which has been produced
30 years after Frauenfeld's death.

- Did he use a true-to-life colour range?
- He did.

Really? Fantastic.
At least until 1860.

- And the bird is already extinct.
- Yes.

It's a certain type.

So, these sketches and their colours
correspond to this?

Exactly. And Zimmermann added
these nice landscape details to the drawing.

The colouring is absolutely exquisite.

- What a great contribution to an exhibition.
- Yes.

- Oh, hi!
- Hello. We have an appointment.

- Do we?
- And this is our treasure.

I've brought Nathalie along,

- so she can clean up the parrot a little bit.
- Okay. What have we got here?

It's one of our precious objects

- from Emperor Franz's menagerie.
- Okay.

It's a historic specimen.

I think it was given to the museum in 1832.

It's extraordinary because there are only
19 or 20 of these specimens worldwide.

There is one from 1760

in Schönbrunn Zoo.

A specimen that was sent to Europe back then.

- Okay. I'm done.
- Perfect.

A bit higher...

I'd say 33.5.

Our museum is the second largest
research facility in Austria.

Our collections here
are quite extraordinary.

We conduct basic research in all fields,
everything that is out there

and also in space.

For me, the Naturhistorisches Museum
is a very special place

for very different reasons.

First of all because it's the first
and in fact the only

and the most beautiful museum
of evolution in Europe.

Even though very Catholic,
the Habsburgers established

research in the theory of evolution
in all departments here.

Not only the collections and exhibitions, but
also the building as an artistic synthesis

reflects the basic idea of evolution,

that humankind is part
of this larger process.

You can see it in the ceiling paintings
in the grand staircase,

depicting the human ephemerality and
the competition among living things.

Various evolutive processes
are presented here

and this makes our house unique.

We also cover prehistory here,

which means that we engage
in the human-nature relationship.

And this not only includes natural sciences,

but also human sciences.

When dealing with nature and
its meaning for humans, the humanities,

which deal with essential questions
and issues of meanings,

play an important role.

I've got the inventory register here.

I think our colleague wants
12-4-58, the griseus.

- Is it the right specimen?
- Correct. Yes.

- Good. We need to take a DNA sample.
- Okay.

- Has Alice already taken the photos?
- Yes.

It's already cut open, so it's perfect
to take samples without...

It's quite an old specimen, but I think
we'll find a small piece of DNA

to figure out if it is really this species,
a desert monitor.

- Maybe a piece from its muscle?
- A piece of an inner muscle.

I just check what we've got here. Yes.

We can take a piece
from its abdominal wall.

Perfect.

We got it.

I think that'll be enough.
Let's label it.

Done. Now we can send it to our colleague.

The research projects we carry out

are basically very similar to the projects
in all the other scientific departments here.

It's always about evolution,
systematics and taxonomy.

Here, we apply another method
in addition to morphology and ecology.

We do DNA analyses.

We compare DNA sequences. Based on the
findings, we try to reconstruct the genealogy,

or determine evolution traits.

So these are research projects
based on research questions.

Another very extensive project
we are carrying out here

is the ABOL project,
Austrian Barcode of Life.

The aim is to inventory biodiversity.

So there is no overarching set of questions.

What this project is about is characterising
species genetically

by using DNA barcodes,

That means all species that exist in Austria,
be it animals, plants or fungi.

It seems that applied research is considered
more important than basic research.

For many people,

the only raison d'être
for basic research is

its potential usefulness to applied research,

when it can be used as a basis so to speak.

It's often overlooked that basic research
is important and has a justification

in its own right.

Specifically the kind of
basic research we pursue here

very often has no immediate application.

Exploring the distinctions among species,

finding out how species have evolved
in the course of time,

is part of our studies
in the field of palaeontology.

All this research has no immediate
and also usually

no use in the medium term such as:

"we can make some money with it"

or "we can develop something".

This kind of research is solely
for the advancement of knowledge.

You simply can't predict where and when
what kind of knowledge will be useful.

But that doesn't mean that it's
not valuable and important now.

This fact is very often ignored.

I like this one much better.

It's more dynamic and

- much higher, so people can't touch it easily.
- Right.

In this 1:20 scale model, the visitor
would be 8 centimetres high,

and they can't touch it.

You're not really convinced
by my reconstruction.

Well, I just think it might be
standing too upright.

The latest state of research assumes

that the long axis
should be more horizontal.

Now, with its tail going down,
it looks a bit like a kangaroo.

I think it'd better if the tail
was a bit higher.

I have no problem with raising the tail.

Actually, it's better because
it's out of reach of the visitors.

I'd like to have a bit of movement
in its posture,

otherwise it just stands there limply.

