The beliefs and rituals highlight the religious and spiritual world of the culture of Hallstatt, the material culture which prospered in central Europe between 800 and 500 BC. In addition to the ability to create a rich and prosperous culture based on the extraction of salt, the inhabitants of the Hallstatt culture had other skills. The traces of these skills were discovered by mining operator Johann Georg Ramsauer in 1846, when he discovered a cemetery near the Hallstatt salt mine.

The precious funeral objects that he discovered testify not only to the prosperity and the high social status of people buried here, but also of the religious and spiritual world of the culture of Hallstatt. Displaying a high degree of technical expertise in their manufacture, funeral objects include elaborate bronze containers containing food and drinks intended to feed the deceased during his journey to the beyond. The representations decorated with people with whom they are often decorated include scenes of festivities as well as cremations. Aquatic birds like ducks and swans seem to play a special role. They were considered a symbol of the divine because, unlike humans of the time, they were able to move on earth, in water and in the air.