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Prehistoric Times (50,000 BC to 400 BC)
The area covering present-day Austria had been settled by man since paleolithic times (50,000 BC to 8,000 BC). Evidence of human occupation during that era was discovered, for example, in caves in Gudenus Hohle near Weissenkirchen and on Mt. Schlenken near Hallein (Hietsch 8). These nomadic tribes of the Early Stone Age lived mainly by hunting. During neolithic times (around 5,000 BC) there was general occupation in the higher grounds of the region. Agriculture and stock raising now supplemented hunting, fishing, and food gathering. Moreover, the region became an important economic source through the development of salt-mining. Salt mines in Durrnberg, Hallstatt, and Hall have in fact been in operation from the neolithic era (Wangermann 13).
About 10,000 years ago, the Alpine glaciers advanced northward over the Bavarian plateau toward the site of present-day Munich. These solid rivers of ice - some as thick as 6,000 feet in depth - carved out the relief of the Alpine valleys as we know them today. The lakes of the Bavarian plateau, including those of the Salzkammergut region, were also created by the receding glaciers during this time.
During the New Stone Age, the indigenous hunters encountered farming peoples from the more advanced southwest Asia, who were migrating up the Danube Valley into central Germany about 4,500 BC. These populations mixed and settled in villages to raise crops and breed livestock. The people of this Danubian culture lived with their animals in large, gabled wooden houses, made pottery, and traded with Mediterranean peoples for fine stone and flint axes and shells. As their hand-hoed fields wore out, they moved on, often returning years later. The Late Stone Age also saw the beginning of pile-dwellings on several lakes. These waterfront structures are believed to be early trading-posts.
The Bronze Age began in central Germany, Bohemia, and Austria in about 2,500 BC, with the working of copper and tin deposits by prospectors from the eastern Mediterranean. By 2,300 BC, Battle-ax-wielding Indo-Europeans began to migrate into Europe from south-western Asia. These were the ancestors of the Germanic peoples that settled in northern and central Germany, the Baltic and Slavic peoples in the east, and the Celts in the south and west.
During the period between 2,000-400 BC, central & southern Germanic tribes mixed with the Bell-Beaker People - skilled metalworkers who came from Spain and Portugal. The Bell-Beaker People, probably Indo-Europeans, developed a thriving Bronze Age culture in Germany and traded amber from the Baltic coast for bronze, pottery, and beads from the Mediterranean.
Ancient Times & The Illyrians (1,300 BC to 9 BC)
By the Late Stone Age (3,000 BC to 1,800 BC), people began to settle in lake-dwellings in the Salzkammergut region. The beginnings of trade over the Alpine passes also occured during this period. The Germanic Migrations began around 2,200 BC.
Around 1,300 BC, an Illyrian tribe, the Norici, settled along the eastern foothills of the Alps. Illyrians, people of Indo-European stock who are considered ancestors of modern Albanians, settled on the northern and eastern coasts of the Adriatic Sea. Included among them were the Dalmatians and the Pannonians. Eventually, the ancient region of Illyria would include the western part of the Balkan Peninsula from the Danube River to Epirus.
The Greeks established cities on the coast in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, and in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, Macedonian kings conquered parts of Illyria. The last Illyrian kingdom was organized in the 3rd century BC with the capital at Scodra (now Shkoder, Albania). Their piracy put the Illyrians in conflict with Rome, which waged two victorious wars against them in 228 and 219 BC.
After Dalmatia seceded from the Illyrian kingdom, the Romans conquered Scodra and established, in 168 BC, a colony there that they named Illyricum. Gradually, Dalmatia was conquered (78-77 BC) and finally added to Illyricum; then, by 35-34 BC the southern areas of the former kingdom of Illyria were added, and, in 9 BC, Pannonia in the north. After an Illyrian revolt in AD 6-9, Illyricum was divided into the provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia. In the 4th century AD, the name Illyricum was given to a large Roman prefecture that included the former colony as well as a large area north of the Adriatic Sea and much of the Balkan Peninsula. Under Rome the region prospered, and many roads and towns were built; Diocletian and several other emperors came from Dalmatia. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the region of ancient Illyria became part of the Byzantine Empire.
La Tene Celts (450 BC to 58 BC) During the Late Iron Age period in central and northwestern Europe, in the centuries leading up to the Christian Era, La Tene Celts came to dominate the area of present-day Austria through control of the salt trade, as well as the copper and iron trades that followed. The Celts established the first stable state structure in the area as well, which the Romans called Noricum. La Tene culture (the name meaning The Shallows), was named after a Celtic site at the eastern end of the Lake of Neuchatel in Switzerland, where a discovery was made in the mid-19th century of many iron weapons, implements, and jewelry. The period covered by La Tene follows that of the Hallstatt culture and extends roughly from about 450 BC to the subjugation of Gaul by Julius Caesar in 58 BC.
La Tene culture was initially influenced by the Etruscan and Greek civilizations but developed regional variations through the centuries as the Celts spread through most of central and western Europe, over to Britain, north to Jutland, and elsewhere. Some common features may be noted throughout, however, such as curvilinear ornamentation (S shapes and spirals) and animal art forms. Burials were by inhumation - i.e, by covering with cairns of stones. The period was that of beginning urbanization, new industries, and new artistic traditions. The Germanic tribes who came in contact with the Celts absorbed much of the Celtic Culture. Eventually, these Germanic peoples would displace the Celts of Central Europe.
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