Press Release

The Bronze Age - Austrian Settlements as Centres of Trade

Austrian settlements in the Region of the Danube were prosperous and cosmopolitan in the Bronze Age. That's what new studies undertaken by researchers in the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences show in a project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. It is centred around analysing the findings from excavations on the Oberleiserberg Mountain in Lower Austria where scientists discovered traces of a major trade and relics of a once-flourishing culture of crafts.

The Oberleiserberg mountain excavation site is one of the most prominent locations in Lower Austria. This is where one of the largest settled areas of the Bronze Age (2300 - 800 B.C.) in Central Europe was discovered measuring seven hectares. The excavations have been underway since 1976 and they supply a wide range of findings from the Bronze Age, the Late Latène Period, later ancient times and the time of the great migrations after the fall of the Roman Empire. While the material stemming from ancient times and time of the great migrations has been analysed very thoroughly, the project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF was only recently able to precisely tap the findings from the Bronze Age.

Trade in Time and Space
The analysis of findings clearly show that the first large-scale settlement of the Oberleiserberg mountain region was in the early Bronze Age (2300 to 1600 B.C.) when the Moravian/Austrian group of the Aunjetitz culture held sway here in the northern region of the Danube. The major characteristic of the Aunjetitz culture was large regular fields of graves and diverse burial gifts made of bronze. There was a great exchange of goods in this group, especially raw materials. For instance, in the early Bronze Age, the settlers at the Oberleiserberg Mountain used flint from Moravia to make a wide variety of implements such as blades and arrowheads.

Dr. Michaela Lochner from the Austrian Academy of Sciences points out that "we analysed the mineralogical characteristics of the flint and its type and arrived at the surprising result that the types of stones to be found at Oberleiserberg mountain were often made and used in the early Bronze Age, although these implements were previously assigned to the Stone Age. In addition, most of the flint originates from the Moravian region that is much further away, which is a strong indication of the settlements in the Danube region exchanging goods with one another". This era of intensive trade came to an abrupt end at the Oberleiserberg Mountain when the settlement was abandoned due to a disastrous fire.

An Excellent Position
There were only more recent settlements at the end of the older phase of the middle Danube region urn field culture (about 1000 B.C.) named after the preferred manner of burying the dead by cremating them and burying them in urns. The analysis of findings from this time show that the settlement flourished due to its safe location on the mountain and excellent access to trade routes. Dr. Lochner tells us that "we found a number of everyday implements for manufacturing textiles such as weaving weights and wharves in the excavations, so that we concluded that there was a lot of crafts and trading being done that produced a significant amount of prosperity.

This is something we can also see from bronze garment needles with carefully designs needle heads in shape of vase heads or spindles that were used as clothing decorations". These objects were cast in forms made of stone or clay that we still have today along with stove or oven plates. The ceramic of the Oberleiserberg mountain also prove how highly developed crafts were then. What is especially remarkable are the very thin-walled bowls that are decorated with a wealth of new types of line, rhombic and circular designs.

When we analyse these findings, it provides us with new insight into the conditions under which Bronze Age settlements lived in the region of the Danube. The Oberleiserberg Mountain was a stronghold of culture in the Bronze Age and it fostered the exchange of creative and innovative ideas, just like the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

Person to get in contact with:
Dr. Michaela Lochner
Prehistoric Commission
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Fleischmarkt 22
A-1010 Vienna
T +43/1/512 91 84 88
E michaela.lochner@oeaw.ac.at

Sender:
PR&D - Public Relations for Research & Development
Campus Vienna Biocenter 2
A-1030 Vienna
T +43/1/505 70 44
E contact@prd.at

Vienna, April 26, 2004