Renata Huber

The discovery of a fully preserved Neolithic double axe, with a handle wrapped in elaborately decorated birch bark, made the Cham-Eslen pile-dwelling site in Lake Zug internationally famous around 25 years ago. The (re)discovery of this shallow in the Cham lake basin as an archaeological site also opened up a new perspective for underwater archaeology in the canton of Zug. The site was subsequently excavated almost in its entirety in several stages.

The analyses provide a picture of a multi-phase fishing hut. Around 1200 net sinkers, as well as archaeozoological finds and perch DNA from a birch pitch "chewing gum", confirm the focus on fishing. In addition to this foraging component, which is also reflected in the archaeobotanical finds, the archaeological material includes common settlement finds such as pottery, stone axes, flint artefacts, animal bones and cultivated plant remains.

From the combination of dendroarchaeological investigations, 14C dating, micromorphological to rough stratigraphic considerations as well as typochronology, at least three phases can be identified: a first one in the 43rd century BC, a second one in the 42nd/41st century BC and a third one around 4000 BC, making the Cham-Eslen fishing huts one of the oldest pile dwelling sites in Switzerland.

Archaeological research of the area around Lake Pfäffikon is closely linked to the Zurich Oberland farmer Jakob Messikommer (1828–1917). The son of ordinary farming folk, he was brought up in Wetzikon and showed a keen interest in history and the natural sciences from an early age. His discovery of an important wetland settlement in the peat bog at Robenhausen (1858) laid the foundation for an unequalled career in research, which culminated in Messikommer being awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Zurich in 1893. His archaeological and research historical legacy is in many respects a treasure trove, which is second to none. Firstly, the old documents contain innumerable details about his excavations and, secondly, the research historical environment of the ‘pile-dwelling researcher’ and ‘antiquary’ can be reconstructed in extraordinary detail. Both of these facts make Jakob Messikommer’s estate one of the most important in terms of its scientific value.

Wetzikon-Robenhausen

The core of this publication is the analysis of the excavation records and finds from the wetland settlements at Wetzikon-Robenhausen. These were explored by Messikommer in a series of excavations spanning almost sixty years and presented to a worldwide audience in numerous publications. Not only did he tirelessly monitor the alterations to the course of the River Aa, thus preserving a multitude of important finds for posterity, but he also made a significant contribution towards the establishment of the neighbouring disciplines archaeozoology and archaeobotany by consistently recovering biological remains.
Numerous written documents provide a unique opportunity to reconstruct Messikommer’s excavations in Robenhausen. In so doing, we were able to associate many outstanding finds with particular excavation campaigns and thus with certain locations so that old finds have regained a certain degree of archaeological context, which was thought to have been lost. Messikommer’s commercial activities with all aspects of conserving and networking could also be reconstructed in an extraordinarily detailed manner. This means that the finds which were sold to museums here and abroad in order to fund the excavations can be viewed in a different light today. The finds from the 19th century excavations now play a completely different role as carriers of research historical and conservational information.
Thanks to the various data collected in the context of a site inventory compiled in the 1990s, it was possible to compare some of Messikommer’s findings with newly gathered field data. This comparison revealed that his records were very reliable and are indeed suitable as starting points for future research endeavours. This compatibility between the old and the new excavation data is all the more surprising, given the great complexity of the stratigraphy in Robenhausen due to the outstanding state of preservation of the organic components within the layers. We were able to reconstruct a rough image of the settlement sequence based on the old excavation records, the data and the old finds. The earliest deposits dated from the Early Pfyn Culture. These were followed by settlement remains from the Middle and Late Pfyn Cultures, the Horgen Culture, the Corded Ware period and finally the Early and Late Bronze Ages. This settlement sequence is partially supported by radiocarbon and dendrochronological dates.
An assemblage of loom weights recorded in situ is particularly worth noting. It was found in 1999 in a burnt layer associated with almost 30 textile fragments. It is quite likely that this was a Pfyn-period weaving frame, which had been destroyed during a conflagration and had collapsed on top of a multitude of finished and half-finished textile products. Various archaeological and archaeobotanical features indicated that a surplus of textiles may have possibly been produced in the Pfyn Culture. Several separate accumulations of wild animal bones (aurochs, European bison, badger, marten, hedgehog, deer) point to a hitherto rarely documented kind of waste disposal in the Pfyn Culture. Particularly noteworthy were two features with aurochs and European bison bones, as they were found in association with human skull remains.
The rich assemblage of finds represented the entire known range of organic and inorganic remains usually found in Northern Alpine wetland settlements. Outstanding finds were Pfyn-period crucibles, numerous perforated axes made of rock, axes made of antler as well as wooden artefacts, including several unique implements. A large number of textile finds from the earlier excavations were also of immense importance.

