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Previous 10 | Showing 31-40 of 86 posts. Most recent first | Next 10 
Lutry Menhirs (Standing Stones) — Images (click to view fullsize) |
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Posted by Chance13th June 2013ce |
Lutry Menhirs (Standing Stones) — Fieldnotes |
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If you ever find yourself cruising around the western end of Lake Geneva, why not heave to, and check out the stones at Lutry. Chances are that you'll be doing your cruising in a motorcar, which for this particular prehistoric site is a real paradox. Before any roads or tracks were used, the way the original builders wanted you to see the site was from the lake, but if it wasn't for the motorcar, nobody in the present time would have seen the site at all. The stones, which date from the Middle Neolithic (ca. 4500-4000 BC), were partially destroyed by a flood and buried under a landslide from the river Lutrive which runs into the lake a couple of hundred meters to the west. The site had been undisturbed for millennia until discovered when the area was being developed for a car park. The stones were carefully excavated and re-erected on the present site in 1986. I had a look around but I could not see any indication to mark were their original position within the modern car park, unlike the post holes in the car park at Stonehenge. There are now twenty three stones, which seem to form two parts. The first part is made up of twelve standing stones forming a straight line running east to west and this section contains the largest stones. The second section comprises smaller stones ranging from eighty to twenty centimetres in height which form a slight curve. As the stones were partially destroyed, there may have been a mirror of this smaller section on the eastern side. All the stones are very thin making the stelae very slender. They all show signs of being shaped too, their rounded tops may have been formed to symbolize a head. The fourth stone from the east, on the second row has various engravings. The top has chevrons cut into it which have been interpreted as hair, lower down are five rings, interpreted as female breasts elements and finally at the bottom is a male element shaped like a bottle opener. This stone has been reproduced and takes pride of place in a glass case a little further away in the Simplon passage of the main shopping area. These markings could easily be nothing more than graffiti, carved by a bored adolescent long after the site had been abandoned and passed into ruin. In some ways the Lutry menhirs are typical of a lot of the Swiss megalithic sites, but their discovery and restoration is unique. Where as most ancient sites have been persevered in some form or another by successive generations of farmers or towns people, the megalithic sites of Switzerland were completely abandoned in the mass exodus and scorched earth policy adopted by the Helvetians and their neighbouring tribes in 58 B.C. |
Posted by Chance 13th June 2013ce |
Canton of Neuchâtel (Departement) — Miscellaneous |
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The Canton of Neuchâtel lies in the far western part of Switzerland between the French border and the Lake of Neuchâtel. It's capital is the City of Neuchâtel. The area was ruled for many years by the dynasty of Count Ulrich von Fenis who took over the town and its territories in 1034.The dynasty prospered and by 1373 all the lands now part of the canton belonged to the count. In 1405, the cities of Bern and Neuchâtel entered a union. The lands of Neuchâtel passed to the lords of Freiburg about a century later, and then in 1504 to the French house of Orléans-Longueville (Valois-Dunois). When the house of Orléans-Longueville became extinct with Marie d'Orleans-Longueville's death in 1707, the Principality of Neuchâtel (German: Fürstentum Neuenburg) went to King Frederick I in Prussia of the Berlin-based Hohenzollern, who then ruled Neuchâtel in personal union. Napoléon Bonaparte deposed King Frederick William III of Prussia as prince of Neuchâtel and appointed instead his chief of staff Louis Alexandre Berthier. In 1814 the principality was restored to Frederick William III. A year later he agreed to allow the principality to join the Swiss Confederation, then not yet an integrated federation, but a confederacy, as a full member. Thus Neuchâtel became the first and only monarchy to join the otherwise entirely republican Swiss cantons. This situation changed in 1848 when a peaceful revolution took place and established a republic, in the same year that the modern Swiss Confederation was transformed into a federation. King Frederick William IV of Prussia did not give in immediately and several attempts at counter-revolution took place. In 1857, Frederick William renounced his claims on the area. The canton is well-known for its wines, which are grown along the Lake Neuchâtel, and for its absinthe. The Val-de-Travers is famous as the birthplace of absinthe, which has now been re-legalized both in Switzerland and globally. Lake Neuchâtel has been lived by and on for millenia. The latenium is an archeology museum located in Hauterive, a suburb of Neuchâtel. |
Posted by Chance 12th June 2011ce |
Canton of Geneva (Departement) — Miscellaneous |
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Canton of Geneva Although listed as a department on TMA, Geneva is actually a Republic and well as one of the 26 Cantons within the Swiss confederation. Geneva was an independent republic until 1798, but had been an "everlasting ally" of the Swiss Confederation since 1584. During the Napoleonic wars, Geneva was occupied and annexed to France. After its liberation in 1813, Geneva joined the Swiss Confederation in 1815 as the 22nd canton, having been enlarged by French and Savoyard territories at the Vienna Congress. The canton of Geneva is located in the southwestern corner of Switzerland and is considered one of the most cosmopolitan areas of the country. As a center of the Calvinist Reformation, the city of Geneva has had a great influence on the canton, which essentially consists of the city and its hinterlands. The municipality of Troinex, original site of the Pierre-aux-Dames stone, lies on the southern limits of the Canton. |
Posted by Chance 12th June 2011ce |
Laténium (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork) — Images |
  
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Posted by Chance 21st February 2011ce |
Laténium (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork) — Links |
LaténiumOffical website for the archeology museum with events diary |
Posted by Chance 21st February 2011ce |
Laténium (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork) — Miscellaneous |
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The Laténium is an archeology museum located in Hauterive, a suburb of Neuchâtel in the Swiss Canton of Neuchâtel, on the shore of Lake Neuchâtel. Its name refers to the La Tène culture. The Laténium is composed of a 2500 m² park, and a museum building which also houses the archaeological section of the University of Neuchâtel. The park features dolmens and erratic stones, reconstitutions of prehistoric and antique devices (a La Tène house, a gallo-roman ship and a Celtic bridge, notably), and modern works of art. The museum displays the Bevaix Boat, a 20-metre gallo-roman ship found in Bevaix. Items from periods comprised between the paleolithic to the Roman empire are on display, including the remains of a Magdalenian hunting camp. |
Posted by Chance 21st February 2011ce |
Pierre-aux-Dames (Musée d'art et d'histoire) (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) — Folklore |
Found you a little bit Chance, for your lovely carved stone. But sounds like whatever curses worked at the time they didn't last enough to stop it being moved in the end.Not very long ago the authorities of Geneva conceived the idea of carrying away, and placing in the Botanic Garden of the city, the great Druid Stone of Troinex, known as the Pierre aux Dames. The project went so far that a trench was dug about the block, rollers were on the spot, and the removal was about to begin, when the people of the neighbourhood raised such an outcry and besought the Council of State so earnestly to let the stone be, that the order was countermanded, and the Pierre aux Dames of Troinex still remains undisturbed where it has lain for unnumbered ages.From 'Tales and Traditions of Switzerland' by W B Westall (1882). Also there is a long-winded tale about a stone at Versonnex in the same chapter. |
Posted by Rhiannon15th January 2011ce |
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