Celtic Sabbatical: Celtic Archeology -1

This week I began visiting Celtic Archeology sites. There are so many words I could say. I have been taking in tons of information. I'll try to keep the words to a minimum and promise some good adult forums to come.

Halstatt, Austria

I left at about 5 am and 8 hours later rolled into Hallstatt. I went directly to the museum, via lots of stairs, of course. The museum's main focus is the salt mine and the miners. The salt mine has been actively mined for at least 7000 years. About 200 BC there was a collapsed of a mountainside that resulted in people and things being trapped inside the mine. The salt environment did a great job of preserving lots of organic matter. As a result, this location has given great insight into the Celtic culture that was present from about 1200 years before Christ until about 500 years after.

The most interesting to me was the clothes and tools of the miners. They had distinctive conical birch bark hats lined with fur and leather shoes. The fellow who was found preserved in the salt from about 200 BC had a pick, a carrying bag made of goatskin and maple wood and leather shoes.

Celtic Salt Miner

They have excavated hundreds of grave sites and many buildings. I find it surprising that the structure below looks like it could be at home in Colorado in the mountains. Log cabins for a long, long time ago. It is made of original materials that have been reassembled indoors.

I there are tons of artifacts. One thing that makes Hallstatt famous is how early excavations began there - 1846. The reason early iron age Celts are known as Hallstatt people is this is where the first significant archeological evidence of their existence was found.

In town I walked around a bit and found a 1st communion class in a church. So Cute!