Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,000-year-old wooden box used in central Europe's biggest copper-mining operation at the Mitterberg mountain in Salzburg's Pongau region (Austria). They said the box from the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, which was discovered using the latest high-tech research methods including laser scanning, dated to between 1,500 and 1,000 BCE. Provincial archaeologist Raimund Kastler called the discovery 'a truly sensational find'.
     Thomas Stöllner from Bochum University in Germany's Ruhr area and the head of Historical Mining in the Tyrol and Adjacent Areas group said analysis of sediment in the box promised more answers to questions about technology during the Bronze Ages. He added it was the second box of its type to have been found in the eastern Alps. Concentrated copper ore, he said, had been taken from the Mitterberg to many huts in the surrounding area.
     The find comes after archaeologists in Burgenland unearthed three Roman military camp sites – finds they said would make it necessary to rewrite the history of the Romans in Austria. Stefan Groh, the leader of the Austrian Archeological Institute (ÖAI) team that discovered the sites, said that the three camp sites near Strebersdorf in Burgenland's Lutzmannsburg municipality were along the old amber road, the main Roman trading road in the region.
     
Source: Austrian Times (5 October 2009)