2014 a bumper year for local archaeologists

2014 was an excellent year for archaeological finds thanks in part to so much building work going on in the canton.
 
Stefan Hochuli, the head of archaeology and preservation of historic monuments at the Department of Inner Cantonal Affairs, gave a lecture on Sunday about all the exciting artifacts they had come across during the course of the year.
 
It was thanks to being able to examine the Gasthaus Adler in Menzingen and the Bilgerighof in Baar thoroughly before they were demolished that it was possible to see how buildings had been constructed in the canton centuries ago. In the Gasthaus Kreuz in Unterägeri several old coins were found, still in places such as cracks where they had been dropped many years ago.
 
Hochuli and his staff were able to find out much more, too, about the original city walls. For example they discovered lake marl which indicated that the level of Lake Zug was as much as ten metres higher at the end of the last Ice Age.
 
A large number of coins from different countries was found in Risch. "We think we are quite advanced in having currency unions like the euro today, but such systems operated years ago, too," explained Hochuli.
 
Archaeological work in the Bibersee area proved most fruitful, too, with mediaeval fish traps (the main photograph shows an example) and other old equipment found. "In fact we even came across a 6-metre-long, six-tonne oak dugout (second photograph), most likely used by fishermen during the times of the Middle Ages," said Hochuli. "You do not find many of these."
 
Now Hochuli and his team are looking to further finds over the course of this year.