City of Lucerne is already 5’400 years old

The city of Lucerne is 2400 years older than previously assumed.

The history of the city of Lucerne begins 2400 years earlier than previously assumed. This is proven by pile dwellings.

The pile dwelling settlement in the area of the planned lake tunnel for the future through-station in Lucerne is 5400 years old. That is 2400 years more than previously assumed.

In 2020, initial finds were made in the Lucerne lake basin that pointed to a settlement of the urban area during the Bronze Age around 1000 BC, as stated in a communiqué from the Lucerne State Chancellery on Wednesday. Further investigations revealed that the settlement already existed in 3400 BC.

1.5 metres below the lake bed, researchers came across a dark layer with a high organic content and charcoal, pointing to the year 3400 BC. The finds also included ceramic fragments, charred grain and flint tools.

History of Lucerne begins much earlier

These finds point to the remains of one or more Neolithic villages, as the communiqué further stated. They also once again demonstrated that the lake water level in earlier millennia was significantly lower than today.

“With the current new findings, we can clearly demonstrate that the history of Lucerne begins with a Neolithic pile dwelling settlement. This is truly a sensation and means that people were already settling in the area of today's city 5400 years ago,” cantonal archaeologist Jürg Manser was quoted as saying in the communiqué.

Consequently, rescue excavations would now need to be carried out in order to document the important cultural-historical artefacts. These are planned before construction begins on the through-station and would not cause any delays.