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View from Uetliberg to the location of the lakeside settlement
Location at today's Utoquai
Sketch of the Grosser and Kleiner Hafner and the remains of the settlement at Alpenquai and Bauschänzli by Ferdinand Keller (probably around 1868/69)
Location of the Hafner Islands in the Lake Zurich Basin (1848)
The area of ​​the settlement between today's and Stadelhoferplatz around 1846. At the bottom left you can see the Bauschänzli and the old town house at today's Bürkliplatz .
Drawing of the Hafner Islands by Ferdinand Keller (around 1868/72)

Kleiner Hafner is a prehistoric settlement on a peninsula in the lower basin of Lake Zurich in the area of ​​the city of Zurich in Switzerland . The Grosse Hafner is located southwest of the «Kleiner Hafner» . Both sites are among the 111 sites with the greatest scientific potential that were included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites on June 27, 2011 as part of the lakeside settlements in the Alpine region .

location

The “Kleiner Hafner” settlement was just 100 meters south of the Bellevue on the right bank of the lake basin in front of today's Sechseläutenwiese . The lake level ( 406  m above sea level ) is higher than during the Stone and Bronze Ages due to climatic differences and the water correction; the site is three meters below the surface of the water. Layer pressures and subsidence also have an effect on the location of the archaeological layers , and so the original location of the prehistoric villages cannot be inferred from today's.

The settlement area is thought to have comprised around 0.1 hectare, a large part of which was researched by the underwater archeology of the city of Zurich . The so-called VIP platform (raft) of Euro 08 anchored at Bellevue is said not to have destroyed the remains of the settlement and to have been anchored in an area of ​​the settlement that has already been excavated and documented. After the platform was dismantled on August 4, 2008, divers from the municipal department for underwater archeology will check the condition of the site.

Settlement history

Neolithic and Bronze Age lakeside settlements existed in Lake Zurich between 4500 and 850 BC. The villages of the 5th to 2nd millennium BC were probably located . BC on an island or peninsula off the then bank of Lake Zurich and today's Limmat river . The recurring settlement of the Kleiner Hafner left a dense field of around 2500 to 3000 piles, i.e. H. about 22 piles per square meter.

The currently best researched epoch of the settlements - among other things at the Alpenquai , Bauschänzli and on the Kleiner and Grossen Hafner - is the cultural layer of the Pfyn culture (3850–3450 BC). Most of the villages were only inhabited for 10 to 20 years. So far ten villages of the Pfyner culture have been identified in the urban area, which were probably not inhabited at the same time. 100 to 200 people are likely to have lived in the Stone Age village at the same time.

Archaeological exploration

As early as the late 1860s, various prehistoric settlements were discovered during dredging in connection with the construction of the lake aqua structures and were probably documented by Ferdinand Keller in 1868/69 . Keller referred to a large number of piles lying in the lake bed. Further investigations followed on a small scale around the year 1883, whereby over 50 bronze and more than 100 stone ax blades are said to have come to light; however, the majority of the finds were lost. Archaeological research had no priority, and with the completion of the Quai Bridge (1883/4) the remains of the settlement were considered to have disappeared.

Under the direction of Ulrich Ruoff , then city archaeologist and pioneer of underwater archeology , divers succeeded in rediscovering the prehistoric island settlement of Kleiner Hafner on December 24, 1966. With the beginning of institutionalized diving archeology in the canton of Zurich, the first archaeological underwater excavations were carried out in Switzerland between 1967 and 1969. The main aim of the diving excavations from 1981 to 1984 was the fine stratigraphic investigation of the Neolithic settlement remains . During the two excavation campaigns, the diving team was able to secure the more or less complete household effects of the village population: cooking and storage vessels made of ceramics , tools made of antlers, bones and flint, stone axes, remains of textiles and jewelry made of animal teeth or stone beads. In the later settlement phase from the Bronze Age , axes, knives, fishhooks and bronze jewelry were found. Around 3000 piles, anchoring and other construction timbers, hearths made of clay and parts of looms could also be secured.

Findings

Cultures in Switzerland

Proven epochs of the site are, each separated from deposits of sea ​​chalk and with a high proportion of organic material and numerous, partially completely preserved finds:

  1. Late Bronze Age culture (around 850 BC)
  2. Horgen culture (3240-2780 BC)
  3. Pfyner culture (3850–3450 BC)
  4. Cortaillod culture (4200-3870 BC)
  5. Egolzwiler culture (4430–4230 BC)

The houses did not stand on platforms in the lake supported by posts, but at ground level or a little higher in the bank area, which was probably repeatedly exposed to flooding. Lake Zurich and probably also the Limmat served as a transport route and source of food.

Ceramic remnants ( Horgen culture ) from the wetland settlement on the construction site for the Opéra parking garage not far from the Kleiner Hafner

There was evidence of agriculture , hunting and collecting . Thanks to excellent conservation conditions in the humid environment of the bank settlements, for the period from around 4350 to 2400 BC Very good knowledge of the way of life and economy known. The consolidation of livestock farming took place during this period .

The residents' menu was surprisingly rich: wheat, barley, peas, poppy seeds, wild apples, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, hazelnuts as well as whitefish, perch, pike and catfish from Lake Zurich. Bones of domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and pigs as well as remains of wild animals were found : aurochs , deer, roe deer, wild boars, hares, horses and bears. No human skeletons were found during the excavation, as these have long since decomposed without grave sites.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Kleine Hafner was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on June 27, 2011 as one of the Swiss lakeside settlements in the Alpine region .

literature

  • Peter J. Suter et al. : Zurich Kleiner Hafner: diving excavations 1981–1984 . Monographs of Canton Archeology Zurich 3. Verlag Fotorotar, Zurich 1987. ISBN 3-905647-72-9
  • Johannes Hoops et al .: Real Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity . Walter de Gruyter (Ed.), 1916. ISBN 3110181169

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Website palafittes.org: Swiss sites in the UNESCO World Heritage Site ( Memento of the original dated May 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 15, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.palafittes.org
  2. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center website (June 27, 2011), press release Six new sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List , accessed February 15, 2013
  3. ↑ Building Construction Department of the City of Zurich, Current: Das Floss, accessed on August 10, 2008
  4. ↑ a b NZZ Online (July 16, 2008): A shop window for the pile dwellings under the Euro raft , accessed on August 10, 2008
  5. ↑ a b c Office for Urban Development of the City of Zurich: Information board Euro08 platform (The raft) and underwater archeology.
  6. ↑ Dr. Walter Drack: Zürcher Denkmalpflege, 6th report 1968/1969 . Directorate of Public Buildings of the Canton of Zurich (Ed.), Zurich 1973
  7. ↑ Peter Lehmann, Jörg Schibler: Pets: Prehistory and Early History. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz ., Accessed on August 10, 2008
  8. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center
  9. ↑ Website palafittes.org: Directory of all pile dwellings in the UNESCO World Heritage Site ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 1, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.palafittes.org

Coordinates: 47 ° 21 '57.9 "  N , 8 ° 32' 39.1"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred eighty-three thousand five hundred and ten  /  246727