Hallstatt Culture

Hallstatt Culture, culture characteristic of an early stage of the Iron Age in central and western Europe and the Balkans. It received its name from the Austrian village of Hallstatt, in what is now Oberösterreich (Upper Austria) Province, about 225 km (140 mi) southwest of Vienna. In Hallstatt a necropolis containing more than 2,000 graves and a great number of artifacts was excavated between 1846 and 1899; it was designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1997. The period covered by the Hallstatt epoch extends from the 8th century bc to the 5th century bc.

Hallstatt was an early salt-mining community with mine shafts reaching to about 400 m (about 1,300 ft) by the end of the Bronze Age. The Hallstatt Culture was characterized by elaborate funeral rites, involving, at different stages of the epoch, both cremation and burial. In general, the age was marked by an increasing use of iron and an increasing skill in ironwork, although occasionally older, Bronze Age materials and techniques reappeared. Hallstatt art has endured, primarily the ironwork and bronze work and pottery, used as grave furniture and generally decorated in rigid symmetrical, repetitive, geometric patterns.