Drachenhöhle#

Drachenhoehle (Dragon´s Cave), cave near Mixnitz (Styria), south-east of Bruck an der Mur, alt. 950 m. Due to a shortage of fertilizers the exploitation of the sediments (up to 12 m thick) was taken up after World War I. The high-quality phosphate earth (more than 3 million kg) was the main source of the "oesterreichische Hoehlenduenger-Aktion", a campaign to obtain fertilizer from caves. In the course of these activities numerous bones of cave bears, at first thought to be those of dragons, remains of open hearths and Palaeolithic stone tools from the interglacial interval between 65,000 and 31,000 B.C. were found. These finds are among the earliest traces of human life in Austria.