Meilen–Rorenhaab

The site of the prehistoric settlement

Meilen–Rorenhaab is one of the 111 serial sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, of which are 56 located in Switzerland.[1][2]

Geography

The site is located on Zürichsee lakeshore in Rohrenhaab, a locality of the municipality of Meilen in the Canton of Zürich in Switzerland. Because the lake has grown in size over time, the original piles are now around 4 metres (13 ft) to 7 metres (23 ft) under the water level of 406 metres (1,332 ft). The settlement comprises 0.7 hectares (1.73 acres), and the buffer zone including the lake area comprises 4.8 hectares (11.86 acres) in all. In spring 1855, in the context of work on land reclamation at Zürichsee (Lake Zürich), the archaeologist Ferdinand Keller discovered the remains of the site Meilen–Rorenhaab.[3]

Description

As mentioned, this site was the starting point of pile-dwelling research and therefore interesting from the point of view of research history. It is one of several sites in a small area illustrating the typical settlement dynamics of a micro-region during the Neolithic. All periods are represented here, usually with several settlement phases, but particularly from the Early Bronze Age interesting are numerous dendrochronological dates, which allow to study the development of this period.[4]

Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance

As well as being part of the 56 Swiss sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, the settlement is also listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as a Class object.[5]

See also

Literature

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Meilen–Rorenhaab.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Der See erzählt.

References

  1. "Prehistoric Pile Dwellings in Switzerland". Swiss Coordination Group UNESCO Palafittes (palafittes.org). Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  2. "World Heritage". palafittes.org. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  3. Ferdinand Keller: Die keltischen Pfahlbauten in den Schweizerseen, Band 1. Mittheilungen der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zürich, Zürich 1854.
  4. "Sites Switzerland: Meilen–Rorenhaab (CH-ZH-06)". palafittes.org. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  5. "A-Objekte KGS-Inventar". Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, Amt für Bevölkerungsschutz. 2009. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  6. Beat Eberschweiler (2004). "Ur- und frühgeschichtliche Verkehrswege über den Zürichsee: Erste Ergebnisse aus den Taucharchäologischen Untersuchungen beim Seedamm" (in German). ETH Bibliothek. Retrieved 2014-12-10.

Coordinates: 47°17′49.91″N 8°35′46.31″E / 47.2971972°N 8.5961972°E