Sure, you can raise its head a bit,
but the tail shouldn't go down too much,

otherwise it's like earlier reconstructions,
which, as we now know, were inaccurate.

Push it head-first. Careful, a bit lower.

Watch out, the foot...

I've got it.

- You've got its hand?
- Yes.

I just change my grip.

Careful. Does it fit there?

Okay.

Basically,

the large museums of natural history

are spatiotemporal archives
of biodiversity.

They allow us to travel back in time
and take a look

at the morphological and also
genetic diversity

of endangered species
before they became so rare.

So we can see how the genetic diversity
has declined over time,

concomitant with the loss of habitat

and also decreasing populations.

This one is a very special specimen:
it's a bluebuck.

It's the first large mammal
that was hunted to extinction in Africa.

We don't know exactly,

but the last ones were probably
hunted in 1799 or 1800.

This one is so special because

there are only four preserved specimens
on exhibit worldwide

and this one is the only female.

There are also two antlers somewhere.
This year,

we published a paper on our genetic analysis
of the last remaining specimens

compared to those considered
to be bluebucks until recently.

It is still possible to sample DNA
from these specimens.

I extracted a piece of skin
from between its hooves

and so we were able

to bring back to life
an extinct animal, as it were.

Look, here are a couple of ribs.
They go into the gaps.

Okay.

- Have I got this right?
- Let me see.

- This is the upper part.
- Okay.

- We have to turn this one around, too.
- Yes.

It's pretty heavy.

How old is the dinosaur
I'm photographing here?

This one is a Plateosaurus

and is approximately between
220 and 210 million years old.

It lived during the Late Triassic period.

- Is it an original?
- Yes, this is an original.

We're quite proud of it, because
we didn't have one until now.

This is our first original dinosaur.
All other exhibits we have here are replicas.

Look, a broken rib.
We have to mend it.

- Yes.
- They break so easily.

The bones are very fragile
and break very, very easily.

So,

this probably won't be the last one
we'll have to glue back together.

And how do you know what they look like?

- Or rather looked like?
- Well,

we know about the anatomy,
the bone structure,

because there are complete skeletons of them.
There are quite a few actually.

And in recent research,
3D scans of the bones were made

to create digital replica, and so
we know pretty well what it looked like.

Until a few decades ago, the assumption was
that it walked on four legs.

But today, we rather believe
that it ran on its hind limbs

and bent down to use its arms
for feeding and grazing.

This is curious.

I've been doing this for 25 years now,

working as a volunteer

in the museum, because it's fun

and I learn a lot.

And it's like some kind of meditation

sitting here all day, tapping

and emptying out the sands.

There are tiny fossils in these sands
and they're my favourites.

I examine these carefully

and sort them by types and species,

so the scientists don't have to

go through the whole batch.

But as I suffer from vertigo now,

I need walking canes, and my husband

as my second cane, stabilising me.

For example, today was quite windy
and it almost knocked me over.

I have a balance problem,

but I can still sit and work.

My reasoning was,

now that the State is taking care of me,

paying me a pension,

the least I could do in exchange

was to do volunteer work.

The agency for volunteer work helped me
find this job at the museum.

I've been here for 20 years now

and I still love it.

The first time I came into this museum,
it was a funny feeling.

When I went in

it felt like the old Emperor might suddenly
come around the corner.

And it smelled kind of old here,
of old paper.

I found it fascinating.

So, I started here.

They trained me how do this and well,

I liked it.

This is how I try
to make a small contribution

by helping them here

to get their work going.

The problem with basic research is: you're
always under pressure to justify your work.

And we always avoid saying

this research is good for this or that,

but rather that non-directional research
is what we need.

It's done for the sake of research itself,

because if research is always conducted
with a specific purpose,

it'll become quite narrow at some point.

And you never know what the knowledge
you gain is or will be good for.

It's true, that there is very
little money available for sciences,

but we have to deal with
a very peculiar problem here in our house:

our collections not only provide

the evidence and the basis
for scientific work

but also the documentation thereof.

And this aspect is always totally ignored.

With a research project at a university,

you can raise external funds and
publish the results in high-ranking journals,

so it's always easier to raise the money.

If you want to raise funds
for a scientific collection like ours,

they ask you: What are you
going to do with the material?

I'd say, maybe someone comes by
in the next hundred years.

Well, that doesn't make it
easy to raise funds.

And the problem is ...

that we need reasonable funds

to work through the backlog.

I mean, I wouldn't say
it's a Sisyphean task,

but no matter how hard I work, no matter
how much effort I put into my work,

I'll never be done.

We all feel this way here.

It's quite frustrating.

