archiveSeptember 21, 20261 min read

Austrian gravel workers uncover Europe's largest haul of iron bars

Content of image described in text. — Source image: Peter Trebsche; Marion Berranger. A sunken ship cargo of 500 bipyramidal bars? Implications for La Tène period iron production and trade along the Danube. Antiquity (2026).Full-size image

Gravel workers in Deinham, Upper Austria, noticed in spring 2019 that their excavator was pulling up double-pointed iron objects from a silted-up branch of the Danube. They reported the finds to the Federal Monuments Office, which led to the recovery of the largest assemblage of bipyramidal iron bars yet found in Europe. Rusty finds often go for scrap. The study, published in Antiquity on 21 September 2026, radiocarbon dates the bars to the fourth to first centuries BC, later than similar bars usually are. The authors think the cargo, possibly 500 bars, was lost in a shipwreck.

Gravel workers reported the find instead of scrapping it. Archaeologists and historians of Danube trade now have new evidence of iron exchange.

Source: A sunken ship cargo of 500 bipyramidal bars? Implications for La Tène period iron production and trade along the Danube | Antiquity | Cambridge Core (dx.doi.org).

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Austrian gravel workers uncover Europe's largest haul of iron bars

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