The public Kick-Off-event of the Iron-Age-Danube-project took place on the 31st of January at Styrian Archaeology Museum in Palace Eggenberg in Graz. It was accompanied by the first meeting of all project partners and a small excursion to Großklein on the following two days (see picture material_Iron-Age-Danube).

The program of the Kick-Off-event was quite diversified. In the forenoon different workshops and guided tours for pupils occurred. In total about 200 pupils from Styria and Slovenia had the chance to get an impression on different fields of research and to broaden their knowledge of the Hallstatt period. The workshops covered different parts of Archaeology; there were Anthropology, Restoration, Experimental Archaeology and Virtual Archaeology.

The real kick-off happened in the afternoon in front of a large audience. It started with the welcome speeches of Mag. Patrick Schnabl, head of department 9 Culture, Europe, External Relations in the Styrian government, Hofrat Dr. Wolfgang Muchitsch, Director of the Universalmuseum Joanneum and Mag. Karl Peitler, head of the department Archaeology & Coin Cabinet. As guests of honour the ambassadress of the republic Croatia in the Republic of Austria, DDr. Vesna Cvjetković, the county prefect of Požega-Slavonia, Alojz Tomašević and the mayors of the Styrian and Croatian municipalities Großklein, Jakšić and Kaptol, Johann Hammer, Ivica Kovačević and Mile Pavičić could be welcomed.

Following the welcome Dr. Marko Mele, project leader of the Iron-Age-Danube-project, gave a short overview of the project and its objectives. Afterwards he was the moderator during the short introductions of the different partners. A kind of teaser for the research of the following months Dr. Karina Grömer, expert for Textile Archaeology from the Natural History Museum Vienna, performed a lecture with the title “Clothing and Identity in the Bronze- and Iron Age Central Europe”. The lecture was accompanied by a fashion show. The models wore clothes from the Bronze and Hallstatt Ages; those were reconstructed after original finds of textiles. The musical framework was arranged by the group ArchäoMusik Vienna. They used reconstructed music instruments from the Iron Ages. With a small reception in the evening the first day ended and provided the attendees with an opportunity to get to know each other and to talk about the project.