Prehistoric Find Located Beneath The Waves (Switzerland)

Swiss Info ^ | 9-10-2007

[blam]

September 10, 2007 - 12:35 PM

Prehistoric find located beneath the waves

Archaeologists have discovered traces of Switzerland’s oldest known building, but it will never draw tourists: it lies underwater in the middle of a lake. Since it was made of wood scientists used dendrochronology – the technique of dating by tree rings – to give a precise figure of 3863 BC.

The find in Lake Biel, northwest of the Swiss capital, Bern, was described as “sensational” by Albert Hafner, who is in charge of underwater archaeology in the region.

Divers working for the cantonal archaeological service came upon the site in the winter of 2006 when they were investigating prehistoric villages built on piles in the once densely populated area of Sutz-Lattrigen.

Pile villages have been found in and near many Swiss lakes. Wooden stakes were driven into the ground to support a platform on which houses were then built.

Changes in the level of the lakes mean that many remains are now underwater, but when they were first built they stood on the edge.

Fish traps

The newly found construction in Lake Biel is different. It was a large rectangular structure standing alone 200 meters from shore, which meant it was clearly not a dwelling house.

Three circles of stakes discovered not far away were the clue to its function. The circles were fish traps, and the building would have used by fishermen to store equipment and perhaps to smoke fish, Hafner explained.

“This is the first time we have found a prehistoric fishing place in one of our Swiss lakes,” archaeologist Cynthia Dunning told swissinfo.

“But one find always brings another one. I hope we’ll find more.”

The closest known parallel comes from the Baltic area.

The site has been meticulously recorded, and all possible information has been gleaned from it. The piles are now being left where they were, and may disappear gradually.

Oldest village

Erosion is a serious problem in the area of Sutz-Lattrigen, where archaeologists have been active for 20 years.

The oldest villages in the area go back to the fourth millennium BC, and the most recent to 1750-1660 BC.

Over 30,000 square meters of the lake bed have been examined, and thousands of objects brought to the surface.

To preserve this important part of Swiss heritage, the archaeological service has carried out rescue digs and implemented anti-erosion measures.

Experts are using special blankets that cover the sites to prevent them from disappearing and preserve items where they are for the future.

TV programme

Pile dwellers are close to the Swiss heart. The country is particularly rich in these villages on almost all the major lakes.

When they were first discovered in the 19th century, they were seen as part of a common heritage and used to build a sense of national identity.

One of Switzerland’s hit TV programmes of this summer was a reality show in which ten people spent four weeks living as pile dwellers in a specially reconstructed village.

The show used findings from the archaeological research carried out over the past 20 years, which has changed some of the traditional views of the Neolithic way of life.

The site at Sutz-Lattrigen aims to get a further boost in the coming years. Together with similar sites in the area it hopes to be included in the Unesco World Heritage List.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[squarebarb]

Thanks, blam. I am always interested in these articles.

I wonder what the Baltic village was like?

Also wonder what the climatological situation was in about 4,000 B.C.

Isn’t that about the same time frame in which Oetzi lived?

[Holicheese]

“it lies underwater in the middle of a lake”. Algore’s spokeman said that this only proves that ancient Swedes had scuba technology well before we thought possible.

[SlowBoat407]

And the world weeps for the loss of a glacier... several thousand years ago.

[Oberon]

Since it was made of wood scientists used dendrochronology – the technique of dating by tree rings – to give a precise figure of 3863 BC.

I do not understand this. Did they count the rings of a nearly 4,000-year-old tree that was still growing at the bottom of the lake?

This absurd answer is the only way I can come up with to use tree-ring-counting to date the construction to within a year. Otherwise some interpolation must be going on.

[alexander_busek]

>>I do not understand this. Did they count the rings of a nearly 4,000-year-old tree that was still growing at the bottom of the lake?<<

No. Where in the article is a “still growing” tree mentioned? Rather, the scientists compared the rings still identifiable in cross-sections of fragments of the DEAD wood belonging to the find with established dendrochronological records relevant to that geographical region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrochronology

[Oberon]

No. Where in the article is a “still growing” tree mentioned?

