Carved Onyx Medusa Discovered in Hallstatt – History Blog

A tiny but beautifully carved relief of Medusa has been discovered in Hallstatt, Austria. It is one of only three Roman reliefs in Upper Austria, and although it is only 1.5 cm (0.6 in) high (the size of a fingernail), it is the largest of the three. This is also the most detailed and finely crafted of them all.

The relief was carved in the 2nd century AD from black and white banded agate (onyx), probably in Aquileia, a major crafts and commercial center on the Adriatic. Opaque black onyx serves as the background, while the Gorgon’s head and snake hair are carved from white bands. The thinnest areas around the hair are almost translucent, while denser areas on the face and top of the head appear a luminous white. The petite stone is still too large to be a ring or earring, so archaeologists believe it may have been set in a pendant.

By the middle of the first century, the Roman Empire controlled the lakeside settlement of Hallstatt and other areas of Upper Austria. Salt has been mined here since the Neolithic Age 7,500 years ago, and the underground salt mine is by far the oldest salt mine still being mined in the world. The Romans continued to operate the mine and established a civilian settlement associated with the management of the salt works.

The settlement is concentrated in the area of ​​the new cable car station of the modern town. The area was first excavated in a systematic way in 2015, and excavation work resumed this year ahead of the construction of a state-of-the-art station and railway that will transport visitors from the city center to the Hallstatt Salt Mine.

Hallstatt’s Medusa will be displayed in a new permanent exhibition on the archeology of Upper Austria at the Linz Castle Museum in 2026.