!!!Eiszeit

Ice Age (geol.: Pleistocene): subdivision of the Quaternary, most 
recent geological period, probably extending 2.4 million years 
back from the present. In the Alps evidence of the Ice Age can be 
traced back 700,000 years; in Austria, the period is traditionally 
broken down into four sections: Guenz, Mindel, Riss and Wuerm, when 
the Alps were for the most part covered by extreme glaciation and a 
network of glacial flows in the aftermath of an extended cold period. 
The Ice Age was interrupted by a series of prolonged warm periods 
(interglacial periods,  Hoetting Breccia ). It ended some 10,000 years 
ago after a number of phases of receding and advancing glaciation, 
which have been named after valleys in the Tirol (e.g.  Gschnitz 
Valley). Since then, the climate has been similar to what it is at 
present (postglacial period, geological present, in geological terms: 
Holocene).

\\
It was during the Ice Age that the Alpine landscape of Austria was 
given its present form. Typical glacial-period features are rounded 
heights, rock basins, trough valleys (with "stairways", cascades and 
gorges), lakes and moraine landscapes. The transition to the current 
status of glaciation of the Alps occurred, again in several stages, 
during the postglacial period. The first human settlements in the 
Austrian Alpine area date from the most recent interglacial period 
(Lower/Middle Paleolithic Age, approx. 180,000-20,000 B.C.). By the 
beginning of the latest Ice Age (onset about 50.000 years ago) human 
life on Austrian soil was already characterised by what has been 
called the blade and handaxe culture. Postglacial finds already 
suggest a highly developed civilisation (excavations in the Wachau 
loess areas -  Venus von Willendorf - and on the edge of the 
Waldviertel).

!Literature
A. Penck and E. Brueckner, Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter, 
3 vols., 1901-1908; D. van Husen, Die Ostalpen in den Eiszeiten, 
1987.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Eiszeit|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]