Austria

Franzhausen

Franzhausen is so far the largest Iron Age necropolis in the Traisen Valley and was excavated since 1981 during gravel mining. The La Tène cemetery is oriented north to south, with a dimension of 330x120m, and located between the two Bronze Age necropolis Franzhausen I and II. Altogether 273 graves of the Hallstatt and 170 of the La Tène culture have been recovered so far. Particularly noteworthy are the areas with circular grave enclosures in the north and square grave enclosures in the south. At the border of these different areas, buildings with double trenches in the respective shape (cult areas?) could be found and gaps in the plan may hint to paths or streets. Although the burials (60% inhumation, 40% cremation; 11 double burials and one multiple burial) were severely disturbed and robbed, exceptional finds (such as a fibula with a bird shaped foot-decoration from grave 444 or a mask fibula with griffin head and palmette) indicate the former wealth and the quality of the equipment for the people of this community. (Neugebauer 1992; Neugebauer/Gattringer 1984; Neugebauer et al. 1991).

Walpersdorf

With the introduction of aerial archaeology in the 1980s, an area of about 5 hectares with clear evidence of presence of prehistoric objects, especially graves, could be detected in Walpersdorf and Inzersdorf. Before starting the construction of the highway, a section of around 15.000 m2 was systematically excavated in 1997 with focus on a huge burial place of late Hallstatt and beginning La Tène culture (500-300 BC) – regarding to the results of aerial photography - probably one of the largest cemeteries of that time in Austria at all. In 1998, the excavations were continued and overall, 26 Early La Tène inhumations and cremations consisting of seven urn graves and one scattered cremation burial have been found. Some were surrounded by circular and square burial gardens. In particular, these early La Tène period burials were - in spite of various secondary interventions - very rich equipped with bronze and iron objects as well as ceramics. They must have been part of a huge Iron Age necropolis with north-south extension, whose homesteads have been extended along the edge of the western low terrace of the Traisen (Neugebauer 1997, Neugebauer 1999, Ramsl 1998).

Gemeinlebarn

At least three grave groups and one settlement of the Latène period had been found at this site so far. In November 1993, in the area of Maisgasse, four early La Tène inhumation burials were uncovered during rescue excavations. Noteworthy is a richly equipped woman's burial (no. 132) with two bird shaped fibulae and a fibula with mask decoration, a necklace with a metal hollow bead, three profiled bracelets, as well as a finger ring, iron belt hooks and five ceramic vessels, including a bowl of the type Stupava. In 1998, an urn burial with a bird's head fibula was discovered. At the site of Schneiderweg, in 1992 and 1993, an Early La Tène grave group with circular and rectangular grave enclosures had been found. Grave 66 contained inter alia an iron scabbard (linen imprints), remains of coupling rings, circular bronze shoe buttons with rich ornaments and several ceramic vessels like an early flask bottle. Grave 82 contained a bronze fibula type Speikern (with mask representation at the bow), remains of a scabbard, a spearpoint, as well as a hollow ring. Considerable finds of ceramics are a flask bottle with compass decoration, another flask bottle with omphalos and a stamped vessel (Neugebauer 1992, 1994, 1999). Next to it, a grave dating in the very early initial phase of La Tène A (Preinfalk 2014) was excavated in 2010 and was equipped with an exceptional decorated sword.