The exhibition Earth – Water – Fire. Sources of Life and  Reservoirs of Knowledge presents the most important results from the EU project ‘PalaeoDiversiStyria’. As part of the project, the habitat that people have created for themselves on the territory that is now Styria and north-eastern Slovenia is explored from the perspective of archaeology and botany. At the centre of the show is the sensational find during the construction of the Koralm railway of a well in Wettmannstätten in western Styria. It is not only the well preserved well case from the Bronze Age (1600–800 BCE) that has caused amazement, but also the contents with which the well is filled up, which represent a kind of ‘database’ of many flora and fauna in Styria. Archaeobotanists who are investigating these carbonised remains of plants have thus been able to reconstruct the agriculture and nutritional habits of people living 3,500 years ago. The exhibition shows visitors the possibilities of modern archaeological and archaeobotanical research, delivering new findings on the Bronze Age settlement in Styria and placing it in the context of challenges faced in terms of water provision, agriculture and present-day nutrition.

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