Pile dwelling museum Lüscherz
20 June 2021
At Lake Biel (Bielersee/lac de Bienne), more than 35 sites of pile dwellings from the period between 4300 and 800 B.C. are known. They were the villages of the first farmers and fishermen in this region.
The village Lüscherz (canton Bern) is one of the most relevant sites in Switzerland. Several Neolithic shore settlements (ca. 5000-1800 B.C.) have been discovered.
The pile dwelling museum Lüscherz (Pfahlbaumuseum Lüscherz (Sammlung Hans Iseli)) gives an insight into the life of these villages on the lake of Biel between 4000 and 800 B.C.
Hans Iseli (1924-2003) collected more than 10,000 objects made of stone, flint, bone, antlers and clay during the 60 years he spent collecting. The exhibition in the museum deals with the following themes:
The lowering of the water level of the Jura due to the Juragewässerkorrektion (1868-1891), the habitation of the beach plateau at Lake Biel for five millennia, the prehistoric craftsmanship of ceramics and textiles, the construction of houses, the village plan and the building history, the regional trade contacts from the 4th to the 1st millennium B.C., the tombs and cult sites and the spiritual life.
In a chronological table, the most important dates of the region’s cultural history are identified and compared with the cultures of the Mediterranean region.
(Source and further information: www.pfahlbaumuseum-lüscherz.ch).