into Austria (originally pioneered in switzerland) in 1864 and continued the excavations at Hallstatt. His student Josef Szombathy was also an active excavator, and Matthäus Much was an important contemporary—it was he who discovered and first excavated a great number of prehistoric sites. Although Much’s interpretations can no longer be maintained, his collection still forms the core of the study collection of the Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte (Institute of Pre- and Proto-history) of the University of Vienna (founded in 1917 and renamed many times). Szombathy was followed as director of the Prähistorischen Abteilung (Department of Prehistory) by Josef Bayer, who conducted numerous important excavations in lower Austria and was in many ways the opposite of Oswald Menghin.

At about the same time, the Bundesdenkmalamt (Federal Monuments Authority) began regular rescue excavations at archaeological sites threatened by destruction. The work of Julius Caspart, who had already begun photogrammetric documentation in the 1930s, is a good example of the excavation techniques of this era, and building on his experiences in Switzerland, Fritz Felgenhauer became particularly active in rescue excavation after World War II. Most of the leading prehistorians of today gained practical excavation experience via the Urgeschichtlichen Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Prehistoric Working Group), which was founded in 1950 as a part of the Anthropological Society and today is known as the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte (Austrian Society of Pre- and Proto-history). In 1964, F. Felgenhauer became extraordinary professor at the University of Vienna and ordinary professor in 1973. He was succeeded in 1992 by Andreas Lippert.

In addition to the University of Vienna, the University of Innsbruck has also taught pre- and proto-history since 1940, and Gero von Merhart was employed there as a lecturer as early as 1923–1927. After Kurt Willvonseder held the extraordinary professorship there for several months, Leonhard Franz was appointed to an ordinary professorship in 1942, and a separate institute was established. Franz was followed by Karl Kromer in 1967 and then by Konrad Spindler. In addition, an extraordinary professorship, to which Osmund Menghin was appointed, came into being in 1970. During this period, two prehistorians in regional museums received their habilitations, or doctorates, Walter Modrijan in Graz (1966), who became honorary professor of pre- and proto-history at the University of Salzburg in 1971, and Elmar Vonbank in Innsbruck (1967). In 1976, Ämilian Kloiber was appointed to a professorship in burial archaeology at the University of Graz.

During the 1950s, Paleolithic research in Austria reached a high point under F. Felgenhauer. In the 1960s, international standards of archaeological research, marked by interdisciplinary inquiry involving diverse earth and biological sciences, could not be achieved, and it was not until the 1980s that new research began—for example, that by Gernot Rabeder (continued by George Kyrle and his followers’ tradition of cave research in Austria) and Christine Neugebauer-Maresch. The Neolithic period has been increasingly investigated by Elisabeth Ruttkays, who has built on the results achieved by Pittioni. Ruttkays has been followed by Eva Lenneis and Neugebauer-Maresch. Interdisciplinary projects of the sort found elsewhere in the world, for example, research on the domestication and exploitation of plants and animals, have only been conducted on a very modest scale. Thanks to the intensive use of aerial photography, numerous Neolithic ditchworks (Kreisgrabenanlagen) have been discovered, and since the 1980s, these have been investigated systematically by Gerhard Trnka.

Bronze Age finds from the Salzkammergut damp-ground settlements/waterlogged sites (Feuchtbodensiedlungen), originally published by Much and Willvonseder have now been restudied in the context of smaller projects led by Ruttkays to compare them with material from northern Italy and southern Germany. Underwater archaeological research is being carried out by Hans Offenberger. The early and middle Bronze Ages have been investigated by Horst Adler, who carried out the first analysis of associated types in a cemetery at Linz, as well as Zoja Benkovsky and Johannes-Wolfgang Neugebauer.