Wetzikon-Himmerich

This wetland settlement on the southern shore of Lake Pfäffikon was discovered by Jakob Messikommer in the late 1850s and has become known in research circles thanks to a small assemblage of Middle Neolithic potsherds. Apart from these, hardly any relevant information about the site has been presented up to now. Gathered up in the 19th and 20th centuries, many of the finds are not easily accessible, which means that they can only be presented in a summarising overview. The assemblage includes artefacts from the Middle Neolithic Grossgartach group, the Cortaillod and Horgen Cultures as well as from the Late Bronze Age. Some rather undiagnostic shards may point to a Pfyn-period settlement. In addition, a small number of Roman finds represent the use of the locality in late antiquity.

The area around Lake Pfäffikon

Besides finds from the wetland settlements of Wetzikon-Robenhausen and Wetzikon-Himmerich, individual finds from other areas around Lake Pfäffikon have been presented and put side by side for the first time. In so doing, questions regarding the structure and organisation of the settlement landscape were raised and put into context with the body of information currently available.

Die 14C-Daten der beiden Fundstellen reichen vom Spätmesolithikum bis in die römische Zeit. Sie zeigen, dass in der Sennweid zu verschiedenen Zeiten gesiedelt wurde. Eine kontinuierliche Besiedlung lässt sich aus den Daten hingegen nicht ableiten. Vielmehr zeichnen sich zeitliche Schwerpunkte ab, die überwiegend den typologischen Datierungen der Funde und den Dendrodaten entsprechen. So fällt die Masse der Daten in die gut dokumentierten Horgener Siedlungsphasen des 29. und 28. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Einige wenige könnten aus Zeiten stammen, die in der Sennweid bislang noch nicht mit Funden oder Dendrodaten belegt sind. Dazu gehören fünf Daten, die ausser ins Spätmesolithikum, das durch Funde gut dokumentiert ist, auch ins Frühneolithikum passen könnten. Dieses ist im nahe gelegenen Bibersee-Moor indirekt über Getreidepollen nachgewiesen.

A Zug comedy of errors: New news about the well-known Neolithic axe blade type Zug from Gotthard-Serpentinite. Part 2: Design, raw material and cultural context
After the confusing stories about the discovery and the many mistakes of the eponymous Zug-type blade from Zug-Alpenstrasse 2 in the first part (see KMUZ report, 77-86) have been cleared as far as possible, in the second part cultural context.we deal with the question of how the main character of this comedy of errors came into being, then with the question of its raw material and where it comes from. Finally the axe blade is placed in a larger cultural context.

TPETREQUIN A.-M., PETREQUIN P., ERRERA M., GROSS E. et HUBER R., 2024.- The eponymous axe type Zug. The history of its discovery. Cultural prominence and its raw material from the Gotthard massif. Rapport de recherche, Besançon MSHE C.-N. Ledoux et Gray, Centre de recherche archéologique de la vallée de l'Ain, 23 p., 12 fig., 1 map and inventory, multigraphié.
Abstract
There is some controversy regarding the site and history of discovery of the eponymous axe blade of the type Zug. A reappraisal of the archive material has now ascertained that the axe blade corresponds to the one found in 1867 at Alpenstrasse 2 in Zug. A similar blade was fished out of Lake Zug in 1860 in the very area where the site of Cham-Eslen was discovered in 1996. It was later assumed by some that this had been the eponymous blade of the type Zug; however, it is likely that the blade found at Cham-Eslen corresponds, in fact, to a perforated axe blade that was later mistakenly assumed to be from Unterägeri.
These two axe blades as well as the double axe of Cham-Eslen are early pieces of evidence of the quarrying of Serpentinite in the Gotthard area as well as of the processing of said stone in the lakeside dwellings around Lake Zug during the 5th and 4th millenium BC. Contrary to earlier hypotheses, it would not have been possible to meet the requirements for such a specialised and selective Serpentinite production using only the moraine boulders from within the vicinity of the production centres as raw materials. Geoarchaeological prospection and the comparison between spectroradiometric analyses of the geological and archaeological material established that the raw material of the eponymous axe blade was instead either extracted directly from the Serpentinite lenses in the Gemsstock area or from moraines near those outcrops. The same is true for some very similar axe blades of the type Zug found in the Swiss Plateau and around Lake Constance.
The group of remarkable Serpentinite blades from the Gotthard discussed in this article is closely related to the extraordinary blades from the Breton Carnac sphere which in turn is connected to the Jadeite blade tradition of Monte Viso and Monte Beigua.
Key words : axe type Zug, Neolithic, serpentinite, Gotthard Massif, raw material extraction, history of research, object biography.

