The Hallstatt-period settlement on the Kalenderberg near Mödling

One of the most important Hallstatt-period hilltop settlements in Lower Austria was situated on the plateau of the Kalenderberg. The hill is located in the districts of the town of Mödling and the small market town of Maria Enzersdorf.

The plateau of the Kalenderberg hill has an area of about 600 x 500 m and a steep drop-off all round, which is vertical in places. It can only be accessed from the north, where a rift cuts through the side of the hill. This location is ideal for a hilltop settlement.

The ‘Kalenderberg culture’
After the first finds were made in 1892, a number of excavations were carried out on the plateau of the hill from 1908 to 1911. These uncovered fragments of mysterious ‘moon idols’, also referred to as firedogs, as well as pottery with carved decorations such as bands, garlands and cable patterns, which led the Viennese archaeologist Oswald Menghin to speak of a ‘Kalenderberg culture’. This is still considered to be a regional form of the eastern Hallstatt culture of the early Iron Age (750 to 450 BC).

The Natural History Museum Vienna carried out further excavations in 1970/71 and 1976/77, in particular along the rampart. It appears to have been made from heaped-up gravel and stone, and possibly had a wooden supporting structure. On the south side of the complex, the rampart had a kind of stone packing in places, possibly the remains of a drystone wall. The front slope towards the north drops away without a structure.

A regional centre
The rampart on the Kalenderberg seems to be the only one on the edge of the Vienna Basin to have been built during the Hallstatt culture. Hallstatt-period settlements usually stood within older ramparts that dated back to the Urnfield culture of the Late Bronze Age (1200 to 750 BC).

There can be no doubt that the settlement on the Kalenderberg was an important place. The rulers of settlements of this kind, which can be regarded as ‘early urban’ settlements, were usually buried under large burial mounds. If there were any ever burial mounds of this kind in the area surrounding the Kalenderberg, they are still waiting to be discovered, however.

Tip: numerous Hallstatt-period finds from the Kalenderberg can be seen in the Museum Mödling.