Jakob Heierli

Jakob Heierli

Jakob Heierli (born August 11, 1853 in Herisau , † July 18, 1912 in Zurich ) was a Swiss teacher , prehistorian and archaeologist .

Life

Jakob Heierli was born on August 11, 1853 in Herisau . In 1873 he acquired his teaching license in Kreuzlingen , passed the examination to become a secondary teacher at the University of Zurich in 1879 and worked as a secondary teacher in Hottingen (now a district of Zurich ) from 1882 until his death .

From 1880, Heierli devoted himself to researching Swiss prehistory in addition to teaching . He attended lectures at the University of Zurich, at the Polytechnic Zurich (today ETH Zurich ) and took part in geological excursions.

Heierli was a member of the board of the Antiquarian Society in Zurich until 1904 . From 1888 to 1893 he was Vice President of the Ethnographic Society (later the Geographical-Ethnographic Society) in Zurich, then an actuary of this society until his death .

Through the Venia legendi , Heierli was a private lecturer in prehistory at the University of Zurich from 1889 to 1912 and at the Zurich Polytechnic from 1900. In 1900 the University of Zurich awarded him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa "in recognition of his services to research into Swiss prehistory". In 1901 Heierli published the first comprehensive overview on the subject with «Prehistory of Switzerland».

In 1907 Heierli was a co-founder of the Swiss Society for Prehistory (today Archeology Switzerland ) and its secretary until his death.

Heierli died on July 18, 1912 in Zurich. He was married to Julie Heierli-Weber (née Weber), who founded the scientific research into Swiss costumes.

Act

Jakob Heierli participated in a large number of archaeological excavations in Switzerland. He made archaeological maps for the cantons of Zurich , Thurgau , Aargau , Solothurn , Schaffhausen , St. Gallen and Appenzell . He had already completed the manuscript of the material for an archaeological map of the whole of Switzerland.

As Secretary General of the Swiss Society for Prehistory, Heierli compiled the “National Archaeological Documentation”, which is now in the “Swiss Archeology” archive. There he created a dossier for every Swiss community in which he filed find reports, letters, excavation notes, newspaper reports, etc. according to the respective archaeological epochs.

In his lectures, Heierli always tried to attract new interested parties to prehistory. In addition, he tried to arouse interest in the broadest circles through popular science lectures and publications.

Heierli also visited various prehistoric excavations abroad and made numerous acquaintances with foreign researchers. He was a corresponding member of numerous foreign societies.

literature

• Thomas Fuchs : Jakob Heierli. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 4th December 2007 .
• Otto Stoll : D ^r Jakob Heierli. 1853-1912. In: Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society . Volume 95, 1912, pp. 151-166. With catalog raisonné ( online ).
• Jakob Heierli: August 11, 1853 to July 18, 1912 . In: Annual report of the Swiss Society for Prehistory . tape 5 , 1912, pp. 24–51 ( e-periodica.ch ).