Editing History of Austria (section)

== Prehistory ==

=== Paleolithic ===
[[File:Venus von Willendorf 02.jpg|thumb|200px|The [[Venus of Willendorf]], {{Circa}} 25,000 BC. [[Naturhistorisches Museum]], Vienna.]]
The Alps were inaccessible during the [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]], so human habitation dates no earlier than the [[Middle Paleolithic]] era, during the time of the [[Neanderthals]]. The oldest traces of human habitation in Austria, more than 250,000 years ago, were found in the Repolust Cave at Badl, near [[Peggau]] in the [[Graz-Umgebung]] district of [[Styria]]. These include stone tools, bone tools, and pottery fragments together with mammalian remains. Some 70,000-year-old evidence was found in the Gudenus Cave in northwestern Lower Austria.

[[Upper Paleolithic]] remains are more numerous in Lower Austria. The best known are in the [[Wachau]] region, including the sites of the two oldest pieces of art in Austria. These are figurative representations of women, the [[Venus of Galgenberg]] found near [[Stratzing]] and thought to be 32,000 years old, and the nearby [[Venus of Willendorf]] (26,000 years old) found at [[Willendorf in der Wachau|Willendorf]], near [[Krems an der Donau]]. In 2005 in the same area, a double infant burial site was discovered at Krems-Wachtberg, dating from [[Gravettian]] culture (27,000 years old), the oldest burial ground found in Austria to date.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=27 September 2005 |title=Ice age 'twins' found in ancient burial ground |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8063-ice-age-twins-found-in-ancient-burial-ground.html |journal=New Scientist}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Einwögerer |first1=Thomas |last2=Friesinger |first2=Herwig |last3=Händel |first3=Marc |last4=Neugebauer-Maresch |first4=Christine |last5=Simon |first5=Ulrich |last6=Teschler-Nicola |first6=Maria |date=2006 |title=Upper Palaeolithic infant burials |journal=Nature |volume=444 |issue=7117 |bibcode=2006Natur.444..285E |doi=10.1038/444285a |pmid=17108949 |s2cid=1701244 |doi-access=free |pages=285}}</ref>

=== Mesolithic ===
[[Mesolithic]] remains include [[rock shelters]] (abris) from [[Lake Constance]] and the [[Alpine Rhine Valley]], a funeral site at [[Elsbethen]] and a few other sites with microlithic artifacts which demonstrate the transition from living as hunter-gatherers and sedentary farmers and ranchers.

=== Neolithic ===
During the [[Neolithic]] era, most of those areas of Austria that were amenable to [[agriculture]] and were sources of raw materials were settled. Remains include those of the [[Linear pottery culture]], one of the first agrarian cultures in Europe. The first recorded rural settlement from this time was at [[Brunn am Gebirge]] in [[Mödling]]. Austria's first industrial monument, the [[chert]] mine at ''Mauer-Antonshöhe'' in the [[Mauer, Vienna|Mauer]] neighborhood of the southern Vienna district of [[Liesing]] dates from this period. In the [[Lengyel culture]], which followed Linear Pottery in Lower Austria, [[circular ditches]] were constructed.

=== Copper Age ===
Traces of the [[Copper Age]] in Austria were identified in the [[Carpathian Basin]] [[hoard]] at [[Stollhof Hoard|Stollhof]], [[Hohe Wand]], Lower Austria. Hilltop settlements from this era are common in eastern Austria. During this time the inhabitants sought out and developed raw materials in the central Alpine areas. The most important find is considered to be the Iceman [[Ötzi]], a well-preserved mummy of a man frozen in the Alps dating from approximately 3,300 BC, although these finds are now in Italy on the Austrian border. Another culture is the [[Mondsee group]], represented by [[stilt houses]] in the Alpine lakes.

=== Bronze Age ===
By the beginning of the [[Bronze Age]] [[fortifications]] were appearing, protecting the commercial centers of the mining, processing, and trading of [[copper]] and [[tin]]. This flourishing culture is reflected in the grave artifacts, such as at Pitten, in [[Nußdorf ob der Traisen]], Lower Austria. In the late Bronze Age appeared the [[Urnfield culture]], in which [[salt mining]] commenced in the northern salt mines at [[Hallstatt]].