Basel-Gasfabrik is a site in Basel Canton of northern Switzerland, north of the city of Basel, and occupied during the Late La Téne period of 150-80 BC. An unfortified settlement on the banks of the Rhine is considered one of the earliest formations of what would become the town of Basel.
The settlement represented by the ruins predates the large oppidum located on Cathedral Hill in Basel, as well as the Roman town of Augusta Raurica. The site was enormous, covering some 150,000 square meters split between agricultural and urban dwellings. The dwellings were entirely timber-built, and extant features are limited to ditches, wells, postholes and pits.
Two cemeteries were used by the inhabitants of Basel-Gasfabrik, containing at least 100 inhumation burials. In addition, 28 complete skeletons have been recovered from pits around the edge of the town; these skeletons are variously interpreted as burials and/or evidence of violence.
Basel-Gasfabrik was discovered by Karl Stehlin at the excavation of a gas factory (hence the name) near Basel, Switzerland, in the year 1911. Excavations were conducted by the Historical and Antiquarian Society in 1911 and again in the 1930s when the gas factory was demolished.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to European Iron Age, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Hüglin S, and Spichtig N. 2010. War Crime or Élite Burial: Interpretations of Human Skeletons Within the Late La Tène Settlement Basel-Gasfabrik, Basel, Switzerland. European Journal of Archaeology 13(3):313-335.
