A fascinating science

Archaeology investigates the cultural development of humankind on the basis of material legacies, such as buildings, everyday objects, weapons and art, as well as organic and inorganic remains of human culture, incorporating written and pictorial sources as well as disciplines of natural sciences.

Since time immemorial, humans have been interested in the generations that lived before them and in the material traces these predecessors left behind. During the Renaissance, a return to the cultural achievements of Greco-Roman antiquity began. Objects of antiquity were collected with enthusiasm. But it was not until the 19th century, with the development of the natural sciences, that the foundations of modern archaeological research were laid.

Today, archaeology is an interdisciplinary historical science that works on a legal basis to research and preserve cultural heritage. Through scientific excavations and field explorations, it investigates the legacies of past epochs. It documents, preserves, conserves and makes these archaeological remains accessible to researchers and the public in archives and repositories.

Like all studies of humanities, archaeology is influenced in its investigations by prior knowledge, ways of thinking and doctrines that are shaped by the spirit of the times. Considerations of the role of women in the societies of past epochs, for example, were long influenced by the image of the bourgeois family of the 19th century and must be reconsidered today. In the second half of the 20th century, methodological developments also opened up new avenues for the subject, some of which have decisively changed our view of the past. Today, one of the standards of archaeological investigations is to use scientific methods to analyse the remains of human culture, such as plant remains, animal and human bones, sediments, and to place them in a cultural-historical, environmental, nutritional and economic-historical context.

Dating methods improved with dendrochronology, which can be used to determine the felling date of archaeological wood findings to the exact year, and the C14 method, which allows the age determination of minute quantities of preserved organic substances. More recent developments include isotope and DNA analysis. When evaluating human skeletal remains, isotope and DNA analyses allow, for example, conclusions to be drawn about age- and sex-specific nutrition, genetic relationships or migration. This makes it possible for the first time to clarify questions of cultural and social history that cannot be investigated on the basis of material culture.

Research area Switzerland

The research field of archaeology stretches from the first hominids to the recent past. In Switzerland, traces from almost all epochs of human history are known, from the first stone tools to material remains from the Second World War.

Due to its central location in Europe and its great diversity of landscapes, the material traces of the past in Switzerland are also characterised by a great diversity in a comparatively small area. A characteristic feature of Swiss archaeology is certainly the high density of prehistoric lake dwellings on the lakeshores with their exceptional preservation conditions. In addition, more and more finds from glacial areas have been found recently, which offer special potential for research due to their excellent preservation.

Well-founded further information on individual epochs can be found, for example, in the handbook series «Switzerland from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages (SPM)» published by Swiss Archaeology or online in the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz).