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Hallstatt – an archaeological treasure trove

The Department of Prehistory of the Natural History Museum Vienna has been carrying out research in and around Hallstatt for over 100 years. Supported by Salinen Austria AG and Salzwelten GmbH, which are themselves continuing a century-old tradition of research by local saltworks, the NHM Vienna has held annual excavations in the mines since 1960 and at the burial site since 1992. More recently, research work has been expanded to include new focuses on trade and textiles in and around Hallstatt.

Thanks to the exceptional climatic conditions in the mine, the items found in Hallstatt have revealed a wealth of information giving a unique insight into how prehistoric humans lived and worked in the region.

Hallstatt’s archaeological significance
The landscape around Hallstatt
The salt store in Hallstatt
Archaeological finds in Hallstatt
 

 

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(Photo: K. Loecker - Aerial Archive University of Vienna)


Hallstatt’s archaeological significance

Located in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria, Hallstatt has been famous within the international scientific community since the 19th century thanks to its exceptionally rich burial site dating back to the Hallstatt Period. The graves there contain precious items from almost all regions of the world known at the time. Indeed, early researchers were even inspired to name a culture found in many parts of Europe and an entire period of European prehistory (Hallstatt Period) after this location.

Hallstatt’s wealth in prehistoric times was based on seemingly inexhaustible reserves of salt in the mountain. It is likely that this salt has been used by humans for 7000 years. While there is little evidence of surface salt mining during the early period, researchers from the NHM Vienna have been able to establish that in the period around 1500 BC Hallstatt was home to a fully developed salt mining industry. This makes the prehistoric salt mine at Hallstatt the oldest known salt mine in the world.

Thanks to the special climate in the salt mine, unique objects made of organic material have been preserved as remnants of this mining activity, which can be found in only a few other places in the world. Wood, fur, grass, faeces, food remains and much more have been recovered from the Hallstatt mine, preserved from decay for up to 3500 years, giving us a unique insight into what organic materials were used at the time - a find rarely made in normal excavations, as they decompose very quickly under normal conditions. Finds from the Hallstatt mines give researchers unique answers about the illiterate people who lived here and their culture.
 

The landscape around Hallstatt

The reason people settled in this region is because of the abundant salt deposits in the valley high above the lake. When you arrive in the high hanging valley by funicular railway, ascending approximately 300 metres in just a few minutes, you can hardly imagine how difficult the journey once was. Flanked north and south by steep crags, closed to the west by the vast limestone massif of the Plassen, and cut off eastward by a steep descent to the lake, the original access to the valley was via demanding and sometimes treacherous bridleways. Even the broad route way, established over the Hallberg in the middle of the 19th century, still involves twelve hairpin bends and several bridges to reach its destination.
 

The salt store in Hallstatt

This makes the wealth of archaeological finds from in and around Hallstatt, and in particular from the High Valley, all the more remarkable. In prehistoric times, it was undoubtedly salt that exerted a strong pull, with saline sources probably attracting animals in the first instance, to be followed by humans. Several stone axes discovered in the region support the idea that the High Valley (the Salzbergtal) has been occupied by humans more or less continuously since the beginning of the Neolithic period or later Stone Age, some 7000 years ago. A pick made of deer antler, a typical mining tool of the time, suggests that there had at least been attempts to extract salt through mining. The systematic mining of the deposits seems to have begun during the Middle Bronze Age, from the 16th century BC onward. Since the late 18th century AD, miners have repeatedly uncovered logbuilt constructions in the area above the village of Hallstatt, but it was not until recently that the structures were recognized as buildings dating from the Early Bronze Age.
 

Archaeological finds in Hallstatt

The drifts and leaching chambers of the historical mine, mentioned for the first time in a document of AD 1311, have provided much archaeological evidence, demonstrating that the miners of the Middle Ages were by no means the first to pursue activities deep under the earth's surface. We have evidence of three prehistoric salt mines in the High Valley: one dating back to the Bronze Age, one to the Early Iron Age, and one to the Late Iron Age.

As well as the salt mines, Hallstatt is also home to one of the most important prehistoric cemeteries ever found in Europe. It was this burial site, located in the high valley, which caused researchers to coin a culture and period of prehistory and early history the Hallstatt Period. Back in the 19th century early researchers were able to excavate over 1000 graves containing magnificent burial gifts indicating close trade links between prehistoric Hallstatt and almost the entire known world at the time.

Finally, the prehistoric features that we can associate with house building, discovered on the Dammwiese site, seem to represent a mining settlement associated with the most recent period of ancient mining during, the Late Iron Age. Below the hanging valley, down by the lake, the remains of substantial Roman villas have been found, and signal the replacement of the Celtic salt miners by a foreign imperial power. On the basis of this wealth of remains, the Hallstatt region must be counted among the preeminent archaeological sites not only of Europe, but of the world.

(Barth, F.  E. – Loew, C.)
  
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