Now, the advent of digitalisation
gives us new hope.

The thing is, this collection has been
growing for more than 200 years now,

and we still don't know exactly
what we've got here.

But we need to provide that information now
with the current biodiversity crisis

so that it can be used
for research and so on.

So we need money to at least
inventory what we've got.

You can only prioritise
what you want to look into

if you know what is available.

And it's our great hope
that things finally get moving.

That's what Heimo has been trying
to achieve the past 20 years.

Just to give you an idea of the dimension:

So far, we've only got 10 % done.
Until recently, we believed it was even less.

We've got 16,000 plant names on our cards.

So, it's an endless task.

We're preparing a taxonomic catalogue,

because we actually don't know
for which names,

for which species, we've got material here.

We simply don't know.
Every time there's a request,

we have to go searching.

We ask one another where it might be,
or if it's filed under a different name.

Because things have been moved around,
or have been filed but placed somewhere else,

and no one kept record of
where they put the material.

Or an expert showed up and said,
"What you have written on the card is wrong"

He corrected it, so that material
goes under a different name,

but no one has kept record.
So it'll be difficult to find it ever again.

We explained all these problems
to the management,

and how insane the whole situation is,
how much time we waste here.

This is something
the business people also understand.

It's insane how much of our highly paid,
well,

let's just say our paid labour ...

is wasted on looking for things.

Or on running back and forth.
A colleague brought a step counter one day

and counted six kilometres of running
up and down the attic, again and again.

- You do that every day for 20 or 30 years.
- Exactly.

Just imagine how many kilometres
you make here just looking for material.

Here on this screen
we can see the signal

of the radar antenna
that we have on the roof.

On the roof of the museum we have a camera
to visually detect fireballs

and an antenna to detect the signals
of cosmic dust

from larger bodies entering the atmosphere.

This rock was formed on the moon
and during a big impact event on there,

during the excavation process,

some rocks were ejected
from the gravity of the moon

orbiting in the solar system and at some
point entering the atmosphere of the earth,

surviving the atmospheric entry
and landing on the ground.

By looking at the different mineral
and composition, we better understand

what the moon is made of,
the history of the moon

and recently in another
meteorite from the moon,

we have discovered a new mineral
unknown on earth

that tells us much more about our own earth.

That is why by looking at some
meteorite rocks from other planetary body,

we can even better learn
about our own planet.

Okay. The whole one.

A bit more.

You got it down already.

Is it sitting on it? Almost.

But is it in the joint?
I guess, I can open a surgery...

- A chiropractic surgery?
- For elephants.

I don't think so.
We have to lift it on top this.

A bit back and then
we mount it onto the leg.

We have to connect it
to this leg from below. Okay.

- Are you okay
- Yes, it's connected back here, too.

- But we need to get in here.
- We have to get it on this somehow.

So we have to lift it higher.

I can't see anything. Hold on.

Wait.

Stop, stop, stop.
I can't grab it.

How about there? Is it already...

- Great.
- Is your part at the height of its hip?

- Let's disconnect this again.
- Maybe this is the wrong side of the joint.

We have to move it to the front
and take the load from the hip.

So, what's the plan?
Are we putting it down?

We need to start again,
so bring it down.

- Okay? Gerhard, standing steady?
- Yes, I'm standing securely.

Okay. Let's get in down here.
Move towards me.

What's your plan?

- We have to mount it back there, right?
- Yes, that'd be great, but...

- Shit, this fellow is heavy.
- This looks good.

- I'm too short for this.
- Going well!

- Now let it down.
- Okay, letting it down.

- So.
- Push it to the back.

- Careful with your hand!
- How much?

Wait. It think that's enough.

Where are we? Can you see it?

Yes... No, not quite...

- Hold on. It's totally twisted.
- Now you can fix it. I'm holding the hip.

- This has to go further up.
- A bit more. Push down the nail a bit.

- Almost...
- A bit more.

- Got it. Now, that's good.
- Okay. It's fixed.

Okay.

- Now.
- A bit more.

Okay, just leave it now.-

The jaw is too low. Or protrudes...

- How is it now?
- Better. Can you hold it?

- No, it's not quite right yet.
- Okay.

- It'll stay like this.
- Yes.

I'd say this is probably how he...

- Right.
- This photo is great.

This is probably how he
stored the skulls in his apartment...

Crazy.

Here, another one.
It is this way up?

Like this.

That's how he stored them at home.

- I guess at some point he ran out of space.
- Well, of course.

I mean keeping the skull
of an elephant at home...

- Is that a Latimeria? It is.
- Wow, amazing.

It's the whole fish,
not just it's skeleton.

Right. And he photographed it
before he dissected it.

