Uf the Höchi

Uf der Höchi is a high medieval desert near Finsterhennen in the Bernese Seeland, in Switzerland . The place was almost completely archaeologically examined from 2002 to 2005 and could be dated to the 10th to 13th centuries by means of radiocarbon analysis. Uf der Höchi was created in the course of the high medieval restructuring of the rural area. Finsterhennen is historically associated with the Counts of Neuchâtel zu Nidau .

The settlement consisted of four farmsteads with pit houses and numerous other post pits. 22 pit houses, unevenly distributed over the four farms, are mostly related to textile production on step looms. The most recent data suggest that the settlement should be abandoned at the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century.

Finds

Some leg and iron implements, bronze finds, stone implements and five ceramic cooking pots represent all of the artificial finds. This lack of finds is typical of high medieval settlements of the 12th century in the western Central Plateau.

The archaeobotanical diagnosis revealed that threshing residues, husk wheat and small-seeded cereal weeds are strongly underrepresented compared to parallel rural settlements, while the archaeozoological studies of animal bones represent medieval rural life. Horses and cattle were primarily used as draft animals. Pigs were kept exclusively as meat suppliers. The slag is evidence of forging activity in the settlement.

Older activities are documented by Bronze Age ceramics, a late bronze-Hallstatt layer remnant, two Latène Age dates and Roman stone fragments.

literature

• Katharina König: Dark hens. Uf the Höchi . Rub Media, Bern 2011, ISBN 978-3-907663-28-8 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 1 '50 "  N , 7 ° 10' 34"  E ; CH1903:  580045  /  208869