At the risk of being obvious, nowhere.

That being the case, I must have meant something else, mustn't I?

That "something else" was to point out that the idea was patently absurd.

Simply counting the rings in a piece of dead log provides no useful data, in the absence of context. What was missing from the article (and also missing from my understanding) was the context.

Thank you for the link.

[stormer]

With this technique the assumption is that the tree was cut and used within a year. By comparing the growth rings from contemporary trees (perhaps 1000 years old) with one known to be older, for example from 1000 year old construction from the same region, an overlapping scale is constructed. By continually moving back in time and comparing growth rings, accurate dating can be achieved.

[Oberon]

Thank you.

[Night Hides Not]

Erosion is a serious problem in the area of Sutz-Lattrigen, where archaeologists have been active for 20 years.

Erosion my foot! These poor souls were done in by global warming.

Obligatory "Bush's fault."

[blam]

The tree-ring data now covers a period of 10,000 years.

Professor Mike Baillie has done some interesting work in dendrochronology.

"Archaeologist and palaeoecologist with research interests in dendrochronological and chronological issues. Teaches chronological and environmental issues in palaeoecology plus human evolution. Research record in tree-ring chronology construction for radiocarbon calibration and reconstruction of past environmental change."

[Oberon]

The tree-ring data now covers a period of 10,000 years.

In some regions, yes.

[blam]

"IsnÂ’t that about the same time frame in which Oetzi lived?"

Otzi the Iceman (also spelled Oetzi) (pronounced [ˈøːtsiː], ur'-tsee), Frozen Fritz, and Similaun Man are modern nicknames of a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC (53 centuries ago),[1] found in 1991 in the Schnalstal glacier in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy."

[blam]

I thought of this guy:

Unearthed, The Prince Of Stonehenge

"The body was laid to rest 4,300 years ago during the construction of the monument, along with stone arrow heads and slate wristguards that protected the arm from the recoil of the bow. Archaeologists named him the Amesbury Archer. "

Subsequent studies on this guys teeth indicated that he immigrated from Switzerland.

[SunkenCiv]

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[gnarledmaw]

"One of Switzerland’s hit TV programmes of this summer ..."

Anyone 'round here know the name of that show? That sounds like the rare sort of TV show that I might be interested in sitting through...

[blam]

The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined?

"Mike Baillie is Professor of Palaeoecology at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is an authority on tree rings and their use in dating ancient events (every year, a tree adds a "ring" to its trunk as it grows - good years are represented by thick rings while bad years are represented by thin rings).
He conducted a complete (and continuous) review of annual global tree growth patterns over the last 5,000 years and found that there were five major environmental shocks that were witnessed worldwide. These shocks were reflected in the ring widths being very thin. Wanting to know more, he turned to human historical records, and found that the years in question (between 2354 and 2345 BC, 1628 and 1623 BC, 1159 and 1141 BC, 208 and 204 BC, and AD 536 and 545) all corresponded with "dark ages" in civilisation. "

[Oberon]

Your post does not imply that there aren’t still bodies of floating tree-ring data that have yet to be anchored.

[Fred Nerks]

Cultural Response to Environmental Change on the BA northern Alpine lakes

The Middle Bronze Age hiatus in the northern Alpine region is one of the most intriguing occupational gaps within the whole lake-dwelling chronology. A particular feature of this abandonment is that it seems to have occurred fairly suddenly. Proof of this hypothesis comes from three lacustrine sites situated on two of the main northern Alpine lakes, namely Lake Constance and Lake Zurich. Archaeological as well as environmental analyses show that Bodman-Schachen 1 (Lake Constance), Arbon-Bleiche 2 (Lake Constance) and ZH-Mozartstrasse (Lake Zurich) were all deserted within a time span of five years in the last decade of the sixteenth century BC. But, if there was indeed an abrupt change in climate, how could the various lakes and in particular Lake Constance and Lake Zurich have responded in the same way to climatic variability? ...

Location of Middle Bronze Age former lake-dwellings in the Kreuzlingen region, Lake Constance