I think he owned
the first Latimeria in Austria.

- Here he is in a hospital. Here it is again.
- Yes, this is a smaller Latimeria.

Already dissected!

So he made pictures of the fish
before and after the dissection.

It will be a lot of work
to scan all these papers.

Look, here's Zwilling!

- Ernst Zwilling, the big-game hunter.
- This is amazing!

This is probably about big-game hunting,
in Uganda.

"Last Sunday I returned to Vienna
from a four-month safari in Uganda."

Did he buy from him? No.
This is interesting.

It'll be very valuable for the archive
to record this.

Is this customs records?
No, it's a price list.

It seems that he also bought skulls.

So, he didn't dissect everything himself,
he also bought skulls.

"Nature products, teaching materials".
He's from Hamburg, Flemming.

And he also sold skulls.
This is interesting.

Skulls. Obviously he had an entry
on each skull.

He took down a record.

He examined each skull morphologically

and took down everything he noticed.

We've got the elephant quite nicely.
It's finished now.

Yes, it turned out really nice.
Is it from the Schönbrunn Zoo, too?

No, it's not from Schönbrunn.

It was shot in Africa in the early 1970s
by my predecessor.

He went to Africa on a work trip,
shot the elephant,

skinned it and had the skin
that weighted 800 kilograms

transported back to Vienna in one piece.
Then they tanned it here.

But they didn't have time to dissect it,

so they just left it outside in the winter,
where it began to putrefy.

As a result, the epidermis,
the outermost layer of skin, peeled off

and was replaced by synthetic material.

Now, after 30 years
that started to disintegrate as well

and needed to be restored.

But the skin looks really natural.

Is any part of this animal still original?

- I mean, from the original elephant.
- Not much.

The head and the trunk and the feet.

The legs, the entire belly and
the back are synthetic skin.

And he didn't get the tusks.
He wasn't allowed to export them.

So he made plaster casts of them there
and had the replica built here.

These tusks are made of
some kind of polyester.

And in the course of the restorations,
we repainted them.

You've done a great job!

In addition to exploring
our scientific collections,

we also do fieldwork.

We try to add to our collections,
we gather data in open terrain.

We go on field trips
in Austria and abroad

in order to collect data
for our scientific publications.

Wow, look!

Oh yes.
Thanks.

We need to put on gloves 'cause of the fungi.
Yes, everyone.

It's in a good condition.

Let's take its temperature first.

Come here.

Yes, yes, I know this is not pleasant.

Yes, yes, yes.

Okay.

Let's check for lesions now.

- Everything's fine.
- Looks really good.

Yes... Sorry.

- Looks very good.
- Yes, there's nothing at all.

- The belly side looks so pretty.
- Beautiful pattern.

- This one's a beauty. It starts smelling now.
- Yes, totally!

- I'm glad we're wearing gloves.
- Okay...

- That's it. Need a hand?
- I've got it.

- Thanks.
- Oh, look!

There we go again.

- Yes, it starts again.
- It reeks!

Okay, we've got everything.

- No lesions.
- Okay then, thanks.

Gele is going to check
if the snakes are infected with fungi.

- But this one looks quite healthy.
- Yes, totally healthy.

You can perfectly see the agate.

Parts of it are calcedony.

Very nice banding in the pockets.
Very nice.

That's what I wanted to see.

Super.

Very good. We've got another one.

Fantastic.

Here are the bubbles.
Here are the bubbles I wanted to see.

The great thing about museums
of natural history is

that they have collected
natural materials over centuries.

Partly due to the private
connections of the curators

and partly through expeditions.

The Vienna imperial house
sent expeditions out

into the world
to collect and bring back things

that couldn't to be found anywhere else
and in such abundance.

And because of this

our collections here are still
world-famous and renowned today.

But sadly, in the past two decades

we had a sharp decline in funds

so that we are no longer able
to expand our collections

as we did in the early 1990s.

When I started working here, mineral dealers
would come here frequently

and offer us their finest
and rarest items.

We could pick and choose.

They came to us even before they went
to retailers or the mineral exchange auctions

and let us choose
from their finest pieces,

because it made them proud
that their minerals

would be part of our collections
and exhibited in our museum.

But now we basically have
no budget for acquisition

and can no longer compete with
museums in America or Canada

that continue to make purchases.

Our museum is losing its significance.

And that this coincides

with the end of my own career
makes me very sad.

Our budget has dropped
so rapidly and so much

that we can only afford
to buy peanuts.

And later on, this gap
can no longer be filled.

Here's another one.

Okay.

That one stays empty.

We don't want to hide anything
from our visitors,

but we try to recreate the 3D prints

as accurately as possible
and with colour.

