Rock art sites in Austria

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The rock art sites in Austria (and South Tyrol) can be found in the Eastern Alps as graphics carved or knocked into the stone in some federal states of Austria and in South Tyrol . They are image locations of geometric, anthropo- and zoomorphic symbols that have been sought out for centuries. The difficult accessibility and location of the images is related to cult ideas and practices. The rock carvings of Switzerland and Northern Italy were mainly engraved in the Bronze and Iron Ages . The rock carvings in Austria and South Tyrol are younger and predominantly geometric. They represent the continuation of archaic meanings and symbols up to the Middle Ages, sometimes up to more recently. Only relative clues are available for dating: engraving technique, weathering, placement and overlaying of several drawings. So it turned out that the rock art was created over several periods.

Rock paintings from Höll (Upper Austria)

The most expressive representations because of their scenic and figurative representations are older and come from Mont Bégo and Valcamonica .

listing

Lower Austria

  1. Rotmoos in the Ybbstal Alps. On the southwestern flank of the valley end of the Plotschtal, southeast of the Schwarzkogel, scratches (L 30 m, H 10 m) on an approximately 1200 m high rock face. About 100 m below on a level boulder further signs: cross, ladder, pentagram, wheel, sexual symbols, anthropomorphic and geometric motifs.
  2. Seisen in the Ybbstal, in the 1000 m high Hochreithalpe. Ascent to a 4 m deep crevice above the abyss. On the left side of the Abri signs: tree, letters and crosses with pans.
  3. Freyndllucke in the Hochreithalpe cave: circle, cross and animal.
  4. Aibl-Hochkar below Hochkarstrasse (at about 900 m) Signs on the vertical surface of a triangular wall section: letters, circles, crosses, diamonds and sexual symbols.

Upper Austria

  1. Reinfalzalm (1030 m high) near Bad Ischl . At the mouth of a salt mine near the Alm: bars, initials wheel cross, sexual symbols, geometric signs.
  2. Kienbachklamm (750 m high) near Bad Ischl (Jägerhöhle): bars, ladder, mill board , cross with end points, pentagram, wheel cross, sexual symbol and geometric and figurative motifs: house, huts, animal heads. As well as three rough, heavily fragmented dedicatory inscriptions to Mars Latobius.
  3. Höll (1300 m high) in the Dead Mountains. From the Linzerhaus to the east, along the Teichlbach to its source in a sinkhole. A few meters behind the small cave, Rolling Lueg , in which there are signs. A rock fall area to the northeast. Signs on both sides of the path: cross with end points, mill board, pentagram, sexual symbol, geometric, anthropo- and zoomorphic motifs.
  4. Spital am Pyhrn. The rock painting museum at the starting point for alpine rock painting research offers extensive documentation of Austrian rock drawings. Numerous engravings in pictures and short text are recorded and casts are exhibited. The design is the work of E. Burgstaller, the father of Austrian rock art research. Graphical overviews, distribution maps and comparison tables show the content, if not necessarily the temporal connections, of Austrian rock art complexes with well-known primeval rock art in France, Northern Italy and Scandinavia.

Salzburg (Salzachtal)

  1. Hexenwand von Dürrnberg (750 m high) near Hallein ; immediately above the burial ground. Remnants of anthropomorphic figures, wheel cross, etc.
  2. Ofenauer Berg (Wasserpalfen), north of the Salzachöfen in Tennengau (680 m high). The quarry has destroyed large parts of the scratches on the high, smooth rock walls of small ravines: Drudenfuß, crosses, ladder, mill board.
  3. Bluntautal alluvial forest (500 m high) in the Hagen Mountains.
    • Bachfels: fragmented animal representations, wheel, grooves and bowls, sexual symbols.
    • Phallic stone: cross, mill board, pentagram, phallus, wheel.
    • Seven triangle: geometric motifs, pentagram, sexual symbols.
    • Hollow edge: geometric signs, chamois, deer, sexual symbols, etc.
    • Top band: eight-pointed star.
  4. Bluntautal-Bachfeld (500 m high) in the Hagen Mountains: cross, ladder, geometric signs, animal motifs.
  5. Bluntautal source walls (520 m high). Reference point II with source outlet (source sanctuary?) At the foot of the rock walls: geometric signs, deer, cross, mill board, pentagram, rider with pleated skirts, sexual symbols, ibex hunt with dog.
  6. Pass Lueg (580 m high): Cross, human and animal motifs, sexual symbol.
  7. Wilhelmskapelle (1060 m high). Forest path towards St. Wilhelm at the foot of the Fagerwand. Incised drawings on blocks around the chapel. Originally there was a pond here, for which the pollen analysis has dated it to the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. Chr. Results. The older rock carvings were probably arranged around the surface of the water: triangles, grids, dates, crosses, ladders and lines with pans at the ends, a tangle of lines.
  8. Room corner walls (approx. 1000 m high) in the room corner forest. West of the Wilhelmskapelle, on a rock ramp made of reef lime, a block leaning against an overhanging rock wall shows crosses, mill boards, nets, pentagrams, etc.

