Prehistoric pile dwellings around Lake Zurich

Geography

These 11 – including one further on the nearby Greifensee and Robenhausen on Pfäffikersee lakeshore – prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements were built from around 5000 BC to 500 BC and are concentrated within an area of about 40 square kilometres (15 sq mi), on Lake Zurich respectively Obersee lakeshore in the cantons of Schwyz, St. Gallen and Zürich.

As part of a series of, in all, 111 European prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, they were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 2011. Archaeological excavations were conducted in only some of the sites, to preserve the heritage for future generations. Nevertheless, the excavations yielded evidence that provides insight into life in prehistoric times during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Alpine Europe and the way communities interacted with their environment. The settlements are a unique group of exceptionally well-preserved and culturally rich archaeological sites, which constitute one of the most important sources for the study of early agrarian societies.

Topography

Contrary to popular belief, the settlements were not erected over water, but on nearby marshy land, among them on the Seedamm respectively Frauenwinkel area, or, on the then swamp land between the Limmat and Lake Zurich around Sechseläutzenplatz on small islands and peninsulas in Zürich. The settlements were set on piles to protect against occasional flooding by the Linth and Jona. Because the lake has grown in size over time, most of the original piles are now around 4 metres (13 ft) to 7 metres (23 ft) under the water level of 406 metres (1,332 ft), giving modern observers the false impression that they always had been.

Sites on Lake Zurich lakeshore area

Of the transnational 111 serial sites are 56 – divided into 15 of 26 Swiss cantons – in Switzerland, where the excavations of the "Pan-European stilt house settlements" began. In spring 1855, in the context of work on land reclamation at Lake Zurich, the archaeologist Ferdinand Keller discovered the remains of the site Meilen–Rorenhaab. Probably the majority of the important sites of the so-called Horgen culture are situated on lakeshore, including Grosser Hafner on a former lake island and Kleiner Hafner on a peninsula at Sechseläutenplatz respectively at the effluence of the Limmat, and Zürich–Enge Alpenquai within an area of about 0.2 hectares (0.49 acres) in the city of Zürich. Even worldwide unique are the prehistoric lake crossings on the upper lake (Obersee) between Rapperswil and Hurden on the Seedamm area, including the four pile dwellings Rapperswil-Jona-Technikum, Seegubel, Freienbach–Hurden Rosshorn and Freienbach–Hurden Seefeld. The settlement Robenhausen at the Pfäffikersee is also a unique site, discovered and researched by Jakob Messikommer at the end of the 19th century, as being even continuously inhabited for thousands of years; most of the settlements were inhabited for some decades and re-erected at a quite different location.

Sources, among them area, date and location as well as coordinates and ID, used in the table base on Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, and are listed as references. The list bases on the dates of December 2014.

Protection

As well as being part of the 56 Swiss sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, each of these 11 prehistoric pile dwellings is also listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as a Class A object of national importance.

Hence, the area of each settlement is provided as a historical site under federal protection, within the meaning of the Swiss Federal Act on the nature and cultural heritage (German: Bundesgesetz über den Natur- und Heimatschutz NHG) of 1 July 1966. Unauthorised researching and purposeful gathering of findings represent a criminal offense according to Art. 24.

Literature