For the first time, a large and well-preserved tusk of a late-glacial mammoth from central Switzerland was examined in toto with use of a clinical scanning device featuring an improved design with an 82-cm-wide bore (SOMATOM X.ceed, Siemens Healthineers). The CT scans showed annual increments of dentin apposition from the central canal. A total of 32 cones were counted, resulting in an estimation of a minimum age of 32 years at the time of death. Please follow link for fulltext: http://dx.doi.org/10.1148/radiol.220265.

In archaeology, environmental history all too often focused on the individual settlements and on the economic use of their immediate environment. This view fails to acknowledge the importance of other actors (e.g. animals, plants, waters) interacting with humans. Outside the settlements, the traces of humans and these other actors are entangled and become difficult to discern. This is especially true for processes in deltas, which are inherently dynamic, complex, short-lived and fragmented. The life and activities of humans in such areas can only be properly assessed if the habitat as a whole with all its actors is understood and a long-term perspective is adopted. Due to intensive construction work in the Lorze Delta since the 1980s, the archaeological department of Canton Zug has carried out a number of excavations. However, only now has the basic information about the sites (e.g. location, sediments and dating) been more broadly compiled and the results of the different studies been collated. This has led to ground-breaking insights into the cultural and natural interactions in the catchment area of the Lorze River. In the early stages of the Lorze Delta during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene, after the melting of the Reuss Glacier, the only just populated landscape was characterised by unstable geological conditions. When analysing Neolithic and Bronze Age pile dwellings, understanding the Lorze Delta’s formation is a prerequisite for appreciating the sites’ location. In the alluvial fan, long-term changes in human and riverine activity from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages can be detected. Today, human impact instead of geological processes write the delta’s story: the river course has been diverted to give way for a motorway while the delta itself has been altered artificially.

In archaeology, environmental history all too often focused on the individual settlements and on the economic use of their immediate environment. This view fails to acknowledge the importance of other actors (e.g. animals, plants, waters) interacting with humans. Outside the settlements, the traces of humans and these other actors are entangled and become difficult to discern. This is especially true for processes in deltas, which are inherently dynamic, complex, short-lived and fragmented. The life and activities of humans in such areas can only be properly assessed if the habitat as a whole with all its actors is understood and a long-term perspective is adopted.
Due to intensive construction work in the Lorze Delta since the 1980s, the archaeological department of Canton Zug has carried out a number of excavations. However, only now has the basic information about the sites (e.g. location, sediments and dating) been more broadly compiled and the results of the different studies been collated. This has led to ground-breaking insights into the cultural and natural interactions in the catchment area of the Lorze River.
In the early stages of the Lorze Delta during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene, after the melting of the Reuss Glacier, the only just populated landscape was characterised by unstable geological conditions. When analysing Neolithic and Bronze Age pile dwellings, understanding the Lorze Delta’s formation is a prerequisite for appreciating the sites’ location. In the alluvial fan, long-term changes in human and riverine activity from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages can be detected. Today, human impact instead of geological processes write the delta’s story: the river course has been diverted to give way for a motorway while the delta itself has been altered artificially.

Introduction to a series of papers representing some of the contributions to a session with the same title, organised by the authors together with Ekaterina Dolbunova, Tryfon Giagkoulis and Goce Naumov, at the 25th Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), 4­-7 September 2019, in Bern. Abstracts of all the presentations can be found on the following web page: https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2019/Programme.aspx?Program=3#Program; the papers are published open access here: https://www.dguf.de/earlyview.html

A small exhibition near their find spot shows the remains of the Rotkreuz mammoth bones and tusk found in 2015. In addition to display cases containing the finds and panels with text and images, the exhibition links to interactive 3D models of the bones derived from CT scans (accessible via https://skfb.ly/6BRT6). These can be 3D printed and used in museum education.

B. Bigler, R. Huber, J. Reinhard, G. Pegurri, Ein Mammut kehrt zurück. Tugium 35, 2019, 43.

Three elk (Alces alces) bones found in 1955 in Zug-Gartenstadt, Switzerland, two shoulder blades and a tibia fragment, have been analysed anew: They date to the Late Ice Age around 12400 BP (12776-12220 calBC) according to two C14 dates - the finds are currently the oldest known elk bones in Switzerland after the Last Glacial Maximum and represent the expansion of elk habitats in the Bølling interstadial. The tibia fragment shows cut marks and has been crushed for bone marrow extraction. The dating of the bones corresponds to late Magdalenian sites in the vincinity.

