Steigelfadbalm
The Steigelfadbalm is a cave on the south side of the Rigi , above Vitznau in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland . It is located at 960 m above sea level. M. The 26.5 m deep and 27 m wide cave was formed by removing a weather about two meters thick layer of marl between two Nagelfluhbänken . During the Würm Ice Age , the abri on the edge of the Reuss Glacier was inhabited by cave bears, as excavation finds show.
Excavation work and finds
Between 1913 and 1937, the Lucerne private scholar Wilhelm Amrein-Küpfer (1872-1946) carried out several excavation campaigns to research the cave deposits. The son of the founder of the Lucerne Glacier Garden was supported by the excavator Otto Köberle . Layers of loam appeared under the sandy soil. In the upper part of the stratigraphy they found finds from the Bronze Age and the Neolithic Age, including Ice Age animal bones, cave bears , possibly cave hyenas , ibex and deer, as well as a few tools made of radiolarite . This raw material is available in the local Nagelfluh. The stone artifacts cannot be precisely dated. The cave bear became extinct in the Alps around 20,000 years ago.
Amrein, who also describes several campfire sites, was convinced that he had found a resting place for Neanderthals from the Moustérian period and described the Steigelfadbalm as a paleolithic cave. The finds date back to the early days of modern humans. Instead of hunted prey, however, they presumably come from naturally dead animals that did not survive hibernation. The bones have not yet been examined for traces of processing.
The cave bear finds are exhibited in the regional museum of the Lucerne Rigi communities and in the glacier garden or are in the depot of the Canton Archeology Lucerne.
literature
- Wilhelm Amrein: Prehistory of Lake Lucerne and Central Switzerland , Aarau 1939.
- Catherine and Urs Leuzinger-Piccand: Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age hunters and gatherers , in: History of the Canton of Schwyz , Vol. 1, Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-0340-1118-1 .
- Ebbe Nielsen: First people on the lakes and rivers of Central Switzerland. In: Pius Stadelmann (Ed.): Vierwaldstättersee. Habitat for plants, animals and people. Lucerne 2007, pp. 56–65.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Catherine and Urs Leuzinger-Piccand: Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age hunters and gatherers , in: Geschichte des Kantons Schwyz , vol. 1, p. 64.
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 1 '3.1 " N , 8 ° 29' 38.9" E ; CH1903: 680.25 thousand / two hundred and seven thousand nine hundred twenty-four