Canton Bern, Pile-Dwelling Archaeology and UNESCO World
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Pile dwellings in Canton Bern Numerous sites dating from the Late Stone Age and the Bronze Age are located on the lakeshores of Canton Bern, of- ten subsumed under the term “pile dwellings”. Six of these were selected to represent the canton in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. A particularly large number of pile- dwelling sites are concentrated around Lake Bienne, and at Pile dwellings under protection by UNESCO least one was found in the small Bernese section of Lake The almost 1000 known pile-dwelling sites in the alpine re- Neuchâtel. Most of them were discovered during the first Jura gion are amongst the most important European cultural as- Waters Correction which was carried out in the 1870s. sets. Today they are located on the shores of lakes, in bog Numerous small lakes on the Swiss Plateau, including the land created by silted-up lakes and on river flood plains. Inkwiler, Lobsige, Burgäschi and Moos Lakes as well as lakes In 2011 UNESCO inscribed 111 of these settlements in that have completely silted up and are today bog land, were six countries on their list of World Heritage sites. Switzerland once locations of pile-dwelling settlements. Lake Thun has played a major role in obtaining this status. Pile dwellings only yielded a few sites, and so far none at all have been are known from all the big and most of the small bodies of found on Lake Brienz. We can assume, however, that these water between Lake Geneva and Lake Constance. There is a lakeshores were also settled, at least in some places. Their particular concentration of sites in the so-called Three Lakes steeper shores and higher lake levels make it harder to dis- region. Erziehungsdirektion des Kantons Bern cover sites. The archaeological sites are largely invisible because they Direction de l’instruction publique du canton de Berne Organic finds from lakeside settlements give us an insight into every- day life in the Late Stone Age. Wooden cup (Sutz-Lattrigen, Rütte); lie under water or beneath protective sediment deposits. Due Amt für Kultur | Office de la culture comb used to hackle flax (Nidau, BKW); ladle (Twann, Bahnhof); hafted to their locations in the waterlogged ground, organic materi- Archäologischer Dienst des Kantons Bern Service archéologique du canton de Berne Bienne flint knife (Sutz-Lattrigen, Hauptstation); roll of fabric and bobbin als from these sites, including wood, textiles (plant (Twann, Bahnhof). Sc. 1:4. fibres), antler and animal bones, are extraordinarily well pre- Postfach 5233, 3001 Bern Telefon 031 633 98 22 Nidau Port served. Thanks to their unusually rich assemblages of finds, pile dwellings provide a fascinating insight into the world of [email protected] e www.be.ch/archaeologie n n early European farmers, their everyday lives, communication e i networks, technological innovations and also the beginnings B Sutz- Lattrigen How the pile dwellers lived of farming, crop cultivation and animal husbandry. e k Twann a The sedentary lifestyle of the Late Stone Age, which involved L Mörigen crop cultivation and animal husbandry, spread from the east La Neuveville along the River Danube and via the Mediterranean region Things to do: guided tours of the dive centre at Sutz-Lattrigen for schools CANTON BERN Täuffelen- DE Oberschwaben and groups; for more information please contact the Archaeological Service Gerolfingen into Europe, gradually replacing the nomadic hunter-gatherer Oberbayern Salzkammergut of Canton Bern. Pile-dwelling archaeology St. Peter’s Island lifestyle from around 8000 BC onwards. These new influenc- Bodensee Publication: Die Pfahlbauer – Am Wasser und über die Alpen. Published by es began to arrive north of the Alps from around 5500 BC Zürichsee Jurafussseen / A the Archaeological Service of Canton Bern. Bern 2013. and UNESCO World Heritage Le Landeron Trois Lacs Zentralschweiz Lüscherz onwards. The earliest pile dwellings in our region were built Combe d’Ain CH Digital media: smartphone app “Palafittes Guide”, visit the App Store or around 4300 BC on the lakeshores of the Swiss Plateau. Lac Léman Keutschacher See FR Android Market. www.palafittes.org Vinelz SLO The houses were timber-built. Usually the piles that were Friule Trento Alto Picture credits: title picture: ADB, Carlos Pinto; map UNESCO of the alpine Venezia Ljubljansko barje Lacs alpins Lombardia Adige Giulia 0 4 km driven into the ground are the only elements that survive. savoyards region: Blue Marble Nasa, sites ADB; finds: ADB, Badri Redha; map of Lake Piemonte IT The villages often lasted no more than a few years. Their in- Veneto Bienne: ADB, based on Swisstopo (permit JA100012), sites Max Stöckli; illustration of a pile-dwelling village: Atelier Bunterhund, Zürich from the pile- habitants grew cereals and other crops in the surrounding dwelling exhibition of the Bernisches Historisches Museum, Bern; wheel: Lakeside settlements areas. They kept cattle, sheep, goats and