J. Reinhard, R. Huber, D. Drucker, W. Müller, Von Irrtümern, Übersehenem und moderner Analytik. Neue Erkenntnisse zu den spätglazialen Elchknochen von Zug-Gartenstadt. Tugium 35, 2019, 129-138.

165 years after the discovery of pile dwellings in Switzerland, this meeting in Bern should be an occasion to relate archaeological waterscapes to their surrounding landscapes. Due to their inherent fluidity and their impact on cultural phenomena, waterscapes are destined to make us look beyond rigid paradigms, dichotomies, and categories, in order to dissolve them and merge the results into something new.
Relating and integrating the various aspects of life in waterscapes and landscapes, as well as their transitional areas, creates new and unexpected narratives. Archaeological remains in waterscapes, (in or at lakes and sea, in peatlands, bogs etc.) must be seen in their relationship to and their symbiosis with water. The traditional territorial models, which saw dwellings or infrastructure sites as simply located by the water, limited the field of vision.
In order to understand waterscapes, the microarchaeological frog’s eye perspective, which examines the local aquatic environment, must be supplemented with a broader perspective, for water does not separate – it connects. Thus, archaeological sites must be viewed in relation to the water- and landscapes around them, in relation to each other, and as part of a wide and far-reaching network of similar relationships.
There is a wide variety of methods (e.g. from the field of landscape archaeology or network analysis) to investigate the relationships between terrestrial and aquatic areas and the transitional fields between them as well as the “amphibious” networks created by them. These networks are the result of a lively, diverse and constantly changing interplay between different actors (humans, animals, plants and other matters), factors, and forces. The focus of this session is on this interplay between water and land as well as its specific taphonomical, ecological, economical, climatic and cultural factors (which may result in pollution or overexploitation) regardless of restricting time or space frames.

In 2015 the skeletal remains of a late glacial bull mammoth, approximately 17,000 years old, were discovered in Risch-Rotkreuz (Canton Zug, Switzerland, location: https://s.geo.admin.ch/7d5a3a861a), see https://goo.gl/b2bX2D for the original publication. In the meantime bones and tusk have been analysed both for stable isotopes and aDNA. The results for the stable isotopes point to a cold area context in which the Rotkreuz mammoth occupied the typical niche of its species in the "mammoth steppe" ecosystem. aDNA results (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MH158736) show that the Rotkreuz mammoth belonged to clade I, as expected due to its age; and establish it as the next known "relative" to the mammoth from Kesslerloch cave (Canton Schaffhausen, Switzerland). In addition conservation of the mammoth remains has now been completed which allowed a documentation via computed tomography, in order to examine the structure of the tusk as well as a 3D documentation of all the finds (see https://skfb.ly/6BRT6).

D. Drucker, A. Furtwängler, V. Schünemann, R. Huber, J. Reinhard, Durchleuchtet und analysiert. Ein Update zur Genetik, Isotopie und Radiografie des "letzten Zuger Mammuts". Tugium 34, 2018, 123-131.

The Roman villa rustica of Cham-Heiligkreuz (Canton Zug, Switzerland; see https://goo.gl/9qtK7w for its location on a map) was partly excavated in the 1930ies. The exact position of the excavation trenches has been debated for a long time and was only reconstructed in 1993 using archival data. This placement has now been verified by a combination of geomagnetic survey and aerial infrared photography even though the location of the villa's pars urbana is still unknown. Furthermore, numerous snow marks seem to show a network of (mostly undated, presumably post medieval and/or modern) paths and tracks in the area.

J. Reinhard, Chr. Rinne, R. Huber, Spurensuche mit Infrarotkamera, Metalldetektor und Magnetometer. Zur römischen villa rustica von Cham-Lindencham, Heiligkreuz. Tugium 34, 2018, 117-122 (for an additional 3D model see https://skfb.ly/6BRQP).