Salzburg (Saalachtal)

  1. Helmut-Adler-Felsen- (1350 m high). Loferer and Leoganger Steinberge. On the forest road to the Kallbrunn Alm near Weißbach. In the middle of rockslides, boulders with engravings: grids, triangles and squares, nets, intertwined lines.
  2. Schmiederer Felsen (900 m high). Above the Lamprechtsofen cave in the landslide area: concentric triangles with rays, sexual symbols such as triangles and phallus .
  3. Lenzen Gorge (609 m high). South of Lofer, parallel to today's river bed. Today waterless narrow, deeply dilapidated, gloomy gorge, difficult to access: magicians with large, long-fingered hands, line and cross motifs with pans at the ends, rhombuses and other geometric symbols; also representations of the modern age.
  4. Kniepass (560 m high). Geometric motifs, wheel.

Styria

  1. Notgasse and Riesgasse (1550 m), Kernet Mountains in the eastern Dachstein massif.
  2. Abri west of the Brandalm (1420 m high) in the Kernet Mountains: cross, ladder.
  3. Rotlackensteig I (1560 m high), Kernet Mountains: ladder with end points.
  4. Rotlackensteig II (1625 m high), Kernet Mountains: ladder, geometric signs.
  5. Neubergeiskeller (1650 m high), east of Hirzberg: lattice, cross, ladder, geometric signs.
  6. Mausbendlloch (1560 m), north of the Kammspitze near Gröbming in the Ennstal. Mouth of a former karst river: grid, cross with end points, ladder, sexual symbol, wheel cross, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs.
  7. Zsammtreibbodenhöhle (1590 m high), east of Hirzberg: cross, ladder, pentagram, wheel cross, small bowls.
  8. Schützenhöhle (1648 m high), east of Hirzberg: cross, tree of life, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs.
  9. Ausseer Lahnfriedalm (1398 m high): Cross with end points, initials, years, sexual symbol.
  10. Lieglloch (1230 m high) near Tauplitz: grid, cross, ladder, pentagram, sexual symbol, geometric and written characters, initials, years.

South-Tirol

  1. Tschötscher Heide (approx. 720 m high), above Brixen . Road to Feldthurns glacier cut with 10 groups of rock art: cross with end points, mill board, bowls and bowl groups.
  2. Hasental (840 m high), above Lagundo near Merano. Boulders next to the Hasental Chapel and 80 m uphill »Kreuzstein«: Cross, bowls, geometric symbols.
  3. Castelfeder (360 m high), above Auer. On several rocks not far from the road: cross, medallion, anthropomorphic motif.
  4. Brunico. In front of the main portal of St. George's Church, stones with bowls and mill board. To the west of the cemetery is a stone slab with bowls, used as a court stone in the MA .

literature

  • W. Kiesenhofer (Ed.): Rock paintings in Austria . Catalog of the rock painting museum Spital am Pyhrn 1979 (with contributions by E. Burgstaller).
  • Franz Mandl , Gerhard W. Mandl : Rock paintings Austria - Bavaria, Northern Limestone Alps , in research reports of ANISA 4th House i. E. 2011. ISBN 978-3-901071-23-2
  • Wolfgang Kauer : Rock paintings of the Eastern Alps. The legacy of the moon woman . Verlag Anton Pustet: Salzburg 2017. (160 color images, hardcover, 28 €) ISBN 978-3-702508-80-7