09/05/22 For his 70th birthday they gave him a commemorative publication with the title Shards bring luck dedicated. Not a bad book title for a person who, as a state archaeologist in Salzburg and museum curator, has over decades watched over what was dug out of the ground in our state.
By Reinhard Kriechbaum
Fritz Moosleitner passed away at the age of 86. For thirty years, from 1970 to 2000, he was curator of the archaeological department of the Salzburg Museum Carolino-Augusteum (as the Salzburg Museum was then called). From 1985 to 2001 he also held the title of “state archaeologist”.
Archeology was actually a second course of education for him, because from 1955 to 1970 Fritz Moosleitner, who had trained as a technician, was employed as a structural engineer. In 1963 he began studying prehistory and early history in Salzburg. His dissertation was about the grave finds from Dürrnberg. From 1994 to 1996 he was interim director of the Museum Carolino-Augusteum.
When Fritz Moosleitner took up his post as state archaeologist, a number of points were set: Parallel to the newly founded Austrian Research Center Dürrnberg (ÖFD), the state archaeologist was set up at the Salzburg Museum as an office financed by the state of Salzburg with its own budget. Both institutions have been cooperating very closely ever since.
The Moosleitner era was primarily characterized by excavations prior to construction activities in the city and state of Salzburg. In the sixteen years of Moosleitner’s work as a state archaeologist, there were 95 excavations across all eras from the Stone Age to modern times, including 38 church excavations.
Excavations planned as research projects, such as the resumption of the excavations on the palace villa of Loig, Wals-Siezenheim 1979 to 1998 or the uncovering of the Hallstatt period burial ground in Uttendorf in Pinzgau 1975 to 1990 with 448 burials, were carried out for reasons of monument preservation.
Whenever a book was published about any place in the province of Salzburg, Fritz Moosleitner was always to be expected to make a profound contribution. Because of the many emergency excavations, he was not only well acquainted with prehistory and early history. He also wrote many essays on church building in the Middle Ages. Under Moosleitner’s aegis, a separate book series was Archeology in Salzburg, was brought into being, the volumes of which were intended to appeal to specialist audiences and interested laypeople through their attractive presentation and solid scientific content. Probably his most popular book was the one about the beaked pot from Dürrnberg.
The pension did not mean retirement for him. In 2007, Moosleitner was involved in the planning and organization of the archaeological part of the EU project “Ambisonta – the lords of the mountains”. In this project, phenomena of historical ethnogenesis are examined in comparison between the Upper Pinzgau and Northwest Wales. The focus is on the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, in which the Oberpinzgau had supra-regional contacts due to the copper deposits in the East of the Alps.
What is less well known: Fritz Moosleitner was also a specialist in native orchid species. Fauna and flora also interested him as a diver under water. And as a hobby musician, he was particularly close to jazz.
Image: Salzburg Museum (1); Walter Krainer (1)
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