You can see it here.
This one is an original vertebra

and there are the
already coloured 3D prints.

This is three millimetres too high.

Okay, that's it.

Great.

Okay.

Could you mount the front limbs for me?
I haven't seen them yet.

Yes.

And you've added
the metacarpal bones here?

- Good idea. Great.
- Yes, we glued them. You can't see it.

Which screw goes here?
Obviously not this one.

- Do you like the position of the hand?
- Yes.

Here, we've got the fingers...

- The bones...
- The carpal bones.

The carpal bones are all in line.
We can maybe twist here a bit.

Yes, just turn it here a little so that
the hand is tilted inward a bit more.

- Now it looks like a dinosaur, doesn't it?
- Yes.

- That took quite a while.
- I bet it did.

It's not easy to get all the angles right.

But now, the way it's standing there, that's
pretty much the current state of the art.

- Fine.
- Well, that might change next year.

Probably not so soon, but...

- According to the latest findings...
- I was there when one of these was assembled.

This was five, no 20 years ago.
Back then its tail was on the floor.

Okay, I see.

- Wait.
- Right.

I think this is the fourth year
we're doing our burning experiments.

It's essential that we have a series.

That's the only way
we can obtain really valid data.

The archaeological background are

the Late Bronze Age graves
in Inzersdorf ob der Traisen.

We have built replica
of the objects found there one-to-one

and put them on this pig,

because we want to find out
how these objects react in fire

and how everything then comes to rest,
so to speak, in the prehistoric grave.

It'll take a while until it really burns.

The northern corner starts to burn.
The fire was started there.

Documentation team, note it down.

Documentation team
might want to move a bit closer.

We've never had smoke like this before.

- It looks crazy this time.
- 27-8.

The burial shroud is burning.
Now it's going. Okay.

- 273-6.
- Blazing?

Not yet. Incipient blaze. Okay.

Bottom sheet, made of wool, is charred.

Look how it blisters.

You can see how the wool blisters.
Fantastic.

The burial shroud
has been partly blown away.

The food...
The flat breads are starting to char.

Pig is burning.

The pig is visible now.

The southern end
of the bottom sheet still intact.

Flat breads starting to char.

The bread...

It's quite fierce this time.

The arrow...
The arrow is burnt!

524-1.

629-3.

- Okay.
- 177-4.

The burial shroud underneath the pig
is still fully intact.

Shroud tissue still visible.

- Also charred.
- Okay.

Breads are completely charred.
Surface of the bowls' contents is charred.

- It's going to collapse.
- I know.

The bottom part of the pyre
is also burning now.

- It's going to collapse.
- That's why we wanted to stabilise it here.

That won't work.

The pyre is tilting to one side.

The pyre is slightly tilting to the east.

It's going to collapse. Fuck.

The pyre has caved in a little bit
on the western side, too. Maybe we're lucky.

Yes.

The fabrics underneath the pig
are still intact.

- Maybe we should remove these supports.
- I'll remove it, let's see what happens.

- These?
- Yes.

I'll whack at the eastern side of the pyre
to prevent our pig from falling down.

If I can get close enough.

- Fuck, it's so hot!
- Yes, it's very hot.

We've got the most important data.

- From which complex is this pot?
- It's from Hallstatt.

It's a very well-preserved specimen.

Usually, the finds from Hallstatt
are in a very bad condition,

so we're lucky that this one
is so well-preserved.

Unfortunately most of its
bottom is missing. If it it were ...

completely missing,
we wouldn't be allowed to add anything.

But in this case, we add to
the bottom and this area

to stabilise it, so it can be displayed
standing on its bottom

- and not like now, upside down. Look.
- Yes.

Now I need your help.
I put ...

this support mould inside the pot

and then I need you
to hold it for me carefully.

Don't press too hard, it's quite frail.

- Here. We won't plaster it on the upper part.
- Okay.

I know, it's a bit tiring,

but the plaster will harden soon,
and you can let it go.

Okay. I think you can let go
very carefully now.

Exactly. We'll leave it for a while.

Now you can see the fingerprints,
so we have to wait a bit.

But when no fingerprints are left, then it
won't change anymore. It's hardened then.

What we see here is rock salt.

You can find it in the middle part
of the deposit.

This is over 80% sodium chloride.

For more than 7,000 years
it has been the reason

why people settled here in Hallstatt.
And it still is.

The oldest still active industrial
and cultural landscape worldwide.

We explore the growth and development
of this cultural and industrial landscape.

We're here right in the middle of a factory's
waste dump, it's six meters high here.

3,000 years ago, miners dumped
their rubbish here

and the preservative quality of salt
has kept everything intact.

