This paper outlines aspects of a new interdisciplinary initiative which aims to reinvigorate research on the so-called lake-villages in Austria. The award of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status to the ‘Pfahlbauten’ (pile constructions) in the circum-Alpine area has highlighted an urgent need to refine chronological and spatial understandings of the first copper using economies in Austria, as well as for a new generation of underwater research and transdisciplinary analysis. In this paper we will briefly outline the history of research so as to understand the status quo, and report on the first results of new, landscape-scale analysis and targeted dry-land excavation. Issues that will be addressed include the relationship (if any) between lacustrine occupations and technological innovation (especially metallurgy/pyrotechnology); the relationship between lacustrine sites and various other topographic locations (do the lacustrine occupations represent small-scale subsistence choice or were they part of a densely populated and heavily-exploited landscape?); and, finally, the potential strategic value of the lake setting (lying between the mineral-rich high Alpine areas and the Danubian transport corridor).