In the Neolithic Age, the famous settlements on stilts stood on many lake shores in the Alps. A study now provides clues as to where the construction spread in the region. According to this, an ancient pile-dwelling settlement on an islet in Lake Varese in northern Italy could have formed an important nucleus: 7000-year-old crop remains indicate connections to the earliest Swiss pile-dwelling settlements located in the northern part of the Alpine region.
The pile dwellings have become particularly famous through the reconstructions in the open-air museum in Unteruhldingen on Lake Constance. In the beginning, however, there were finds on Lake Zurich in the middle of the 19th century – then traces of settlements in the striking building style were discovered in many places in the Alps. According to dating, people lived in such settlements from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Examples are also known from other areas of Europe – but no other region has as many to offer as the Alps: 111 pile dwelling sites from the six Alpine countries Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France and Slovenia are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. At some sites, traces have been preserved that provide exciting insights into the living environment of prehistoric people. However, there are still some unanswered questions – including how the pile-dwelling boom in the Alpine region got its start.
View also a northern Italian islet
The focus of the current study was now Lake Varese, which is located near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. It is known from earlier finds that there was a pile-dwelling settlement on the island “Isola Virginia”, which is only 9200 square meters in size, in the Neolithic period. The researchers led by Ferran Antolín from the University of Basel have now devoted themselves to the further investigation of this archaeological site. The team took sediment cores from the prehistoric settlement area and used the radiocarbon method to date the remains of cultivated plants and analyzed their characteristics.
Their results showed that the settlement history on the small island encompassed several phases and the earliest even went back around 7000 years. It therefore existed earlier than other old evidence of pile construction in the Alpine region: the earliest known settlements in Switzerland date to around 4300 BC. The archaeobotanical investigations of the around 7000-year-old plant material from the earliest settlement phase then provided further interesting information: the researchers identified naked wheat, naked barley, opium poppies and flax.
There is a trace in the findings
The special thing about it is that these crops were not typical for the region at the time, because spelled wheat such as emmer was normally grown there. The crops found around Lake Varese, on the other hand, tended to be cultivated in the western Mediterranean. From this, the research team concluded that the settlement on Isolino Virginia may have been established by special groups originating from or closely linked to the western Mediterranean through trade.
According to the researchers, the indication of a possible importance of the settlers from Lake Varese in the spread of pile dwellings in the Alpine region comes from earlier findings that come from the oldest Swiss pile dwelling settlements in Zurich and in Egolzwil in Lucerne: People there apparently also built the unusual crops, as did the settlers from across the Alps before them. The researchers see this as an indication of a connection. Specifically, it could be that around 4700 BC. BC, when the Lake Varese settlement was found to have been abandoned, people had migrated north. They could then have founded settlements there, which in turn led to a further spread of construction in the region. “These groups may have played a major role in the spread of the pile-dwelling phenomenon north of the Alps,” says Antolín.
However, as he and his colleagues emphasize, this is only a trail that needs to be pursued further. “Further investigation of the connections between the Lake Varese settlement and other pile-dwelling sites may help to confirm, nuance or refute our interpretations,” the scientists write in conclusion.
Source: University of Basel, specialist article: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103375