Here, we've found tools,
millions of burnt fatwood torches,

and many objects that give us
a deep insight into the processes back then.

This is a transportation binding
made of tree bast.

They probably used it to bind a whole bundle
of tools together to transport them.

Down here, the miners tore the binding
and threw it away.

This is the oldest one-way packaging
we know of in Europe.

Here you can find everything they needed,
and everything is perfectly preserved.

This pile of waste will keep us busy
for the next couple of decades.

It holds a lot of information
about prehistoric societies,

prehistoric living and
work environments.

If we move on here...
This area is from ...

probably 560 BC.

And right here, we found
the oldest wooden staircase in Europe.

As there are so many tunnels and excavations
at our disposal,

we're able to reconstruct work processes
in Bronze Age mining quite accurately.

It's not only this deep,
detailed insight,

but it also gives us the chance
to look at it all on a system level.

The site itself and the many sources
of environmental archaeology

like the sediment archives,
the lake and the swamps help us

to reconstruct a socio-ecological system,

that is the co-evolution of humans and
the environment over thousands of years.

We can do this by
tapping various archives,

above all the lakes,
Lake Hallstatt itself.

This spring we drilled there
with a new drilling device

that allowed us to go much deeper
into the sediments than ever before.

This is an incredible opportunity

and gives us a glimpse
of the past 12,000 years.

Now we can go back in time as far as
the end of the Ice Age and examine

how the environment has changed,
and also the impact of humanity.

There was pristine nature and then came
humankind and started changing this system.

But the system also
adapted to the humans.

And to this end, the sediments are
one of our main sources of data,

because you can extract an enormous
amount of information from them

like pollen or climate data.

We get an incredible range of information.

That's why we installed this huge
drilling platform on Lake Hallstatt

and drilled there for four weeks.

In Hallstatt we can explore
how people dealt with

ecological calamities, natural disasters
and political changes thousands of years ago

and also how they reacted to these events.

We see how humans and environment functioned
over the course of thousands of years.

And this gives us background
or basic information on what

we do today and also
how we might be operating in the future.

You can trace back
a lot of things with microfossils.

We can find out not only
how old the sediments and rocks are,

but we can also reconstruct what
the environment looked like back then.

This again allows us to draw conclusions
about extinction events

and various major events that
influenced and changed the world.

This is the intriguing part about
palaeontology and geology:

you can combine both disciplines
and extract a plenitude of information

from these tiny fossils.

As soon as the water has drained off,

you can ...

take it and put it into small dishes

and leave it to dry
in the compartment dryer.

Then we can find the fossils.

I've got a drill core here.

When we break it apart,
we can find for example a large fossil.

This is a shell emerging from the core.

And once we have crushed
and processed it,

we come to the microfossils
that I analyse.

This drill core was taken from a depth
of approximately 4,300 meters

and is around 18 million years old.

We know this because of
the microfossils' analysis.

So we can tell exactly
how old the drill core is,

what the environment
looked like back then

and also reconstruct
the climate history.

Different species and so
different kinds of fossils

existed under different
oxygen conditions,

and this is crucial because
it helps us to find out if there were

any changes in oxygen concentration
before and after major extinction events.

Right now, oxygen in the oceans
is a major issue.

There are huge areas where the oxygen level
is very low or non-existent.

These are the so-called
dead zones in the oceans.

If we can measure exactly
how they spread and expand,

we can tell if this was also the case
in earlier times.

We can understand the past and are able
to make predictions about the future, too.

If oxygen levels dropped before major events
back then like they are dropping now,

we can tell what's awaiting us
and how things will develop in the future

in terms of extinction of species, and if it
will be as devastating as in earlier times

or whether we still have the chance

to stop the process.

I am deeply convinced that a society
can only be culturally superior

if it has a superior culture of collecting.

We gather condensates of knowledge,

so to speak,
the focal points of our knowledge,

in the form of artefacts, small objects,
excavations, insects etc.

A collection of the whole range of whatever
interests we have developed as humankind.

But we don't collect
because we're greedy.

Collecting is often associated
with possession.

Someone collects because they are greedy
and want to amass things.

No, no. The first stage of collecting
in the sense of hoarding

serves us as much
as our consciousness collecting

all those condensates and focal points,

which we will need later on,
in the second stage.

And that's the job of museums.
They put the objects in order.

We don't just get all the things

and then shove them in boxes somewhere
without attending to them.

We arrange them instead
to get an overview.

We try to figure out how
these things relate to each other.

What common features do they have?

How can we hierarchize them?
Into which small box ...

and casket can we put these set pieces
of our future knowledge?