The approach to analyse Neolithic settlement structures only on a strict scale of ‘house – farmstead – village‘ is unrewarding in our opinion. Even individualisation, and therefore reconstruction, of separate houses in Neolithic wetland sites is much more problematic than commonly assumed (e.g. distinction of architectural units, rate of dated vs. undated piles, scarce evidence for superstructures and their connection to the house layout). Many current reconstructions of houses and village layouts are mostly based on unproven presumptions. Taphonomic complexity in wetland layers is so difficult to understand that trivial connections between layers and architectural structures cannot be assumed. Concerning its basic hypothesis and the consequential economical and social implications, this paper focuses on discussing settlement patterns in the Canton of Zug (Switzerland) and highlighting two examples of current research in pile dwellings at Lake Zug (Cham-Eslen), Zug-Riedmatt. The high density of (potentially) contemporary sites in certain periods as well as the evidence of specialised ‒ and possibly only or predominantly seasonal ‒ lake dwellings speak in favour of complex patterns of settlement, exploitation and communication structured on a large scale as opposed to small, economically autarchic and self-contained village units. Hence we would like to contrast the traditional hierarchical model (‘house – farmstead – village‘), based on historic analogies, incorrectly perceived as obvious, with a relational network-model, which is close-knit especially in the bodies of water as lifelines (routes of transport and communication, important food resources). This approach opens a broad interpretive framework regarding the results of many disciplines like archaeology of economies, demography and settlement geography.

Key words
archaeology; lake dwelling; pile dwelling; wetland site; low-level food production; autarky; network model; bodies of water as
lifelines; seasonality


Aufgrund unserer Erfahrungen mit zirkumalpinen Ufersiedlungen stellen wir den Ansatz, Siedlungsstrukturen des Neolithikums auf der Skala ‘Haus – Hof – Dorf‘ untersuchen zu wollen, grundsätzlich in Frage. Nur schon die Ansprache und infolgedessen die Rekonstruktion einzelner Gebäude ist im Ufersiedlungsneolithikum problematischer als es ein erster Blick auf die Forschungslage suggerieren mag: Die Abgrenzung der architektonischen Einheiten zueinander, der Anteil datierter bzw. undatierter Pfähle, mangelhafte Informationen zur Gestaltung des Oberbaus bzw. dessen Bezug zum Grundriss – all diese Umstände erschweren die Lesbarkeit der Pfahlpläne. Viele der aktuellen Rekonstruktionen von Einzelhäusern sowie von gesamten Siedlungsplänen beruhen auf unbewiesenen Vorannahmen. Die taphonomischen Probleme in den Ufersiedlungen erweisen sich als derart komplex, dass ein Zusammenhang zwi-schen Schichteinheiten und architektonischen Strukturen nicht einfach und eindeutig hergestellt werden kann. Diese Skizze muss sich bezüglich der Grundthese und den wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Konsequenzen auf die Diskussion der Fundverteilung im Kan-ton Zug (Schweiz) und hier auf zwei aktuelle Beispiele, nämlich die Ufersiedlungen Cham-Eslen und Zug-Riedmatt, beschränken. Die zum Teil hohe Dichte von (potentiell oder tatsächlich) gleichzeitigen und die Nachweise von spezialisierten (möglicherweise ausschliesslich oder schwergewichtig saisonal genutzten) Siedlungsplätzen an den Seeufern sprechen für komplex und grossräumig strukturierte Sied-lungs-, Nutzungs- und Kommunikationsmuster und nicht für kleinräumig territorial organisierte, ökonomisch autarke, in sich abgeschlosse-ne Dorfeinheiten. Deshalb möchten wir dem traditionell hierarchischen Modell (‘Haus – Hof – Dorf‘), das sich an uns naheliegenden histo-rischen Analogien orientiert, ein relationales Netzwerk-Modell gegenüberstellen, das sich im Bereich der Gewässer als Lebensadern, als Verkehrs- und Kommunikationswege und als Quelle wichtiger Nahrungsressourcen besonders dicht knüpft. Dieser Ansatz öffnet den Interpretationsrahmen in Bezug auf die Untersuchungsergebnisse zahlreicher Disziplinen wie Wirtschaftsarchäologie, Demographie oderSiedlungsgeographie.
Schlüsselwörter
– Archäologie; Seeufersiedlung; Pfahlbau; Feuchtbodenfundstelle; Low-Level Food Production; Autarkie; Netzwerkmodell; Gewässer als Lebensadern; Saisonalität

In July 2015, a tusk and several bone fragments of an adult mammoth bull have been unearthed on a construction site in Risch-Rotkreuz, Canton Zug, Central Switzerland. The perfectly preserved skeletal elements have been dated to the end of the last ice age at around 15'000 BC by AMS radiocarbon measurements, which is interesting also from the point of view of regional geology. The discovery of the mammoth remains, that are among the youngest ones currently known in Switzerland entailed international media coverage. See https://skfb.ly/LsnA for a mammoth skeleton 3D model with bones preserved in Rotkreuz marked in red.


