CH-BE-02

Short Description
The "Village Station Lüscherz" at the shallow southern shore of Lake Bieler has been known since 1863. Old maps reference large fields of piles in the ground. The oldest settlement remains are located along today’s shoreline. The extensive pile field represents several prolonged settlement phases, with the newer construction phases moving first eastwards, and then after 2800 BC, toward the deeper part of the lake. In the 1870’s. following the first Jurassic Lakeshores correction, when water levels sunk, uncontrolled “Treasure hunting” and artefact collecting took place, that soon needed to be stopped by the authorities.
The first documented surveys of the site started in the 1880’s. In 1954, the Historic Museum of Bern conducted a series of excavations, which were continued by the Archaeological Service since 1986. The surveys indicate a thick and widely spread archaeological layer, and produced several prehistoric pieces of construction lumber. Some of the deposits in the lake are extremely well preserved until today.