Between East and West: Combined Analysis of Stylistic and Technological Aspects of Pottery at the Neolithic Site of Burgäschisee-Nord (Switzerland)

Hostettler, Marco; Charnot, Marie; Stapfer, Regine; Emmenegger, Lea; Hafner, Albert (28 August 2020). Between East and West: Combined Analysis of Stylistic and Technological Aspects of Pottery at the Neolithic Site of Burgäschisee-Nord (Switzerland) (Unpublished). In: 26th EAA Virtual Annual Meeting. Virtual. 24.-30.08.2020.

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The wetland site of Burgäschisee-Nord is located on the northern shore of the small lake
Burgäschi in Central Switzerland. It is one of several Neolithic sites located at the lake
shore and has been newly excavated between 2015-2017 within the framework of the
international and interdiscpiplinary project “Beyond lake villages. Studying Neolithic
environmental changes and human impact at small lakes in Switzerland, Germany and
Austria”.
During the 37th century BC, the site Burgäschisee-Nord is culturally located between two
regions each associated with a specific pottery style (eg. Western Switzerland with the
so-called Cortaillod style and the region of lake Zurich with the so-called Pfyn style). Both
stylistic influences are reflected in the ceramics of the sites at lake Burgäschi, however
in Burgäschisee-Nord (3700-3650 calBC) an unexpected quantity of pots is produced in a
style related to eastern Central Switzerland (Lake Zurich region).
To conduct an in-depth study of these stylistic interrelationships a crossed-analysis was
applied, combining stylistic, technological and petrographic methodologies.
The technological analysis, based on the reconstruction of the “chaînes opératoires”,
shows comparable results to the stylistic study of the material. For example, the surface
treatments of pots in Burgäschisee-Nord are close to those identified on pots of
settlements around lake Zurich. Nevertheless, the techniques of shaping refer to both
the regions of Western Switzerland and Lake Zurich. The petrographic analysis reveals
that the analysed ceramics have been produced with local raw materials, without having
a relation to stylistic features.
The combined approach allows us to draw a more profound picture of the pottery
production at lake Burgäschi in the 37th century BC and its entanglements with Western
Switzerland and the Lake Zurich region.

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