7000 years, multilayered research in and around Hallstatt

Keywords: Hallstatt, Visualization, Cultural Heritage

Abstract:
7000 years of salt production formed a unique industrial and cultural landscape stretching
far beyond the narrow limits of the Hallstatt High Valley.
An extraordinary amount of archives holding information about the history of this landscape
as well as prehistoric and historic lifeways exists. The spectrum of data sources is broad and
highly varied, ranging from large inventories of prehistoric organic remains preserved in the
salt mines, to hundreds of archaeological sites in the wider region, to environmental
archives such as bogs and mires, to written records and cartographic materials.
But the wealth of information to be gained from these archives stands in marked contrast to
the visibility of these sources located e.g. 100 m below the surface in the salt mines or on
the floor of 126 m deep lake Hallstatt.
Presenting this varied and complex history to the wider public is one of the most important
challenges of our research endeavours in the years to come. Focal points of our public
outreach strategy include i) building an understanding for the workings of networked
multiproxy research, and ii) mapping out the complex and multilayered data network
fuelling the research into this unique region.
Part of this research is currently carried out within the Interreg Central Europe Project
VirtualArch which focuses on exploring new solutions for visualizing „hidden“ cultural heritage.

7000 years, multilayered research in and around Hallstatt

2018