The 5,000-year-old door in Zurich may be one of the oldest found in Europe (photo, city of Zurich)
Update 2, 22 October Zurich, Switzerland (GeneveLunch) – Archeological digs in the centre of Zurich have been turning up a number of treasures, among them a door that is 5,000 years old.
The excavations, near the opera in Zurich, began in May 2010 and will be completed in January 2011, making way for the construction of a parking lot.
Niels Bleicher, who is leading the archeological project, told AP that the door, made of poplar wood, is “very interesting, solid and elegant”, with a “remarkable” system for holding together the planks.
An ingenious system holds the door together - (photo, city of Zurich)
He also noted that it’s rare, during a dig, to come up with as many interesting items as they have been finding in Zurich.
Archaeologists have found traces of at least five Neolithic villages believed to have existed at the site between 3,700 and 2,500 years B.C., including objects such as a flint dagger from what is now Italy and an elaborate hunting bow.
Links to other sites: Business Week/AP, 20 Minutes (Fre), WRS background video story, June 2010
A massive 24-hour strike has virtually immobilized Greece, according to scores of reports. The general strike, the second in two weeks, has closed all public transport and Greek airspace is closed. Tourist areas, including the country’s wealth of archeological sites, are closed. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks are striking over government belt-tightening measures but much of the anger is directed at the rest of the European Union for its reaction to Greece’s economic woes.
Links to other sites: BBC, Business Week
Title: Christianization in the Geneva area (in French)
Location: Musée d’art et d’histoire , Rue Charles-Galland 2, Geneva (old town)
Link out: Click here
Description: Geneva’s archeologist, Jean Terrier, will hold a short talk on Christianization in the lake Geneva region. Entry free, no reservation, in French
Start Time: 12:30
Date: 11 Nov 2009
End Time: 13:00
St Triphon, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A remarkable Bronze Age archeological find, the 4,000 year-old skeletons of a woman and her fetus, were uncovered in St Triphon at the end of May during archeological digs that were ordered by canton Vaud in an area where landscaping work was being done for a villa. The find was at the top of the St Triphon hill overlooking the Rhone Valley, an area rich in Bronze Age discoveries.
Jewelry next to the woman in the tomb helped archeologists determine the date.
Related story: Le Nouvelliste, Fre
Photos: (click on images to view larger) canton Vaud, by Christian Gaudillère
Geneva, Switzerland (TdG, Fre) - Geneva’s voters could well face a vote on the future of one of their beaches, if Action Patrimoine Vivant (APV), a group fighting to protect the canton’s heritage has its way. APV has filed a popular initiative to block funding for a new beach at Plonjon, a stretch of lakefront between the Baby Plage and Genève Plage.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An old brownish-red stain that has been an enigma for archeologists working on an excavation site near Basel has turned out to be red wine made from black grapes, thus offering proof that the cellar uncovered at Pratteln, southeast of the city, is part of the oldest Swiss medieval winery, or wine farm. The stain was analyzed using highly sophisticated new mass spectometry equipment.