Im Juli 2015 wurden auf einer Baustelle in Risch-Rotkreuz, im zentralschweizerischen Kanton Zug, ein Stosszahn und mehrere Knochenfragmente eines adulten Mammutbullen ausgegraben. AMS-Radiokarbondatierungen stellen die hervorragend erhaltenen Skelettteile ans Ende der letzten Eiszeit um 15'000 BC, was auch aus regionalgeologischer Perspektive interessant ist. Die Entdeckung der Mammutreste, die zu den jüngsten momentan in der Schweiz bekannten gehören, fand internationales Medienecho. Auf https://skfb.ly/TPAW ist das 3D-Modell eines Mammut-Skeletts verfügbar, auf dem die in Rotkreuz erhaltenen Knochen rot eingefärbt sind.

Zusammenfassung: Die Rettungsgrabungen auf der Rothuswiese in Zug (2001-2003) haben aussergewöhnlich gut erhaltene Funde und Befunde aus der Mittelbronzezeit geliefert. Zwei nebeneinanderliegende Gruben mit einer komplexen Schichtabfolge und einer grossen Menge an Keramik und anderen Objekten wurden bereits untersucht. Die vorliegende Teilauswertung lässt bereits das grosse Potenzial der Fundstelle erahnen.
Fünf vollständige Gefässprofile und weitere grosse Gefässfragmente ermöglichen eine für mittelbronzezeitliche Siedlungen differenzierte Ansprache der Gefässformen. Zudem erlaubt die qualitätvolle Grabungsdokumentation eine detaillierte Befundanalyse, welche wiederum eine Deutung ermöglicht, die über das lnterpretationskonzept "Abfallgrube" hinausgeht.

Résumé: Les fouilles de sauvetage au lieu-dit Rothuswiese à Zug (2001- 2003) ont livré des restes et des structures extrêmement bien  conservés du Bronze Moyen. Les deux fosses fouillées, situées côte à côte, contenaient une grande quantité de céramiques et d'autres objets répartis à travers une stratigraphie complexe. Les résultats partiels présentés ici permettent d'apprécier le fort potentiel de ce site.
Cinq profils céramiques complets et d'autres tessons de grande taille autorisent une approche renouvelée des formes céramiques en contexte d'habitat du Bronze moyen. En outre, la qualité exceptionnelle des relevés de terrain permet une analyse détaillée des structures, ce qui mène à une interprétation qui déborde largement du concept de „fosses-dépotoirs".

Riassunto: Gli scavi d'emergenza sulla Rothuswiese a Zugo (2001-2003) hanno portato alla luce ritrovamenti e reperti del Bronzo medio, sorprendentemente ben conservati. Finora sono state analizzate due fosse affiancate, caratterizzate da una sequenza stratigrafica complessa e grandi quantità di ceramica e altri reperti. L'analisi presente lascia intuire il grande potenziale del sito.
Cinque profili completi di ceramiche e altri grandi frammenti permettono una, per il Bronzo medio, precisa caratterizzazione delle forme ceramiche. Inoltre la documentazione minuziosa dello scavo consente un'analisi dettagliata dei ritrovamenti, Ia quale a sua volta rende possibile una lettura che va al di Ià del concetto di "fossa per rifiuti".

Summary: The rescue excavations that took place at Rothuswiese in Zug (2001-2003) brought to light exceptionally well preserved Middle Bronze Age finds and features. Two pits found next to each other with a complex sequence of layers and large amounts of pottery and other artefacts have already been studied. The partial analysis presented here hints at the considerable potential of this site.
Five complete vessel profiles and other large fragments of vessels have allowed us to identify the shapes of the vessels to an unusually high degree in Middle Bronze Age settlements. Moreover, the excellent excavation records have allowed us to carry out a detailed study of the archaeological features, which in turn enables us to arrive at an interpretation that transcends the "rubbish pit" concept.

In 2015, a tusk and several postcranial bones of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) were found during construction work in Risch-Rotkreuz (Canton Zug, Switzerland). Radiocarbon dated to around 17,000 calBP, the capital bull is one of the latest known mammoth finds from the Swiss plateau shortly before the species went extinct regionally. Though fragmented and incomplete, the impressive size of the tusk and the nearly perfect condition of the bone substance demanded a scientiic and museum presentation from early on.

