Laténium - Archeological Park and Museum of Neuchatel
N 47° 00.486 E 006° 58.353
32T E 345887 N 5208059
The Laténium, Neuchâtel Archaeology Park and Museum ia located in the commune of Hauterive, on the edge of Lake Neuchâtel. The park covers three hectares of shoreland at the foot of the Jura Mountains facing the Alps.
Waymark Code: WM1FPY
Location: Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Date Posted: 04/29/2007
Views: 163
The word Laténium comes from La Tène, the name of a site visible from the museum, which has come to designate Celtic civilization in the second Iron Age, traces of which have been found from Ireland to Romania. Laténium is a contraction of the words «La Tène» and «museum».
The Laténium comprises the museum, the canton’s archaeology service and the University of Neuchâtel’s Institute of Prehistory. It is equipped with artefact storage facilities, a library and a combined lecture hall and conference room. A cafeteria with a terrace is open to all during museum hours.
The displays in the park complement the objects in the museum: moulding of a prehistoric occupation surface; reconstructions of a Bronze Age house, the wooden piles that supported the buildings of a Neolithic lake village, an Iron Age tumulus and a Gallo-Roman barge; and unusual objects and structures (cupule rock, Celtic well, Roman aqueduct). The Laténium park presents the monuments, sites and landscapes that succeeded one another at this spot over a period of more than 15,000 years.
The permanent exhibition
Yesterday… between the Mediterranean and the North Sea
Travelling back in time through the archaeology of Neuchâtel
The exhibition is divided into eight parts, situated on two levels, and takes visitors on a fascinating journey from recent to ancient times.
It is based on a unique collection of artefacts found during land and underwater excavations in the canton of Neuchâtel from the 19th century to the present day.
Introduction
The first part of the exhibition introduces visitors to the different components of archaeology: man, time and the environment. Faces of man’s ancestors and a satellite photograph of the Neuchâtel area are displayed alongside a menhir and seven trenches containing some of the most evocative objects in the Laténium’s collection of the material remains of our past.
Medieval light
from 1’600 to 476 A.D.
From the Renaissance to the Early Middle Ages
Visitors begin their journey back in time in a specially designed room of the museum whose floor slopes downward.
The room is divided into four parts, each lower than the other, displaying respectively the stonework of urban centres (Neuchâtel Castle and Collegiate Church), the interior of a dwelling (Vaumarcus House at Le Landeron), a cemetery and the cargo of a boat found at the bottom of Lake Neuchâtel.
Seven leagues from Avenches
from 476 to 1 A.D.
The Gallo-Romans
Visitors discover the Gallo-Roman world by exploring the Neuchâtel area. Aerial photographs reveal traces of ancient structures in fields and farmland. The cadastre, an invention of the Gallo-Romans, is reflected in the ortho-gonal division of space. The resulting checkerboard landscape is dotted with remarkable structures, such as Colombier Palace and the Wavre Mausoleum, whose size, as shown by scale models, is very imposing.
A mini-laboratory allows visitors to reconstruct part of a wall painting.
Five thousand years of navigation
from 400 to 4’400 B.C.
Plunging into the past
The magnificent room that overlooks the fish farming pond also houses the Laténium’s largest object: a 20-metre Gallo-Roman lighter found in the Bay of Bevaix. The dugout canoes, boats and other underwater remains uncovered in Lake Neuchâtel are some of Europe’s most prized archaeological finds.
The full-scale reconstruction of an underwater excavation presents the methods used by underwater archaeologists. A mini-laboratory introduces visitors to techniques for conserving waterlogged wood.
The Kelts of La Tène
from 1 to 800 B.C.
The Iron Age
This part of the exhibition reveals the treasures of the renowned La Tène site. The Celts remain a source of fascination because of their dual nature, as expressed by the contrast between their pleasingly rounded art forms and their violent customs.
Many other Celtic remains have been discovered in the region: a collapsed bridge in the Thielle River, quadrangular sacred enclosures and tumuli, or burial mounds, from the First Iron Age.
The «lake dwellers»
from 800 to 5’500 B.C.
From the Bronze Age to the Neolithic
The «lake dwellers» of the Bronze Age and the Neolithic period have captured the imagination of the Swiss, and an important place is reserved for them at the Laténium.
This room is laid out like a village from this era, with specialized districts and narrow streets. Traditional crafts such as bronze working, weaving, wood working and pottery making were carried out in the community, and visitors can hear the sounds of these activities. A display along one side of the room evokes a wheat field bordering the village. The tall menhir from Bevaix, situated at the entrance to the room, symbolizes the spiritual dimension of the site.
On the hunters’trail
from 5’500 to 13’000 B.C.
From the Mesolithic to the Magdalenian
The predominance of animals in this part of the exhibition testifies to the hunting and gathering way of life that prevailed during this period. Tribes were nomadic and moved constantly in search of game (reindeers, bisons, wild horses, etc.). Traces of their passage are rare, and the artefacts found by archaeologists very small. Visitors are invited to follow a winding trail, like the hunting tribes did before them, and can sit near objects left around a hearth to take a closer look at these vestiges of everyday life.
In the land of the great bear
from 40’000 to 100’000 B.C.
The Mousterian
After a short walk through the Ice Age, symbolized by a wall of ice, visitors enter the Cotencher Cave, which contains the canton’s oldest known traces of human occupation. Flint tools and the upper jawbone of a Neandertal woman lie next to hundreds of animal bones. The remains of 62 species of animals, including cave bears, have been uncovered in the cave floor.
Theme:
Archeology
Street Address:
parc et musée d'archéologie de Neuchâtel
espace Paul Vouga
CH-2068 Hauterive
Food Court: yes
Gift Shop: yes
Hours of Operation:
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, Closed on Monday
free entry every month on the first Sunday morning
Cost: 9.00 (listed in local currency)
Museum Size: Small
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
|
Visit Instructions:
In order to log this waymark in this category, you must be able to provide proof of your visit. Please post a picture of yourself or your GPSr in front some identifiable feature or point of interest either in the museum, or on the museum grounds.