Sandberg (Celtic settlement)

The Sandberg, a hill ridge in the northwestern part of the Weinviertel region of Lower Austria approximately 70 km north of Vienna, is one of the potentially most important archeological sites of the middle La Tène culture in Central Europe.

Although surface finds of Celtic coins[1] (about 1,200 have found their way into the numismatics collection of the National Museum of Arts in Vienna) and other artifacts had been reported since the late 19th century, the true importance of the site began to be appreciated only by the 1990s.

One was found to have been a barn, the remnants of which contained an appreciable amount of burnt grain which was identified as Einkorn wheat (Triticum boeoticum), Emmer (Triticon dicoccon) and Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum).

Pottery, bracelet glassware and fibulae were found in significant numbers, along with coins, a set of three dice carved from bone, and several pieces of Realgar, an arsenic sulfide mineral with uses in medicine and as an orange pigment.

From 2005 to 2007, the three quadratic structures (one measuring 25 x 25 m, the other two slightly smaller) were completely excavated, and confirmed to have been Celtic sanctuaries of a Western European type not yet found in Central Europe, with their design closely resembling the cult site at Gournay-sur-Aronde in northern France.