Austria

Rachel and Tom went to Vienna to discuss sites and samples from the upper part of the River Danube in early April. We had discussions and meetings with Walpurga Antl-Weiser, Cristine Neugebauer-Maresch and Maria Teschler-Nicola. It was a really useful trip and we obtained a lot of samples, advice, information and ideas.

The Natural History Museum is one of the most beautiful buildings and houses an amazing collection of material. The most famous is probably the Venus of Willendorf. We visited on the day the museum was closed to the public so we were allowed to go to the balcony that runs around the circumference of the great cupola of the museum, looking down on the ornate decoration of the building with its many statues and stone carvings. Magical...

We also got to see the Gravettian burials of Krems Wachtberg, smothered in red ochre and buried 28,000 years ago.

Left: (Walpurga, Christine and Rachel sorting out our site and sample database.

Right: Maria Teschler-Nicola shows us one of the Gravettian baby burials from Krems Wachtberg.