And the interesting thing is that museums

often have much larger and
more comprehensive collections

than they can handle.

Unlike in other areas of life, in regard
to collections very often the rule is

that quantity fosters quality.

The philosophical principle of systematics,
classification and taxonomy

is basically the question of
what it means to classify things.

How real are systems of
classification and taxonomy?

And to what an extent are they constructs
that we build to guide us?

And there are also
metaphysical questions:

Do the species really exist or are they
only a product of our minds?

These questions have been explored
since scholastics in the Middle Ages

argued about the problem of universals.

These are philosophical questions,

but they also affect
the field of biology.

For example, when we ask ourselves
how to systemize nature.

What should the individual groups, the taxa,
as we call them, what should they represent?

There are quite different
approaches to these issues.

A classic approach,
at least since Darwin,

is that the units we define in a system

should be based on descent communities.

That means that our system should be
the best possible

reproduction of the historical development,

that is the evolution itself.

This is just one of many options.

In parallel to this, we also use other types
of classification, other taxonomies,

that are not based on the theory
of evolution, but are purely practical,

for example large mammals vs. small mammals.

Two large mammals, even if they are
not related, might have similar problems

and similar needs in their lives.
They both need a very sturdy skeleton,

or they possibly have
a rather long generation time.

They reproduce very slowly.

Whales, rhinoceroses, elephants and
also eagles have this feature in common.

They are not really related, but they do have
things in common simply based on their size.

We therefore use different classifications

and taxonomies depending
on the question at hand.

But when we say, we explore the biological
systematics, our system of reference

is as a rule a system
based on evolution theory.

If you stroke this,
you clearly feel the flattening.

In case of this child from Leobendorf
it's particularly distinct.

Can you imagine how this happened?

They applied bindings around
an infant's head very early after birth.

The skull mainly grows
during the first three years.

And because the skull's growth has been
restricted, it becomes elongated.

Therefore, especially in case of children,
large bumps appear on the parietal bone.

The dented forehead and particularly
the flattening of the back of the head

are typical indications for
an artificial cranial deformation.

The examples we have found in Austria date
back to the 5th century, the Migration Period.

In the Migration Period,

this phenomenon is interpreted
in ecological terms.

They say it might have
represented social status.

- It's possible.
- We can't proof it.

Obviously there is some evidence
that it can be interpreted this way.

I can't tell social status from a skeleton.
I can only tell the deformation.

Maybe the archaeological goods...

But very often, these objects
don't give any indications.

- That's the problem.
- They're often single finds.

- Exactly.
- Without a context it's difficult.

It's useless.

This cranial deformation
has no effect on the brain.

It just has to grow
in a different direction.

- It didn't kill people.
- Even though the binding was so tight.

A modern example for skull deformation
is the brace.

We use a brace to change
the shape of the jawbone,

so it fits into the dental arch
in a corrected way.

It's a modern thing.

And an example for
how we modify the skull.

We use these modifications

in various anthropological methods,

for example to determine the age of death

or for studies on osteoporosis.

We can explore all kinds of things
through these bone relics.

In the 19th up until the first half
of the 20th century,

anthropologists did a lot of
studies on living people.

At that time,
the focus was racial science.

During the Nazi era,
anthropologists, also here

at the Naturhistorische Museum,
heavily focused on studying Jews.

It is still quite an emotional
and difficult issue for us.

In the archives here at our department
we have the documents

regarding the
surveys and measurings

that were conducted by the
anthropologists here at our museum.

We have for example
material from two anthropologists

who worked at the Vienna
Institute for Anthropology

and the Institute for German Work
in the East in Krakow.

These two women measured over
500 Jewish men, women and children

from a total of 105 families,

just a few weeks before they were
killed in the Ghetto of Tarnow in 1942.

And the photographs,
horrifying photographs for us today

that we don't like to show,

are still here in our department

together with the written documents.

Various surveys were also carried out
here at the Naturhistorisches Museum

under the former director of the
anthropological department, Dr Josef Wastl.

One of the surveys was conducted
right at the beginning of the war.

Josef Wastl and a team from
the Naturhistorisches Museum

went to the Prater stadium

and did an anthropological examination

of 440 Polish Jewish men
and also adolescents,

who had been declared stateless.

We have the measuring sheets from
that survey in the Prater stadium here,

as well as the minute book, photographs

and also plaster masks of 17 men.

Together with a historian,
I did some research on this survey

and we were able to find survivors
whom we interviewed.

Among them Gerschon Evan,

who was 16 at that time and
in the stadium with his father.

We talked to him about the survey.

It's particularly shocking that
one week after the survey...

They were detained in September 1939.

