The aim of this study is to determine the origin of raw materials for the vessels. It should be possible to obtain information
about the exchange of goods and the local ceramic production.
This could reveal commercial relations that are rarely directly detectable for Hallstatts main product, the salt. Unusual
materials or very characteristic design allow to narrow down quite precisely the region of origin many of the magnificent
grave goods found in the Hallstatt burial site. With a variety of ceramic products, however, this does not succeed so easily.
Using the petrographic analysis, in which thin slices from pottery shards are analysed under the microscope, the researchers
and scientists therefore now examine a small test-range of ceramic offerings from the cemetery. The raw materials that have
been identified so far in this selection, came neither from Hallstatt nor from the valley. Also an origin from the Limestone
Alps has already been ruled out. But where the raw materials originates, that is still unknown.
(Mandl, G. W. - Loew, C.)
