Iron Age salt-mining complex found beneath Hallstatt in Austria

Core drilling begun in 2022 has revealed a previously unknown Iron Age salt mine beneath Hallstatt, Austria. Rather than one vast cavity, the workings consist of multiple chambers arranged in parallel and at different levels, following the mountain’s salt deposits. Researchers have traced the complex for at least 300 metres; some chambers are about 25 metres wide and 20 metres high. The discovery adds detail to a mining history stretching back roughly 7,300 years. By around 1200 BCE, production had reached an estimated 1.5 tonnes of salt a day, and miners returned to work after landslides buried earlier excavations. Iron Age mining is also associated with the “Man in the Salt,” whose preserved body was found in 1734 and is thought to have been caught in a landslide.

Deposits on the chamber floors, in places up to nine metres thick, preserve evidence of work and daily life underground, including burnt pine splinters, damaged tools, clothing, food remains and human waste. Salt helped preserve textiles, wooden bowls and biological traces, including DNA from miners and their diet. Differences in tool handles indicate changes in mining practices, while similarities with discoveries at Dürrnberg connect Hallstatt to another major salt-mining centre. The findings offer an unusually detailed view of Iron Age technology and working conditions. Researchers are also restoring older mine tunnels, which will reopen areas for investigation using modern methods.