In order to make the bone data available to both researchers and the wider public, all finds were subjected to computer tomography scans. The bones could be fitted into a clinical CT scanner (Siemens Somatom Deenition AS) at the local hospital with good results. Subsequently, image segmentation was performed on the standardized DICOM image stacks using the open source software '3DSlicer' (https://www.slicer.org/) to export 3D models. The sheer size of the tusk made clinical CT impossible - it was scanned using an industrial CT scanner (YXLON CT Modular) by Qualitech AG, Mägenwil. Even here, four scans were necessary to record the whole specimen. The resulting data is of significantly higher resolution compared to the clinical scans, but lower and changing contrast as well as scanning artefacts resulted in difficulties for image segmentation and the analysis of the tusk's inner structure. Despite this, the CT data enables an assessment of the ivory to be made, revealing banding of varying density. This is commonly interpreted as incremental (annual?) growth of the tusk. Through the online hosting platform 'Sketchfab' all 3D data is, in slightly reduced complexity, made publicly available to view, interact with and download for everyone. QR codes interlink the web presentation with conventional publication and museum exhibition. In addition, the 3D models and printed copies of the mammoth finds are used as educational material at the local Museum für Urgeschichte(n) in Zug.

Bei der jungneolithischen Fundstelle Cham-Eslen im zentralschweizerischen Zugersee steht ausweislich der Funde und Befunde die aquatische Ressourcennutzung klar im Zentrum. Der Abschluss der Auswertungen der mehrphasigen Fischerhütte auf einer Untiefe am Nordende des Sees, nicht unweit des einzigen Abflusses, ist der Anlass, die Fundstelle – bekannt u.a. durch die einzigartige, vollständig erhaltene Doppelaxt mit birkenrindeumwickeltem Schaft – detaillierter vorzustellen. In ihrem weiteren Umfeld, dem Chamer Seebecken, wurden in den letzten Jahren zahlreiche Steinberge – einer von ihnen ist Cham-Eslen selbst – (wieder)entdeckt. Jungneolithisch datiertes Fund- und Probenmaterial aus den Steinbergen weist auf einen gewissen zeitlichen Zusammenhang und damit einen starken Fokus auf die Nutzung der Ressource See in dieser Zeit. Allerdings ist unser Bild dieses Zeitabschnitts noch sehr lückenhaft. Die Befunde von und um Cham-Eslen lassen jedenfalls annehmen, dass der aquatische Ressourcenraum in einen grösseren amphibischen Nutzungs- und Siedlungsraum eingebunden war, in dem sich Gemeinschaften möglicherweise je nach Jahreszeit in unterschiedlicher Zusammensetzung an verschiedenen Orten aufhielten, um ihren Aufgaben und ihrem «Vergnügen» nachzugehen. Damit verdichten sich mit dieser Fundstelle die Hinweise auf ein komplexes Raummanagement im Pfahlbauneolithikum, von dem die für typisch gehaltene Seeufersiedlung nur einen kleinen Teil ausmacht.

In archaeology, environmental history all too often focused on the individual settlements and on the economic use of their immediate environment. This view fails to acknowledge the importance of other actors (e.g. animals, plants, waters) interacting with humans. Outside the settlements, the traces of humans and these other actors are entangled and become difficult to discern. This is especially true for processes in deltas, which are inherently dynamic, complex, short-lived and fragmented. The life and activities of humans in such areas can only be properly assessed if the habitat as a whole with all its actors is understood and a long-term perspective is adopted.
Due to intensive construction work in the Lorze Delta since the 1980s, the archaeological department of Canton Zug has carried out a number of excavations. However, only now has the basic information about the sites (e.g. location, sediments and dating) been more broadly compiled and the results of the different studies been collated. This has led to ground-breaking insights into the cultural and natural interactions in the catchment area of the Lorze River.
In the early stages of the Lorze Delta during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene, after the melting of the Reuss Glacier, the only just populated landscape was characterised by unstable geological conditions. When analysing Neolithic and Bronze Age pile dwellings, understanding the Lorze Delta’s formation is a prerequisite for appreciating the sites’ location. In the alluvial fan, long-term changes in human and riverine activity from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages can be detected. Today, human impact instead of geological processes write the delta’s story: the river course has been diverted to give way for a motorway while the delta itself has been altered artificially.

