Salt has been mined at Hallstatt since the Bronze Age, including for the preservation of pork meat. Bone fragments and teeth found in the area provide evidence of an organized meat industry, especially of pork. Residual DNA in these prehistoric specimens can reveal information about the genetic origins of the pigs. Using a specially developed method, researchers from Vetmeduni Vienna and the Vienna Natural History Museum extracted and analysed the prehistoric DNA. Their study, published in BMC Research Notes, shows that the Bronze Age Hallstatt pigs were genetically European.