In the third week of their detention, the
"Anthropological Commission" measured them.

After that, all the detained men,
over 1,000 men, were taken

to the Westbahnhof in Vienna and from there
deported to the concentration camp Buchenwald.

Some of these men were former residents
of the Jewish old age home at Seegasse.

A lot of elderly, but also young men.

They had to walk all the way from
the train station to the concentration camp

and were then placed
in a small tent camp.

Most of them died there
within a few weeks.

This is an example for
how important these documents are,

not only in anthropological terms,

but even more so
for the history of persecution

and murder of Jews in Europe.

This is Dr Wastl's bag with
his measuring instruments.

He used these instruments
to carry out the measuring.

This is one of the most complex
indexes we have here.

For example, it says here
in this old inventory list:

"Modern Turkish skull,

a gift from Augustin Weisbach".

These are issues that
are very relevant for us now

in our project "Kolonialer Kontext II".

We had a query
from New Zealand in 2017

and so we started
this provenance research,

in order to find out where these skulls
from New Zealand really came from

that are now in our museum.

Among other things,
we came across diaries

of an Austrian taxidermist

and amateur ornithologist.

We found out that this man,

Andreas Reischek,
while travelling in New Zealand

had been completely aware of the fact,

that he had trespassed territories
that were off limits.

He knew, he shouldn't be there and,
more importantly,

he shouldn't take anything with him
or dig up graves.

But he did and he was fully aware

that if he had been caught, they would have
given him the death penalty.

And yet, he did all that and wrote everything
down in detail, but not very neatly.

So this is the context of injustice
and based on this

we decided: Okay,
this is a context of injustice.

These skulls must be repatriated!

Because they are more important

for the Māori and Moriori people
in New Zealand

than for scientific research.

Together with the New Zealand delegation,

I returned these human remains
to New Zealand

and had the privilege to witness

how important these skulls, these
human remains are for the Māori people.

It was an incredible experience.

They have a completely
different approach to life

and take a lot responsibility for
their past and also for the future.

We as a museum of natural history

will continue and intensify our cooperation
with the museum in Wellington,

particularly regarding the Māori culture

and the exchange of scientific staff.

For us, the repatriation doesn't mean that

there was a context of injustice,

we returned the human remains
and that's it for us.

On the contrary.

By promoting cooperation between
peoples and scientists

and also ethnic groups,

we want to foster a better understanding

among various countries
and also various research areas.

We'll have to remove a little bit more.

- They want to see her bellybutton?
- Exactly.

She turned full circle.
We made this virtual rotational axis

in order to change the rotation point.

Now it looks good, but we'll zoom out a bit
so we don't have any artefacts on the sides.

Fantastic. No. Really great.

- Venus of Willendorf won't probably...
- No, I'm just looking.

Amazing.

Great.

I'm happy, too,
that it turned out so well.

This is comparable to...

The state of the art used to be
the thin section.

It's one-to-one. You could measure to a µ,
because you cut really thin sections.

And this is like a thin section
in terms of quality.

You can use this like a blueprint.

This provides insights into details you
wouldn't be able to see on the surface.

Like these seashells in there,
which tell us

precisely how old the rock is, as these
shells existed only in certain time periods.

We wouldn't have been able
to see this on the surface.

Up until now, nobody knew that there
are fossils inside the Venus figurine.

We also didn't know about these
iron concretions you see there,

just a few millimetres in size.
How should we have known?

You can't see inside it, they would've said.
But today, we know that you actually can.

That last time we had her here,

we examined her with UV-rays,

and we could see these streaks, too.
Just amazing.

The quality of the scans is incredible.
Fantastic.

It's the very first time that we can see
through Venus in this perfect resolution.

While you see a historic-cultural object,
I see a geological object.

But we're also interested
in the geological object

because of possible points of contact
or other kinds of ...

- cultural circulation.
- We could also make an intersection.

Sure...

I mean, we've already got it digitally.

We could just make a print.

- I just hope, nothing breaks.
- Breaking would be bad.

Oh yes.

- Oh yes?
- It'd be bad. Very bad.

Nothing's going to break.

Bones have been broken in the course
of much more delicate operations.

- Like you wonder if anybody even touched it.
- But they're moving it on wheels.

But now that ladder must go.

Merci.

Oh, there's still someone on top.

Maybe the hip.
Or there'd be a real curvature there.

It looks like you've done this before.

No rush, I can't start yet anyway.

- Ready.
- Ready? Yes. Good.

You can see exactly the sections
I have coloured:

the entire cervical vertebra,
then the next section,

another one and then after the hip.

You can see exactly each day's work
as I mixed the colour differently.

Yes, but...

Good.