5 November 2024 The Future is the Product of the Past

A Previously Unknown Bronze Age Settlement Discovered in Switzerland

In advance of a construction project in Heimberg, the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern carried out a rescue excavation in autumn 2023. Although the investigation yielded hardly any new findings about an expected Roman site, it did reveal the remains of a previously unknown settlement from the Bronze Age.

During the investigation at the Schulgässli in Heimberg, which lasted a good three months, various settlement remains were documented on almost 1000 m²: in addition to a usage horizon with a very high proportion of heat stones and (relatively) a lot of Bronze Age ceramics, also various post positions and pits.

Two of these pits were filled to the brim with heat stones, i.e. stones that had been shattered by great heat. These could have been used as heat storage in cooking or heating pits and represent a typical finding for the Bronze Age.

Other pits may have been used to extract clay. At that time, clay was an important raw material and was used, for example, to plaster the wicker walls of houses or to produce pottery. This is matched by an up to 35 m thick layer package of hillside clay in the excavation area.

A pit filled with heat stones from the rescue excavation in Heimberg. Photo © Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern, Guy Jaquenod
A pit filled with heat stones from the rescue excavation in Heimberg. Photo © Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern, Guy Jaquenod

As some much younger extraction pits show, this clay deposit was later exploited by the well-known Heimberg potters of modern times. A brickworks excavated in Heimberg in 1964 provides similar evidence for the Roman period.

The site in Heimberg is one of a whole series of new Bronze Age discoveries between Thun and Bern in recent years. For example, it has been known since 2014 that remains of pile dwellings have also been preserved in the lower Lake Thun basin, in front of Schadau Castle.

The excavation in Heimberg, on the right edge of the area there is a pit filled with heat stones. Photo © Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern, Daniel Breu
The excavation in Heimberg, on the right edge of the area there is a pit filled with heat stones. Photo © Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern, Daniel Breu

Rescue excavations in Thun-Schoren, Richigen, and Kehrsatz/Chlywabere have also uncovered extensive Bronze Age settlement remains. The new Bronze Age sites demonstrate the importance of the Aare Valley as a habitat and transport route between the Alps (passes) and the Swiss Plateau.

Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern

Cover Photo: Bronze Age ceramics recovered as a block from the rescue excavation in Heimberg. Photo © Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern, Frédérique Tissier

Related Articles

Archaeologists Reconstruct the Face of a 7th-Century Anglo-Saxon Woman Buried with “Trumpington Cross”

21 June 2023

21 June 2023

In a remarkable archaeological discovery near Cambridge, England, the face of a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon woman buried with a rare gold...

Fragments of ‘unique’ 17th-century iconostasis discovered in Polish church

28 October 2023

28 October 2023

Researchers from the Institute of Art at the Polish Academy of Sciences (IS PAN) have discovered substantial fragments of a...

8 ostrich eggs over 4,000 years old discovered near excavated firepit in Negev desert

13 January 2023

13 January 2023

Eight ostrich eggs dating between 4,000 and 7,500 years ago have been found during excavations next to a fire pit...

Stonehenge could be a solar calendar, according to a new study

2 March 2022

2 March 2022

A new study posits that the Stonehenge circles served as a calendar that tracks the solar year of 365.25 days,...

Archaeologists have discovered the origins a Herefordshire Stone Age monument

22 August 2021

22 August 2021

Archaeologists have finally uncovered the mysterious origins of Arthur’s Stone, named after the mysterious legends of King Arthur, who inspired...

More than 56400 Cultural Goods Seized in Operation Pandora V

11 May 2021

11 May 2021

Operation Pandora V, aimed at preventing the illegal trade of cultural goods, has been one of the most successful operations...

An engraving on an almost 2,000-year-old knife believed to be the oldest runes ever found in Denmark has been discovered by archaeologists

22 January 2024

22 January 2024

Archaeologists have found a small knife with a completely unique runic inscription that can be dated almost 2000 years ago....

At a dig site in western Turkey, a centuries-old Byzantine fortress will be revealed

24 December 2021

24 December 2021

Excavation of vast Byzantine-era fortifications considered to be about 900 years old has begun at a dig site in western...

This Month in the “You Will See What You Don’t See” Project

11 February 2021

11 February 2021

Izmir Archeology Museum started to exhibit the unseen artifacts in its warehouses last month in the project that started under...

490-Million-Year-Old Trilobites Could Solve Ancient Geography Puzzle

22 November 2023

22 November 2023

The humble trilobites may be extinct, but even as fossils, they can teach us much about our planet’s history. Indeed,...

Sicily: Archaeologists make striking discovery in Segesta

8 June 2021

8 June 2021

Archaeological excavations in the Segesta Archaeological Park, investigating a “monumental edifice” near the portico at the end of the old...

New Type of Amphora Found in 5th-Century Roman Shipwreck

28 April 2024

28 April 2024

The first in-depth analysis of the cargo of a 4th-century Roman shipwreck found off the coast of Mallorca in 2019...

Two Deep Ritual Wells Sealed with 3100-year-old Calcium Carbonate Discovered on Greek Island

6 August 2024

6 August 2024

Aerial photographs of the “Kotroni” Lakithra region, strategically located on the island of Cephalonia, west of the Greek mainland, revealed...

Discoveries on the island of Minorca shed light on the history of Roman conquests in the Balearic Islands

31 July 2021

31 July 2021

The University of Alicante Institute for Archeology and Historical Heritage (INAPH) Researchs discovered a collection of buried Roman antiquities going...

Archaeologists may have uncovered a 13th-century castle in Shropshire

7 August 2021

7 August 2021

Archaeologists have been working on a mound of land in Wem, Shropshire, that belongs to Soulton Hall, Elizabethan mansion and...