In Austria the archaeological activity of the last decade has been concentrated in a series of researches on the Roman limes. While traditional studies continued, aimed in particular at examining the ceramic material that emerged from previous excavations, new systems of investigation (such as, for example, paleobotany) were introduced especially for the pre-Roman phases of the settlements.. According to agooddir, field investigations made it possible to identify two auxiliary troop garrisons, Schwechat and Petronell at Carnuntum. The two main building phases of the latter have been identified: in the first, datable to the Flavian age, the buildings were built in wood, while in the following, to be placed in the Trajan age,
Particularly significant, for an analysis on the spread of cults from East and West, was the presence of numerous religious buildings dedicated to oriental divinities, an object, as is well known, of particular veneration among the military, both legionaries and auxiliaries. In this context, the small Mithraic sanctuary near Mülthall and above all the large cult complex of Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, built in stone around the middle of the 2nd century, should be remembered. AD Consisting of an enclosure that enclosed inside chapels dedicated to Mithras, Cybele and Jupiter Eliopolitano, a thermal plant and latrines, the sanctuary was destroyed by an earthquake in the mid-4th century. AD Research still in progress in this same area currently also affects the canabae area, that is to say the civil settlement that developed on the edge of the castrum and followed the legion in its movements. In the case of Carnuntum, the first phase is exactly coeval with the first phase of the castrum (50-150 AD) with wooden constructions. Again as regards Carnuntum, important clarifications come from the Pfaffenberg area where two temples have been identified, one dedicated to Jupiter and the other to the Capitoline triad, demonstrating the presence of the official Roman cults. In this regard, the discovery of an inscription with a dedication to Jupiter Optimus Massimo Carnuntino should be noted. The presence of a theater in the vicinity of the two sanctuaries must therefore be placed in relation not with the Celtic cults, as had been previously hypothesized, but with the iuventus and with the carrying out of cultic games such as Troiae lusus ; it is a further demonstration of the importance and continuity of traditional Roman cults in the limes area.
During the Paleolithic and Mesolithic the Austrian territory is part of the broader cultural sphere of Central Europe. A defined and characteristic cultural development occurs only with the first Iron Age (750-400 BC) with the culture of Hallstatt, whose name, later extended to the entire European context, derives from the homonymous Austrian village, where one of the most important necropolises of European protohistory was found. It is assumed that the different ethnic groups of the eastern Alpine area (Illyrians, Celts, Reti) divided into small tribes, began to gather around the first millennium in a political organism (the kingdom of Noricum), whose center was to be located in central Carinthia, probably in the Magdalensberg. The kingdom of Noricum, politically subdued by Rome in 15 BC. C., comprised most of the Current Austria, with a strip of Slovenian land; part of the Austria western will instead belong to the Raetia. In defense of the border, constituted by the course of the Danube, large camps, Carnuntum, Vindobona, Lauriacum, were arranged in militarily strategic points, together with castella and guard posts manned by auxiliary troops. With the Roman occupation, following a profound Romanization, an original artistic expression is elaborated, the product of a fusion between the Italic character and the indigenous substratum of Celto-Illyrian tradition. The character of local craftsmanship is evident in the numerous sepulchral reliefs (stele and medallions with the bust of the deceased). There are also testimonies of the activity of immigrant artists and imported pieces of great value. The most significant discoveries of the Austria Roman origin from the south-eastern region, from the cities of Flavia Solva and Virunum, where the cultural influence from northern Italy was more sensitive. In particular the the identification of a school of sculpture in Virunum contributed significantly to the knowledge of the Italic artists in the Noricum. According to the most recent excavations, it appears that public buildings from the Roman period, sacred buildings, baths, amphitheaters (three in Carnuntum, and then in Flavia Solva, etc.), theaters (Virunum, etc.) follow the Roman models very clearly. It is stated in Austria the Roman temple a podium, intended for the cult of official deities and emperors: an important example is the double-celled temple on the Magdalensberg in Carinthia (early Augustan age); others are found in Virunum, Brigantium and near Carnuntum. The mountain temples of the Romanized Celtic gods (for example the shrine of Mars Latobio near S. Margareten, in Carinthia, in the form of a tower with a columned gallery around the cell) refer to Celtic architecture. As far as private architecture is concerned, the most noteworthy discovery of recent years is the atrium house of Aguntum, on the scheme of the Pompeian domus, a unique in the territory of the Eastern Alps. In Carnuntum, where excavations were carried out in the civil area of the city in the years 1958-64, the indigenous type of house with a central corridor is maintained, even if translated into stone construction, while in Lauriacum the indigenous system of wooden construction, with an irregular plan, it lasts even in Roman times. A fine example of a rustic villa with an adjoining spa building can be found in Parnsdorf in Burgenland (1st century AD, up to 3rd-4th century).
