Prehistory

Godfather of an epoch in human history

On one of his trips around the world, Upper Austria's former governor Dr. Josef Ratzenböck had this experience: In a museum in Beirut, there was a large white spot on a large hiking map of the world in Central Europe in 1000 BC, interrupted by a single point: Hallstatt. "And that's where I'm from," Ratzenböck had said. The Governor commented on the consequences of this incorporation into Hallstatt as follows: "Since I said that, I was someone!"

Technical progress and a high sense of art

The first Austrians who entered history did it so vigorously that they gave their name to an entire cultural epoch of mankind. After the richest prehistoric site north of the Alps, the oldest Iron Age (800 to 400 BC) was called the Hallstatt Period. Economic prosperity, technical progress and a high sense of art were typical of this time - a time of which we had no idea for more than two thousand years. The fact that Hallstatt has achieved such great historical honours that scientists from East and West, North and South meet here again and again today to exchange their experiences and findings about the Hallstatt period and Hallstatt culture at the eponymous site of discovery is thanks to a small saltworks official from Hallstatt.

His name was Johann Georg Ramsauer, he lived from 1795 to 1874 and, apart from a few letters, did not leave much behind that could give us information about his personal circumstances. In 1846, i.e. before Heinrich Schliemann began to excavate Troy, Ramsauer discovered the prehistoric burial ground of Hallstatt and excavated a total of 19,497 objects in 980 graves in the following 17 years. After the death of his wife, Ramsauer had twelve children to care for, and his history-making discoveries did not change the fact that he had to ask for "graciously granted support" on behalf of his family.

Mining official makes history

This man, haunted by strokes of fate, ridiculed as an eccentric despite his sensational finds, not recognized by society without academic and aristocratic titles, and finally even suspected of embezzlement, marks the first year of Austrian history. Not a statesman or military leader, not a historian or archaeologist, but a mining official from Hallstatt wrote the first four hundred years of Austrian history and thus also fundamentally changed the image of European history. Today, the highest academic authorities recognize Ramsauer's achievements and by no means dismiss them as a coincidence of history. During Ramsauer's lifetime, however, the educated world saw things quite differently.

Certainly, it was duly admired what the unknown layman had discovered in the Hallstatt Salzberg in terms of beautiful weapons and jewellery. The excavations were visited from Ischl. Even the emperor and empress once came to open a tomb and had a bronze cattle figure given to them. But all this was seen more as a chic social event and less as a cultural and scientific feat. Hallstatt - what was this inconspicuous mountain village in the Alps compared to the nimbus that the sites of ancient high culture radiated?

One of the well-known Austrian prehistorians, the head of the Institute for Prehistory and Early History at the University of Innsbruck, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Karl Kromer, has pointed out these circumstances and also stated that Ramsauer's conscientious notes were the first records of a prehistoric excavation in Central Europe at all, which, however, did not receive the same attention with which the reports of discoveries in Egypt and the Near East were followed.

Unexpected sensational find

"The opening of a gravel pit in November 1846," Johann Georg Ramsauer put on paper, "led to the discovery of the still unknown field of corpses." With pedantic precision, Ramsauer, who had worked his way up from mining pupil and "Büchelschreiber" to Unterbergschaffer, Oberbergschaffer and finally to Bergrat, kept a record of his activities. He noted the place and date of the excavation, gave each grave a number, described the objects found, the location and circumstances of the find, the relationship in which skeletons and individual bones were to the grave goods, registered the depth of the grave. A second miner from Hallstatt, Isidor Engl, made watercolours and sketches of the found objects.

The prehistorian Kromer: "It is astonishing with what precision these two men, who had no previous professional training, fulfilled their task. It is thanks to them alone that the Hallstatt phenomenon has been preserved, even if not entirely without losses, at least as a closed picture of the science of our day." The first official body to be interested in the sensational finds was the Museum Francisco-Carolinum (State Museum) in Linz. From there, Ramsauer received advice for his excavations. Four years after the discovery of the burial ground, the excavations were placed under the scientific direction of the Imperial and Royal Coin and Antiquities Cabinet in Vienna, which finally also reimbursed Ramsauer's displays - but only when he had delivered an object of discovery.

Despite this semi-official support, there was no precise scientific procedure for these most important excavations on Austrian soil. Many of the skeletons perished because they were not yet preserved. On the other hand, others knew how to remove the finds. As late as 1907, the Grand Duchess Maria of Mecklenburg succeeded in having the soil rummaged through near Ramsauer's sites. The imperial family, which ultimately financed the excavations, looked on, and even the head of the museum in charge had to be shown the door by a lackey of the Grand Duchess!

Since 1994, a new excavation campaign has been underway at the Hallstatt burial ground. A team of archaeologists led by Dr. Anton Kern from the Natural History Museum in Vienna repeatedly achieves sensational results and brings unique finds to light. This was also the case in 1999, where, among other things, a valuable meat knife and a cremation grave with 21 (!) clay vessels was discovered...

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