EPFL scientists have produced a series of maps showing historical migration events, including the migration of mountain farmers native to Upper Valais who began to settle in German-speaking Switzerland in the 13th century, by applying methods from population genetics—but using linguistic data rather than genes. The map shows the relative influence of Upper Valais morphosyntactic…
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Twenty million years ago, the Swiss Plateau region, or Mittelland, was an ocean in which dolphins swam. Researchers at the University of Zurich’s Paleontological Institute have now discovered two previously unknown species related to modern sperm whales and oceanic dolphins, which they identified based on ear bones. Life restoration of the dolphins described in this…
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More than 30 years ago, researchers from the University of Zurich discovered vertebrae, ribs and a tooth in the High Alps of eastern Switzerland. The typical shape indicated that they had to originate from large marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs, but there was a lack of corresponding comparative material. A new study led by the…
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In September 2021, volunteer Daniel Ludin was prospecting in a wooded area not far from Wildenstein Castle with his metal detector. A strong signal from the device prompted him to dig. After he had recovered several Roman coins and ceramic fragments, the full extent of his discovery became apparent: a treasure of coins buried in…
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There is no other place where so many Neolithic pile dwellings have been uncovered as around the Alps. It is a mystery, however, how this “building boom” came to be. Researchers at the University of Basel have now uncovered new clues, and say that settlers at Lake Varese in northern Italy may have played a…
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Experts have found the remains of another ancient Roman amphitheatre in northern Switzerland. The ruins – an oval shaped wall of 50 metres in length and 40 metres width – dates back to the 4th century and were discovered during construction works last month, the archaeological service of canton Aargau said. Drone view of the…
More than a hundred years ago, Albert Naef, the first cantonal archaeologist in the canton of Vaud, identified the Neolithic necropolis on the Chemin de Chamblandes in Pully, near Lausanne on Lake Geneva. With some seventy tombs, this necropolis has remained famous and the term “Chamblandes-type cists” has since been used to designate the tombs…
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In its major new temporary exhibition, the National Museum displays Neolithic stelae from various European countries, offering a unique insight into the world of people who lived around 6,000 years ago. Credit: Swiss National Museum In the Neolithic period, people in Europe began to settle down; they started practicing agriculture, keeping animals and using metal….
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A team of archaeologists has uncovered an alignment of 13 menhirs at a construction site at “Les Fougains”, in the commune of Saint-Leonard, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. The aligned Late Neolithic menhirs [Credit: Municipal Administration of Saint-Leonard] The excavations were conducted by the regional office of Saint Leonard, in collaboration with the cantonal…
It was long assumed that cyanobacteria were mainly responsible for fixing nitrogen on early Earth, thus making nitrogen available to the biosphere. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, now show that purple sulfur bacteria could have contributed substantially to nitrogen fixation under the conditions prevailing in the Proterozoic ocean….
