Archaeological trail (La Charbonnière)
Coordinates: 47 ° 18 '53 " N , 7 ° 23' 40" E
The archaeological nature trail at La Charbonnière (Combe Chopin) leads you through the pre-industrial history of the Jura near Roches in the canton of Bern in Switzerland .
During the work on the A16 motorway (Transjurane), sites from different eras were discovered in the gorges between Moutier and Courrendlin , which are related to the extraction and use of local mineral resources. The archaeological excavations have uncovered a racing furnace for smelting iron ore from around 1200 (dated from ceramic finds and C14 method ). In the absence of nozzles, the stove probably worked by means of a natural ventilation duct. Based on the large amount of slag that was discovered , its production volume is estimated at more than a ton, making it medium-sized for that time.
In addition to the remains of four charcoal piles from the 17th to 19th centuries Century three well-preserved lime kilns from the 18th and 19th centuries were detected. A section of the old canyon road dating from the Middle Ages has also been excavated.
Due to the accumulation of production sites that are closely related to the use of wood as fuel, the Roches site is exemplary of various pre-industrial activities on the Jura Arc ( iron , charcoal, limestone ). An archaeological educational trail was created on site, which provides information about the importance of a sub-area of the Jurassic cultural heritage.
literature
- Brochure (PDF file; 995 kB) Du passage naturel à l'autoroute modern: modern balade archéologique à travers l'histoire préindustrielle jurassienne. - Multilingual guide to the trail
- Ch. Gerber: Fer, charbon et chaux, activités préindustrielles dans le Jura bernois: les examples de Roches et Moutier . Bern 2002.