For the late Bronze Age (Urnfeld period), the cemetery studies of Clemens Eibner and the long-term settlement excavations of F. Felgenhauer and Herwig Friesinger are particularly noteworthy.

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Four-thousand-year-old body discovered in an Austrian glacier

(Gamma)

Research into the early Iron Age (Hallstatt period) has concentrated on the eponymous site of Hallstatt. New excavations begun there by Karl Kromer in the 1960s were taken over by Fritz Eckart Barth and continue to this day. The excavations of the prehistoric salt mines of Hallstatt are not only unique in Austria but constitute an important research focus of mining archaeology in a broader European context. Two research projects are of particular importance for the late Iron Age (la tène period): the excavations of Dürrnberg bei Hallein in Salzburg and Magdalensberg in Kärnten. Die Kelten in Österreich [The Celts in Austria] by Gerhard Dobesch, professor at the Institute of Ancient History in Vienna, brings together all of the ancient sources for this period and forms the foundation for the historical interpretation of the relevant archaeological remains.

In general, it can be said that settlement archaeology has been most prominent since the 1960s, whether studies of specific settlement areas (e.g., Stillfried), valley systems (e.g., the Kamp, Inn, and Danube Valleys), or larger regions (e.g., the Bischofshofen area). Thematic investigations, such as the mining study of the Grauwacken area and the establishment by Franz Hampl of an open-air museum in Asparn on the Zaya River in the 1960s (opened in 1970), are also important. Similarly, the development of modern archaeological techniques, particularly aerial photography, has been significant. The large-scale investigations of the numerous prehistoric cemeteries and settlements of the Traisental (lower Austria) have opened up entirely new perspectives. For the first time, large cemeteries have been excavated and salvaged, and beginning in 1981, Neugebauer has been in charge of some ongoing, year-round salvage excavations.

Proto-history

In 1940, Eduard Beninger became the first Austrian to write a doctoral thesis dealing with