Johann Georg Ramsauer (1795 to 1874)
Johann Georg Ramsauer discovered the Hallstatt burial site and left behind what is probably the most comprehensive documentation in early European archaeology. Born in 1795 in Hallstatt as the son of a carpenter, Ramsauer was placed in charge of the Hallstatt site at just 36 years of age. This pioneer of prehistoric research had a turbulent private life with three wives and 22 children.Childhood and education
Career
Private life
The discovery of the burial site
The excavation of the burial site
Awards and honors
Childhood and education
Johann Georg Ramsauer was born on 7 March 1795, son of the carpenter Jakob Ramsauer and his wife Franziska, née Steiner. From his father’s first marriage, he had four much older half sisters and brothers. Ramsauer attended the Catholic Hallstatt school and at the age of 13, he became one of the ‘Manipulationszöglinge‘ – pupils specifically trained to become mine administrators. The training consisted in extensive practical and theoretical courses on drawing, geometry, mining, accounting, and applied work in the mine.Career
In his further career in the saltworks, he became accountant in 1819, juror in 1820, supervisor in 1821 and chief supervisor in 1825. In 1831, he followed Karl Pollhammer as a Bergmeister (chief of mines), and achieved the highest possible position in the salt mine when he became Operations Manager at the age of 36. He is characterized by professional expertise, open mindedness and a vivid interest in various scientific fields. As a chief supervisor, Ramsauer had taken up residence in the High Valley, and when he became Bergmeister, he moved into the apartment in the Rudolph Tower, where he lived until he retired in 1863.Private life
Johann Georg Ramsauer was married three times and had 22 children. His first wife, Anna Maria Riezinger, bore him eight children, and died giving birth to her youngest daughter. From his second marriage with Notburga, a half sister of his first wife, he had 14 children. Notburga died two days after having given birth to her last child. The third marriage with Franziska Josefa Serafina Ludwig, was childless; Ramsauer was at the time already 64. After 55 years of service in the saltworks, he left Hallstatt in 1863 and moved with his wife to Linz, where one of his daughters lived. After a short illness, he died on 1 January 1874 and was buried in Linz.The discovery of the burial site
In November 1846, while opening a gravel pit, miners hit upon ‘antiques’, which induced Ramsauer to examine the immediate surrounding. He unearthed 7 skeletons. He was aware that old graves might be discovered in the area; indeed, similar human remains had been unearthed under his predecessor Karl Pollhammer 22 years previously. In 1847, he discovered 24 graves.The excavation of the burial site
The first visit by a representative of the Museum Francisco-Carolinum in Linz confirmed Ramsauer’s approach. Ramsauer was also instructed to keep excavation records documenting the finds and describing the graves, the positions of the burials and the grave goods. Between 1846 and 1863, Ramsauer and his collaborators unearthed a total of 980 graves. When he retired in 1863, he regarded the cemetery as exhausted, because in the preceding two years, he had discovered fewer graves than previously. A wealth of grave finds in the coming decades proved him wrong.Awards and honors
In the 1850s, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Elisabeth regularly stayed in their summer residence in Bad Ischl. During one of their visits, the imperial couple and members of the court visited Ramsauer’s discoveries on the Hallstatt salt mine. In 1855 and 1856, their Imperial Highnesses visited the excavation site, and Ramsauer showed the astonished visitors selected graves with elaborate grave goods. In appreciation of his achievements and presentations, Ramsauer was awarded in 1855 the Gold Cross of Merit with Crown, as well as the Great Silver Medal for Science and Art of the Grand-Duchy of Mecklenburg.(Kern, A. – Loew, C.)
