Silex, known popularly as ‘flint’ or ‘hornstone’, is among the oldest known raw materials of mankind. It was used for making tools, as well as for making fire. The exhibition presents the Neolithic-Age hornstone mine at Rein, the earliest mine in Styria, on the basis of archaeological and geoscientific research undertaken jointly by the Universalmuseum Joanneum, the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Department of Oriental and European Archaeology) and the Institute for Prehistory and Historical Archaeology at the University of Vienna. The exhibition shows how hornstone was mined more than 6,000 years ago in the Rein basin, and the role played by this new resource in the development of Stone Age cultural spaces and barter and trade systems in Styria and beyond.

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