Undertoad • Oct 21, 2004 12:57 pm
How about an archeology moment? These stairs were recently discovered in Hallstadt, Austria, in an ancient salt mine. full story
The find was announced by Vienna's Natural History Museum and Salinen Austria AG which described the wooden staircase as "sensational".
Well sensational is a little strong for most of us, but still, it's interesting. The site itself dates to about 5000 B.C. They worked out right away that all the wood for the stairs was cut the same year - now they are working with Vienna's Ag University to figure out exactly what year and even what season that was.
Apparently the salt mine at Hallstadt is the oldest known, and still operates today although just for show. The archaeologists have been interested in it for some time as apparently they discovered an actual salt MINER at one point. Dead 3000 years, he was.
In those days salt was so important that a community might well grow up around a salt mine.