pigs and managed ADB, Badri Redha; piles in the lake: ADB, Daniel Steffen; trackway: ADB, UNESCO World Heritage sites the woodlands. Hunting game and gathering wild plants Badri Redha; diver: ADB, Rolf Stettler; attic: ADB, Pierre Eichenberger; tree: ADB, John Francuz; dendrochronological curve: ADB, John Francuz/Andreas were still a substantial part of their subsistence. In addition Zwahlen; storm: ADB, Jürgen Fischer. The shores of Lake Bienne were lined with Late Stone Age and The UNESCO World Heritage site “Prehistoric pile dwellings around Bronze Age settlements. Five of them, and one site on Lake Lobsige, to serving as important transport routes the lakes, of course, the Alps” includes 111 archaeological sites in Switzerland, Germany, © 2015 ADB / Marianne Ramstein, Matthias Bolliger, Lukas Schärer (texts), France, Italy, Austria and Slovenia. were de signated UNESCO World Heritage sites. also provided a variety of food. Max Stöckli (graphic design), Sandy Hämmerle (translation). Archäologischer Dienst des Kantons Bern 9/2015 Service archéologique du canton de Berne Of the houses in the pile-dwelling settle- ments, only the piles driven into the ground tend to survive today. Some of them are up to 6000 years old. Piles that were felled at the same time – as indicated by dendrochronological dating - can often be put together to form ground- plans. This information allows us to reconstruct the growth pattern of a Late Stone Age or 4000 2000 0 500 1000 1500 2015 v. Chr. / av. J.-C. n. Chr. / apr. J.-C. Bronze Age settlement and what it perhaps Piles of houses protruding from the lakebed are One ring per year – narrow or wide depending on In stormy weather conditions and high wave all that remain of a pile-dwelling settlement. The the weather conditions. Starting with living trees, action the lakebed is disturbed and certain looked like. The picture associated settlement layers have usually al- overlapping tree ring sequences can be fitted areas of the shoreline are gradually swept gives an impression of ready eroded. In waterlogged ground, however, together in a standard chronology that leads fur- away. This results in the fragile archaeologi- a village from the period other constructions such as this trackway also ther and further back over the millennia. cal layers being exposed and destroyed. sometimes survive. around 3400 BC on Lake Bienne. Forgotten villages Underwater and wetland archaeology Dendroarchaeology: wood as a source of information Protecting instead of excavating Research on archaeological settlement sites in water and in The annual growth rate of a tree is primarily dependant on Artificial lowering of the lake levels, developing large sections As early as 1811 the first pile-dwelling site on Lake Bienne The lakeside and wetland waterlogged ground began around the mid-19th century. weather conditions. All trees in a region are similarly affected, of shorelines and busy shipping traffic lead to ongoing shore- was entered on a map of Nidau. In the 1850s the Zurich settlements in Canton Modern underwater archaeology, however, only developed which, over the years, leads to a uniform and characteristic line and lakebed erosion in many lakes on the Swiss Plateau. scholar Ferdinand Keller coined the term “pile dwellings” Bern have been archaeo- from 1960 onwards thanks to the invention of the regulator, pattern of narrow and wide growth rings. Once the tree-ring As a consequence numerous prehistoric sites are acutely when writing about archaeological sites with numerous logically monitored since which allowed for autonomous diving. Today, the established sequences of wood samples have been measured, standard endangered or have already been destroyed. Because it is piles driven into the lakebed, which he correctly interpreted the 1980s. The aim is to method of working is technologically quite challenging and chronologies are studied and comparable patterns identified. impossible to excavate them all, various methods for the as the remains of past villages. track the erosion processes the diving equipment must meet very high safety require- Ideally, this results in felling dates to the exact year. This is preservation of the fragile archaeological layers have been The first Jura Waters Correction (1868–1891) shifted the at the sites and, where re- ments. often the only way of associating the piles with the ground- developed and tested since the 1990s. Covering the lakebed focus of pile-dwelling research from lake Zurich to Lake quired, to put in place pro- Numerous pile dwellings are today located away from the plans of individual houses. The timbers also provide important with geotextile and weighing it down with a gravel fill has re- Bienne. When the lake levels were lowered the piles of tection measures or carry out water on waterlogged shorelines or in bogs. Thanks to the insight into settlement dynamics and forest management. vealed itself to be the most effective protection measure and numerous sites suddenly began to appear on the now dry rescue excavations.