Johann Georg Ramsauer

Johann Georg Ramsauer ( born March 7, 1795 in Hallstatt, † December 14, 1874 in Linz) was mine official from Hallstatt. He discovered in 1846 the Iron Age cemetery in Hallstatt and led there by first excavations.

Life

Born in Hallstatt 1795 Ramsauer joined with 13 years as " manipulation pupil" in the service of the salt mining and rose up quickly: Even at age 36 he was Bergmeister in Hallstatt. In November 1846 he finally succeeded by " opening a gravel pit " the discovery of an unknown corpse field.

Ramsauer's special merit is the meticulous documentation of the findings, together with the anfertigte Bergmann Isidor Engl, the sketches. In the following 17 years, 980 graves were opened and recovered over 19,497 objects. As a scientific layman Ramsauer was still denied full recognition in 1859 about his petition to Emperor Franz Joseph I was rejected at the time of printing of the excavation protocols.

Johann Georg Ramsauer was married three times and father of 22 children. On November 5, 1863, he entered retirement in the professional and moved to Linz, where he died in 1874.

Effect

In the same year, the Swedish researcher Hans Hildebrand spoke of a " Hallstatt group " and soon after, the terms Hallstatt culture and time prevailed. Although Ramsauer held the locality for exhausted, was overlapped to 1939 to more graves. In 1994, the excavations from the Natural History Museum Vienna were resumed with great success.