An artist's impression of life at a Lucerne area stilt village [Joe Rohrer/Canton of Lucerne]
Posted on 05/03/2021 2:40:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists have, for the first time, found traces of a Bronze Age lakeside village under the surface of Lake Lucerne. The find shows that the city of Lucerne area was already populated 3,000 years ago.
Traces of a pile dwelling (or stilt house) village came to light while laying a pipeline in the natural harbour area. The remnants were found by underwater archaeologists around four metres below the water surface...
Archaeologists had been looking for proof of settlement for some time, but had been hampered by a thick layer of mud at the bottom of the lake. Work on the pipeline however revealed around 30 prehistoric wooden piles or stilts and five pieces of pottery.
The wood and pottery have been tested and dated to the late Bronze Ages, so around 1,000 years BC.
The find coincides with the 10th anniversary of prehistoric lakeside pile dwellings in Alpine countries - including in Switzerland - being given Unesco World Heritage Site status.
In all, 111 of the most important sites in six countries have gained the label. Of these, 56 are in Switzerland.
Unesco describes the group of dwellings as “one of the most important sources for the study of early agrarian societies in the region”.
(Excerpt) Read more at swissinfo.ch ...
An artist's impression of life at a Lucerne area stilt village [Joe Rohrer/Canton of Lucerne]
I'm wearing my shocked face.
Global warming raised the sea level and swallowed up the village.
It would have never occurred to me to build a village under a lake.
Oh, no! The Bronze Age folks caused global warming with their outdoor fires resulting in their villages were flooded.
It wouldn't? I guess you're just an old, umm, stick in the mud!
Also, the deep water on top the mud slowed them down a little. :^)
Those Swiss will do anything to remain neutral. Living under a lake made it easy.
All the houses had running water in those days
It's a lot of work, and requires technology not normally associated with the bronze age.
That’s a great video. I was at a site in Indonesia where a huge boulder (20-foot diameter or so) had come to rest near the road.
A bunch of guys drilled holes in it manually (hit the drill bit rod with a hammer, rotate the drill bit, hit again, and repeat 1000 times. Once they had a bunch of holes drilled they were going to put clay inside the holes which would expand and crack the boulder into smaller pieces.
I’m guessing using explosives would be too dangerous with the road and buildings nearby.
My understanding is that these people were celts.
That the people of britian were not actually genetic celts but rather partook of the celtic culture that spread through europe after their arrival in europe around 1200 BC. For example the welch and the irish were more closely related to the coastal peoples of spain and portugal.
When I worked in China in the mid 70s, they cast a concrete pedestal for the boiler stack about 2 feet two high. They had jackhammers and excavators to use, but nope. They have a dozen guys crude chisels formed from soft steel rebar and put them to work chiseling it down. I was flabbergasted. Whenever I heard the claim that “China has no unemployment,” I knew the real reason why.
The Helvetii, who were later replaced by the Germanic tribes, were indeed Celtic, and were conquered and/or coopted by the Romans. They were an earlier coat of paint, as it were.
Ancient genomes reveal social and genetic structure of Late Neolithic Switzerland
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15560-x
The site I was at (mining site in West Papua New Guinea) had to take in lots of workers from the cities. Sort of a paid welfare type thing. Two guys would be hosing down a 50’ x 100’ concrete pad all day long.
“It would have never occurred to me to build a village under a lake.”
Does this lake have a street address?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
