!!!Eisenzeit

Iron Age (800/750-15 B.C.): Although iron objects had already 
sporadically appeared towards the end of the  Bronze Age, the 
beginning of the Iron Age in central Europe was marked by the full 
mastery of ironworking at around 800/750 B.C. The transition from the 
Bronze Age was gradual and continuous. In Austria, the Iron Age, which 
was the last period of  prehistory, ended with the occupation of the 
land south of the Danube by the Romans around 15 B.C. ( Roman era)The 
age is characterised by the increasingly frequent use of  iron in the 
manufacture of weapons, tools and everyday objects, which led to a 
number of profound changes: In contrast to copper and tin, the 
components of bronze, iron ores were easily extracted and needed 
neither specialised mining techniques nor extensive trading 
connections. Iron was thus simpler and cheaper to obtain; agricultural 
and craft production increased, the population grew, society became 
more sharply differentiated and new economic and political centres 
appeared. As the climate became damper and cooler, sheep and cattle 
farming gained importance. In the area of Austria, the exploitation of 
easily accessible iron-ore deposits and in particular salt mining in  
Hallstatt and at Duerrnberg near Hallein ( Bad Duerrnberg) led to 
considerable economic growth, evident from the magnificent 
archaeological finds of this period. In central Europe, the Iron Age 
is divided into an early stage, the  Hallstatt Culture (named after 
the rich finds of the Hallstatt burial field) and a later stage, the  
La Tène Culture, after the archaeological site at La 
Tène on Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland. Finds at Duerrnberg 
indicate a peaceful transition from the Hallstatt to the La 
Tène culture, a transition apparently marked by a change in 
culture rather than a change in population.

!Literature
L. de Pauli, Die Alpen in Fruehzeit und Mittelalter, 
%%sup 3/%1984.


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