Zug derives its name from an old term for hauling in nets (zuc).  Current research shows the significance of fishing in several sites at least from the Neolithic onward. The excellent preservation in wetland sites allows distinguishing between various patterns of wetland resource management in different sites. Abundance and composition of recorded wetland species seem to vary probably depending on location, function, and seasonality of the sites: at Cham-Eslen, around 4000 BC a single building on an island seems to have been used predominantly for fishing activities, as we can tell from both finds of fishing gear and a large amount of fish bones.  Transdisciplinary evaluations of a large bone midden and its overlying loam layers in the site of Zug-Riedmatt (around 3200 BC) show evidence of seasonally differentiated subsistence  activities as intense red deer hunting, fishing, gathering, and processing of different wet-land species in and near the ambient river delta and lake shore (frogs, bleaks, pikes, and whitefish).  From later prehistoric and Roman times we have as yet little to no information. A recent excavation in a silted up small lake called "Bibersee" (beaver lake) however has yielded very rich finds of fishing gear (traps, fences, dugout) from the Middle Ages which correspond well with the site of Steinhausen-Sumpfstrasse West . If we trace back waters and wetlands in the pre-industrial area of Canton Zug, manifold waterscapes emerge. Lakes, deltas, riparian zones, rivers, swamps of different sizes cover a large part of the surface of the Canton of Zug and provide an abundant mosaic of food resources as well as transport and communication routes throughout the times.

Aufgrund unserer Erfahrungen mit Ufersiedlungen stellen wir den Ansatz, Siedlungsstrukturen im Neolithikum auf der „Skala Haus - Hof – Dorf“ untersuchen zu wollen, grundsätzlich in Frage. Unserer Meinung nach können wir über das "Leben der Menschen im Neolithikum" gar nicht genug "erfahren", wenn wir "nicht über die Grössenordnung einer Siedlung hinausgehen".
Nur schon die Individualisierung und infolgedessen die Rekonstruktion einzelner Häuser ist im Ufersiedlungsneolithikum problematischer als es ein erster Blick auf die Forschungslage suggerieren mag (Abgrenzung der architektonischen Einheiten zueinander, Anteil datierte/
undatierte Pfähle, mangelhafte Informationen zur Gestaltung des Oberbaus, bzw. dessen Bezug zum Grundriss). Viele der geltenden Rekonstruktionen von Einzelhäusern sowie von gesamten Siedlungsplänen beruhen auf Vorannahmen, die erst noch zu beweisen wären. Die taphonomischen Probleme in den Ufersiedlungen erweisen sich als derart komplex, dass ein trivialer Zusammenhang zwischen Schichteinheiten und architektonischen Strukturen nicht hergestellt werden kann.
Die zum Teil grosse Dichte von (potentiell) gleichzeitigen und die Nachweise von spezialisierten (möglicherweise saisonal genutzten) Siedlungsplätzen an den Seeufern sprechen für komplex und grossräumig strukturierte Siedlungs-, Nutzungs- und Kommunikationsmuster und nicht für territorial kleinräumige, ökonomisch autarke, in sich abgeschlossene Dorfeinheiten.
Deshalb möchten wir dem traditionell hierarchischen Modell (Haus - Hof - Dorf), das sich an uns naheliegenden historischen Analogien orientiert, ein relationales Netzwerk-Modell gegenüber stellen, welches sich im Bereich der Gewässer als Lebensadern (Verkehrs- und Kommunikationswege, wichtige Nahrungsressourcen) besonders dicht knüpft. Dieser Ansatz öffnet den Interpretationsrahmen in Bezug auf die Untersuchungsergebnisse zahlreicher Disziplinen wie
Wirtschaftsarchäologie, Demografie, Siedlungsgeographie.

In July 2015, a tusk and several bone fragments of an adult mammoth bull have been unearthed on a construction site in Risch-Rotkreuz, Canton of Zug. They have been dated to the end of the last ice age at around 15'000 BC by AMS radiocarbon measurements. The discovery of the mammoth remains entailed international media coverage.

See https://skfb.ly/LsnA for a mammoth skeleton 3D model with bones preserved in Rotkreuz marked in red.

Einst reichte der Zugersee bis nach Steinhausen. Auf dem Gebiet dieser heute verschwundenen Bucht liegen unter der Erde verborgen Überreste von jungstein- und bronzezeitlichen Siedlungen, die Teil des UNESCO-Welterbes «Prähistorische Pfahlbauten um die Alpen» sind.

Das letzte Zuger Mammut ist zurück! Nach fast zweijähriger Konservierung und umfangreichen wissenschaftlichen Analysen sind die Knochen und der Stosszahn des Mammuts von Risch-Rotkreuz wieder an ihren Fundort zurückgekehrt. Sie werden hier erstmals in konserviertem Zustand gezeigt. (Ausstellung in Rotkreuz 5.-30.11.2018)

The last mammoth from Zug is back! After almost two years of conservation work and of extensive scientific analyses, the bones and tusk of the mammoth from Risch-Rotkreuz have come back to where they were found. They are now on public display for the first time in their conserved state. (Exhibition at Rotkreuz, 5.-30.11.2018)