Prehistory

The Prehistoric Collection of the Wien Museum contains around 8,000 objects from the period between the Paleolithic Age, about 35,000 years ago, and the late-Celtic settlement of the 1^st century B.C. The objects stored here show that the Vienna area was already inhabited during the Stone Age due to its favorable geography. The positions of the settlements at certain points — on rivers or on hilltops — and the objects recovered from these settlements offer us valuable insights into daily life during that period. Well-preserved burial objects also enable us to draw conclusions about how the people of the time viewed the afterlife.

Prehistoric research became established in Vienna in the 1920s and 1930s; this was also the period of the first systematic excavations in the city. Key prehistoric sites can be found in today’s outer districts and outside the current city limits. During the Nazi era, during which Vienna was temporarily expanded to include several surrounding municipalities, objects from the wider Vienna region (including Schwechat, Mödling, and Vösendorf) also found their way into the museum.