Lake Dwellings Museum

6 March 2020

The Society for Lake Dwelling Archaeology and Regional Ethnology was founded in 1922 and manages the  Lake Dwelling Museum in Unteruhldingen (Germany).

The Society studies the prehistory in the Lake Constance area and the archaeology of lake dwellings. Lake dwellings are a phenomenon that continues to surprise scholars and the public. Most lake dwellings exist in Switzerland and Germany.

Italy has a high concentration of lake dwellings in the Adige (Süd-Tirol), and France has several lake dwelling settlements in Savoie.

This heritage was submerged under water until the late nineteenth century, when archaeologists made their first astonishing discoveries of a lost civilisation. The decorative arts, housing and utilities are impressive.

Switzerland proudly presented the first replicas of lake dwellings at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867/68. The Laténium in Neuchâtel and the Lake Dwelling Museum in Unteruhldingen are the most interesting sites.

Lake dwelling was a regional phenomenon, spanning present-day national borders and illustrating the ancient interdependence of cultures from the prehistoric period onwards, even before the so-called Romanisation, which began with the start of the Roman occupation.

(Further information: www.pfahlbauten.com and www.latenium.ch).