Large‐scale mass movements recorded in the sediments of Lake Hallstatt (Austria)–evidence for recurrent natural hazards at a UNESCO World Heritage site

The Bronze to Iron Age underground salt mining complex of Hallstatt (Austria) is widely recognised for its cultural importance and wealth of archaeological artefacts. However, while the daily life in the salt mines is archaeologically well documented and environmental effects of the mining activity have been investigated recently, the impact of natural hazards on the prehistoric mining community is still poorly understood. For instance, while it is well established that the prehistoric underground mines have repeatedly been destroyed by large-scale mass movements, only little is known about the characteristics and extent of these events as well as about mass-movement recurrence during more recent times. To shed light on past mass-movement activity in the vicinity of the Hallstatt salt mines, we investigated sediment cores from adjacent Lake Hallstatt. Within the regular lake sediments we identified three large-scale event deposits, which are interpreted to originate from spontaneous or seismically induced mass movements in the mid-19th and late 9th century ce and the mid-4th century bce. While the age of the latter event is in good agreement with the abandonment of the famous Iron Age cemetery at Hallstatt, the younger events indicate that large-scale mass movements also occurred repeatedly during the Common Era

Hallstatt miners consumed blue cheese and beer during the Iron Age and retained a non-Westernized gut microbiome until the Baroque period

21openInternationalInternational coauthor/editorWe subjected human paleofeces dating from the Bronze Age to the Baroque period (18th century AD) to in-depth microscopic, metagenomic, and proteomic analyses. The paleofeces were preserved in the underground salt mines of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hallstatt in Austria. This allowed us to reconstruct the diet of the former population and gain insights into their ancient gut microbiome composition. Our dietary survey identified bran and glumes of different cereals as some of the most prevalent plant fragments. This highly fibrous, carbohydrate-rich diet was supplemented with proteins from broad beans and occasionally with fruits, nuts, or animal food products. Due to these traditional dietary habits, all ancient miners up to the Baroque period have gut microbiome structures akin to modern non-Westernized individuals whose diets are also mainly composed of unprocessed foods and fresh fruits and vegetables. This may indicate a shift in the gut community composition of modern Westernized populations due to quite recent dietary and lifestyle changes. When we extended our microbial survey to fungi present in the paleofeces, in one of the Iron Age samples, we observed a high abundance of Penicillium roqueforti and Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA. Genome-wide analysis indicates that both fungi were involved in food fermentation and provides the first molecular evidence for blue cheese and beer consumption in Iron Age Europe.openMaixner, Frank; Sarhan, Mohamed S; Huang, Kun D; Tett, Adrian; Schoenafinger, Alexander; Zingale, Stefania; Blanco-Míguez, Aitor; Manghi, Paolo; Cemper-Kiesslich, Jan; Rosendahl, Wilfried; Kusebauch, Ulrike; Morrone, Seamus R; Hoopmann, Michael R; Rota-Stabelli, Omar; Rattei, Thomas; Moritz, Robert L; Oeggl, Klaus; Segata, Nicola; Zink, Albert; Reschreiter, Hans; Kowarik, KerstinMaixner, F.; Sarhan, M.S.; Huang, K.D.; Tett, A.; Schoenafinger, A.; Zingale, S.; Blanco-Míguez, A.; Manghi, P.; Cemper-Kiesslich, J.; Rosendahl, W.; Kusebauch, U.; Morrone, S.R.; Hoopmann, M.R.; Rota-Stabelli, O.; Rattei, T.; Moritz, R.L.; Oeggl, K.; Segata, N.; Zink, A.; Reschreiter, H.; Kowarik, K

Untersuchungen zu den Wirtschaftsstrukturen der bronze- und ältereisenzeitlichen Salzbergbaue von Hallstatt/OÖ

Untertägiger Bergbau im Salzberg von Hallstatt ist spätestens für das 14. Jh. v. Chr. nachgewiesen. Die Größe der Abbaureviere, die schiere Menge an Fundmaterialien aus den Bergwerken sowie deren Qualität, die eindeutigen Hinweise auf stark strukturierte, segmentierte Arbeitsabläufe und eine effiziente Organisation setzen diese Struktur von zeitgenössischen Produktionsformen ab. Zwei Aspekte in der Auseinandersetzung mit den Hallstätter Salzbergbauen sind bislang im Wesentlichen unbeachtet geblieben. Dies ist zum einen das gesamte Themenfeld der Versorgung der Bergbaue und zum anderen die Einbindung der Bergbaue in das Umland. Der Untersuchungszeitraum der vorliegenden Arbeit umfasst die Zeitspanne von der Mittelbronzezeit bis zur älteren Eisenzeit (16. bis 5. Jh. v. Chr.). Folgende Fragestellungen wurden behandelt: Welchen Versorgungsbedarf hatten die bronze- und ältereisenzeitlichen Salzbergbaue Hallstatts? In welcher Beziehung standen die bronze- und ältereisenzeitlichen Salzbergbaue zu ihrer Umgebung? Welchen Einfluss hatten naturräumliche Bedingungen, im Besonderen klimatische Veränderungen, auf die sozioökonomische Entwicklung der Bergbaue und des Umlands? Der Forschungsansatz ist dreigeteilt und besteht aus einer Analyse des aktuellen Forschungsstands im Hinblick auf die dargelegten Forschungsfragen, einer Bedarfscharakterisierung der prähistorischen Salzbergwerke und einer siedlungs- und landschaftsarchäologischen Untersuchung des Arbeitsgebiets. Die vorliegende Doktorarbeit konnte im Rahmen eines von der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften geförderten Projekts (Hall-Impact) durchgeführt werden.Underground salt mining in Hallstatt can be dated at least to the 14th century BC. The size of the mining areas, the evidence for highly structured working processes and tight organization set those production systems apart from most contemporaneous economic structures. Two aspects of prehistoric salt mining Hallstatt have not been addressed in much detail until now: 1) the provisioning of the salt mines, 2) the interaction between the salt mines and the surrounding region. Both aspects are strongly interrelated. The present study focuses on the time span of the middle Bronze Age to the early Iron Age (16th to 5th cent. BC). The following questions have been addressed: What were the demands of the salt mines in terms of raw material, tools, workforce and food? How were the salt mines connected to the surrounding region? How did the natural environment influence the socioeconomic development of the salt mines and the surrounding region? The approach is threefold: 1) discussion of the state of the art, 2) characterization of the demands of the prehistoric salt mines, 3) diachronic analysis of the archaeological landscape surrounding the salt mines. The present work was out carried within the Hall-Impact project funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Anthropogene Einflüsse auf die Hochgebirgsumwelt im Holozän: Einblicke aus einer alpinen Bergbaulandschaft

