Hallstatt, Austria.

Site.

Located in a seemingly inhospitable area, high in the Salzkammergut in Austria, Hallstatt was a thriving salt-mining and trading center in antiquity. The wealth in the Hallstatt- and La Tène-period tombs attests to the success of the enterprise. The finds from this site became eponymous for the period.

Localized on map.	Area of Hallstatt. Topography, elevations, location of Hallstatt on the Hallstättersee, modern and ancient mines, and cemeteries (dark grid).
View of the site of the cemetery containing ca. 1000 early Celtic graves.	View across the Hallstätter See to the modern town of Hallstatt, hill with cemetery, and the Plassen, in the Salzkammergut

Finds.

Among the enormous number of finds from the salt mines and the cemetery at Hallstatt are wood and textile objects preserved in salt, pottery, bronze vessels, jewelry, wagons and weapons. The finds are in several museums, among them Hallstatt: Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum; the vast majority of finds are in the Prähistorische Abteilung, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Vienna).

The sword scabbard dicussed here is atypical in that it is incised with a figural scene. The interpretation of the figures is not entirely clear.

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