The museum, the salt mines, and the Dachstein Ice Cave are designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The earliest discoveries were made in 1846 by Johann Georg Ramsauer, who was the Bergmeister or Official of the Habsburg Salt Mines.

In 1934 the collection was sold in the United States and the finds from Hallstatt were acquired by the Peabody Museum, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Since 2002 the Naturhistorisches Museum has established a branch study centre ‘Die montanarchäologischen Forschungen’ in the ‘Bergschmiede‘ and undertakes further research and excavations.

In 2010 and important further group of burials was uncovered and in 2013 a wooden staircase from the ‘Christian von Tuschwerk’, has been moved to a show area within the mine and dated by dendrochronology to the Bronze Age :1344 -1343 BCE.

[3] In 1859, Ramsauer approached the Kaiser Franz Joseph I, in the hope that these records could be published, but this was declined, presumably because of the considerable cost of colour printing.

These suggests that during the Roman period salt mining was recommenced on a considerable scale and monumental stone buildings were constructed.

In 1987, extensive remains of a stone building were found when the Janu Sports Store was built, and these are available for public view.