Sausal

250px|right The Sausal () is a small mountain range in the southwestern parts of Austria's state Styria. It thrusts up from the northern banks of the Sulm valley, west of the district town of Leibnitz. Its highest point, the summit of the Demmerkogel, rises 671 m above the level of the Adriatic Sea. Large parts of the Sausal have a mediterranean-type microclimate. Together with the rich soil this is the basis of its extensive vineyards, which are the cornerstone of the local economy. Tourism flourishes as well. right|thumb|250px|A typical landscape in the South Styrian Sausal mountain range, with a Klapotez

==History== thumb|300px|A map of the Sausal mountain range and the upper Sulm valley, 1879 Although the privileged climatic situation would have suggested early human habitation in the Sausal mountain range, archeological finds were spurious until late 2004 when preparatory work for a new vineyard on a terrace at the Spiegelkogel mountain near St. Nikolai im Sausal uncovered the remains of an urnfield culture village, and much better preserved late Neolithic construction traces below it. Archaeologists now associate this older Copper Age settlement with the Lasinja culture.