Menschliche Begehung und Nutzung des Gebirgs- und Hochgebirgsraums reicht weit in die Vergangenheit zurück. Sedimentarchive, archäologische Quellen und Schriftzeugnisse dokumentieren die lange und vielfältige Beziehungsgeschichte zwischen menschlichen Gesellschaften und diesen Landschaften. In besonderer Detailgenauigkeit lassen sich diese Prozesse in der historischen Landschaft des österreichischen Salzkammerguts nachvollziehen. Doch die enge Verzahnung zwischen Mensch und Umwelt bzw. eng aufeinander abgestimmte sozioökologische Systeme treten uns überall dort in Gebirgsregionen entgegen, wo Menschen über einen längeren Zeitraum gesiedelt und gewirtschaftet haben. In Anbetracht des oft steigenden Drucks auf diese Landschaften ist die Integration einer historischen und interdisziplinären Perspektive für die Entwicklung nachhaltiger Nutzungskonzepte von fundamentaler Bedeutung. Anthropogenic influences on the high mountain environment in the Holocene: Human activity in mountain regions reaches back far into the past. Sediment archives, archaeological sources and written records document the long and varied history of human-environment relations in these landscapes. These processes can be traced back in particular detail in the landscape of the Austrian Salzkammergut. However, the close interrelationship between humans and the environment or closely integrated socio-ecological systems can be studied everywhere in mountainous regions where human communities were present for a long time. In view of the often increasing pressure on these landscapes, a historically informed and interdisciplinary framework for the development of sustainable landuse concepts is urgently neede

Large‐scale mass movements recorded in the sediments of Lake Hallstatt (Austria)–evidence for recurrent natural hazards at a UNESCO World Heritage site

The Bronze to Iron Age underground salt mining complex of Hallstatt (Austria) is widely recognised for its cultural importance and wealth of archaeological artefacts. However, while the daily life in the salt mines is archaeologically well documented and environmental effects of the mining activity have been investigated recently, the impact of natural hazards on the prehistoric mining community is still poorly understood. For instance, while it is well established that the prehistoric underground mines have repeatedly been destroyed by large‐scale mass movements, only little is known about the characteristics and extent of these events as well as about mass‐movement recurrence during more recent times. To shed light on past mass‐movement activity in the vicinity of the Hallstatt salt mines, we investigated sediment cores from adjacent Lake Hallstatt. Within the regular lake sediments we identified three large‐scale event deposits, which are interpreted to originate from spontaneous or seismically induced mass movements in the mid‐19th and late 9th century ce and the mid‐4th century bce. While the age of the latter event is in good agreement with the abandonment of the famous Iron Age cemetery at Hallstatt, the younger events indicate that large‐scale mass movements also occurred repeatedly during the Common Era.Freunde des Naturhistorisches Museums WienAustrian Science Fund http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002428Austrian Academy of SciencesGerman Archaeological Institut

MOESM7 of Bronze Age meat industry: ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses of pig bones from the prehistoric salt mines of Hallstatt (Austria)

Additional file 7. Phylogenetic Reconstruction II—Maximum Likelihood fits of 24 different nucleotide substitution models. Summarizing table for the models with the lowest BIC scores (Bayesian Information Criterion) that are considered to describe the substitution pattern the best

MOESM2 of Bronze Age meat industry: ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses of pig bones from the prehistoric salt mines of Hallstatt (Austria)

Additional file 2. Map of the porcine mitochondrial DNA. Localisation of the 721 bp long control region (CR) fragment in the reference mitochondrial genome

MOESM1 of Bronze Age meat industry: ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses of pig bones from the prehistoric salt mines of Hallstatt (Austria)

Additional file 1. Ancient DNA extraction and Mitochondrial control region PCR. Detailed protocols for Ancient DNA extraction and PCR of mitochondrial control region

MOESM3 of Bronze Age meat industry: ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses of pig bones from the prehistoric salt mines of Hallstatt (Austria)

Additional file 3. PCR strategy for the 721-bp-long section of the mitochondrial Control Region (CR). The CR sequences were inferred using three PCR primer pairs that allow amplification of overlapping amplicons, ranging from 343 bp to 401 bp in length