Arbon Bleiche 3 is a Neolithic lake dwelling, located on the southern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Thurgau Canton of Switzerland. The village is known to have been occupied between 3384 and 3370 BC, based on tree ring dates from the piles supporting the houses. This makes the village roughly contemporaneous to Otzi the Iceman, human remains recovered in a state of near perfect preservation, eroding out of a glacier and dated by radiocarbon dates to the same period. Otzi was discovered some 100 kilometers to the east-southeast of Arbon Bleiche 3. Arbon Bleiche is one of only five known settlements of the same age as Otzi which exist in the near vicinity of where his body was found.
To date, excavations at Arbon Bleiche have recovered the remains of 27 houses. Preservation of the houses is remarkable, because of their water-logged condition. A wide variety of organic materials, including cereals and pulses, animal bone, house timbers and wooden pilings, were recovered from the site.
The inhabitants of Arbon Bleiche grew wheat (Triticum durum or T. aestivum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), peas (Pisum sativum L.), flax (Linum usitatissimum L) and opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.). Wild plants collected included cowberry, elderberry and hazelnut. These plants were also found, in various amounts, with the Iceman.
Daily Life in Arbon Bleiche 3The average house at Arbon Bleiche measured 4x8 meters and was built of silver fir, ash or oak. The walls were made of wooden stakes plastered with daub and sealed with moss; the roof was built of wooden planks, stacked like shingles. No evidence of door or window construction was found, although they must have existed. The houses were constructed in rows along the shore, separated by narrow lanes and supported by pilings.
Garbage and human waste was deposited beneath and between the houses. The people grew wheat, barley, flax and poppy, and raised pigs, sheep and cattle. Wild deer and boar were also eaten by the people, as was a series of wild food resources. Fishing was an important resource, including pike, perch, carp and whitefish. Frogs's legs and waterfowl were also hunted and consumed. Residues recovered from the insides of ceramic pots indicate that the pots were used to make stews of cereals and meat, with the addition of vegetables. Fish and game were roasted.
Animals were kept within the settlement during the winter months, and then pastured nearby during the summer. They were used for meat and dairy, and some as draft animals. Fodder was produced from the leaves of deciduous trees, and catkins of hazel and other flowering trees, although some cattle were fed on cereal remains.
Archaeology at Arbon Bleiche
Arbon Bleiche was first identified in the 1990s and was excavated as an interdisciplinary project between 1997 and 2004. Its association with Otzi is for comparative analysis, and no direct connection Arbon Bleiche and Otzi has been established. Pile dwellings at Lake Constance have been reconstructed based on the archaeological evidence, and that is what is shown in the photograph.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Neolithic Period, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Richard H. 1993. Palynological Micro-Analysis in Neolithic Lake Dwellings. Journal of Archaeological Science 20(3):241-262.
Jacomet S. 2009. Plant economy and village life in Neolithic lake dwellings at the time of the Alpine Iceman. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 18(1):47-59.
Tolar T, Jacomet S, Velušcek A, and Cufar K. 2010. Recovery techniques for waterlogged archaeological sediments: a comparison of different treatment methods for samples from Neolithic lake shore settlements. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 19(1):53-67.
