Hallstatt during the Roman age
Although the Romans established a large settlement near the lake, in what is today the Lahn district, there is no evidence of Roman mining on the spot. This is why scholars assume that both the Late Iron Age settlement on the Dammwiese and the Late Iron Age Western group field still existed in the Roman period and that the Romans contented themselves with asserting control over the salt trade.General information on the Roman age
Roman age settlement in Hallstatt
Roman graves
Importance and function of the Roman age settlement
End of the Roman age settlement
General information on the Roman age
The Kingdom of Noricum comprised large parts of present-day Austria, and was annexed by the Roman Empire by treaty, without a fight. The Celtic elite was granted privileges and was at first allowed to govern the regional administration. It was not until the middle of the 1st century AD that the autonomous province of Noricum was founded under Emperor Claudius. Occupying troops were installed in forts along the Danube, and from then on this defensive line formed the northern border of the province. In the hinterland, that is to say also in Hallstatt, civilian life developed without noticeable military presence. Many former Celtic hilltop sites were abandoned, and cities and small settlements were established in the plain, following Roman patterns. Hallstatt too may have undergone this development.Roman age settlement in Hallstatt
While there is rich archaeological evidence of the salt mining of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, so important for Hallstatt, in the High Valley, finds dating from the Roman period were mainly discovered down near the lake. From the 19th century on, various excavations and archaeological supervision of construction sites produced Roman walls and graves, mainly in the Friedlfeld/Lahn area, but also in the Hallstatt market district. It was Friedrich Morton in particular who undertook several digs in this area between 1925 and 1967. The buildings discovered in the course of this investigation were solid stone buildings, and were provided with typical Roman conveniences such as floor heating and plastered walls painted with bright colours. Subterranean brick-built heating channels, reaching some 70 cm in width, heated the floors of the buildings – a technique very popular in upper-class residential building. Ceramic fragments dating from the late Celtic period were discovered under the Roman walls, suggesting that there might already have been a small settlement on the Hallstatt lakeside prior to the Roman occupation. The antique name of the settlement has not come down to us, and nor do we know when the Roman settlement developed – probably in the late 1st century AD. Finds show that its heyday was undoubtedly in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.Roman graves
The cremation graves investigated by Heinrich Zabehlicky in 1983 also date to that time. Seven cremation graves were recovered in the course of a rescue dig conducted 250 metres west of the residential buildings mentioned. Cremation was widespread in the 2nd century AD, and the cremated remains were buried in small stone chambers. One of the graves yielded ten ceramic vessels, a glass phial and a fibula. Most interestingly, about half of the vessels bore incised inscriptions naming both the deceased and those who made the procession. This is remarkable in two respects. On the one hand, the inscriptions suggest that the literacy rate of the local population was very high in the 2nd century AD, meaning that elements of the Roman culture, namely writing and reading, had been adopted in Hallstatt, a place far from the large Roman cities such as Salzburg (Iuvavum) and Wels (Ovilava). On the other hand, the names appearing in the inscriptions show that the old Celtic names had been very quickly replaced by Latin names.Importance and function of the Roman age settlement
The building remains as well as the graves and the high quality of some finds testify to the importance of the Roman settlement. The function of the Roman settlement has not yet been definitely established. Since there is no tangible evidence of Roman salt mining in Hallstatt, we cannot tell at this point whether the settlement was associated with it. Either salt working was abandoned at the end of the Iron Age, or archaeologists have simply not yet discovered the traces of Roman-period mining.End of the Roman age settlement
In the 4th century AD, economic crises and the beginning of the Migration Period increasingly threatened the Roman Empire, and this decline also showed in the Roman Hallstatt settlement. Although some of the Roman buildings mentioned already lay in ruins, burials went on in the layers of debris, in the form of inhumations rather than cremation burials. Among the grave offerings are grey clay pots, parts of bronze-jewelled girdles, bone hairpins and glass jars. A total of 27 graves in the debris of only two antique ruins in the Lahn show that the settlement had become smaller, but continued to exist. The transition from the Roman epoch to the Early Middle Ages in Hallstatt has not yet been elucidated. The Romans officially left the region on 488 AD, when the last military bases, the civilian administration, and the public officials were withdrawn. However, it is quite probable that the poorer segments of the population did not leave the region, apprehensive of foreign rule and bondage in other parts of the dying Roman Empire, in particular in Italy. In addition to a few archaeological finds, some traditional field names support this hypothesis. The names have late Latin roots and have come down to us from the ‘vestigial Romans’ (the Restromanen) of the 5th century, for instance those genuinely antique ‘Walchen’ names: Walchen, Seewalchen, Ehwalchen and possibly Einwalchen.(Igl, R.)
