Over 20,000 finds were recovered from Lake Constance at the end of the 19th century. They were secured and documented in museums and archives. Numerous publications accompanied the scientific investigations and made them accessible to an academic and interested audience. The press early on dubbed the Stone Age village of Schussenried-Riedschachen as the “Swabian Pompeii” (1871), and the Bronze Age village of Buchau as the “Swabian Troy” (1927). his comparison with prominent research projects illustrated the quality of the local finds for the general public. Mission accomplished, one could say, research work largely completed. Or maybe not?

No, not at all: the early excavation campaigns in Riedschachen and Buchau, along with others (Konstanz-Rauenegg 1871, Bodman 1898/99, Sipplingen 1929/30), were certainly milestones in the research of pile dwelling settlements in southwest Germany. They produced the first plan drawings and soil profiles. But new technical developments provide new research approaches. Methods and options for archaeological excavations and their documentation are becoming more complex Methods and options for archaeological excavations and their documentation are becoming more complex. The greater involvement of the natural sciences allows a wide range of studies in botany, zoology, bog geology as well as targeted chemical analyses and the dating of wood based on tree rings. Today around 500,000 finds are known from the region. There are 120 recorded village complexes at Lake Constance and over 1,000 in the entire pile dwelling distribution area around the Alps. Unteruhldingen is referred to as the “Atlantis of Baden” (2022). And there is no end to the scientific work any time soon.

Bad Schussenried | Wochenblatt Waldsee, 1875

“… Pompeii (was) protected by a blanket of ash, the pile villages were submerged or overgrown by peat.”

Wochenblatt, at the same time the official and intelligence newspaper for the Waldsee district, July 29, 1875 | APM

Unteruhldingen | Seeferienmagazin, 2022

“Today, of course, we know that these are pile stumps and the remains of a submerged Stone Age or Bronze Age civilisation – a kind of “Baden Atlantis”.”

Uhldingen-Mühlhofen | Seeferienmagazin | 2022 | APM

Bad Buchau | Tübinger Chronik, 1928

“… an island settlement which, in terms of its importance, can compete with the Bronze Age settlement of Troy II, the Troy sung about by Homer, and is even superior to it due to the enormous number of its small finds …”

Tübinger Chronik No. 254 | October 29, 1928 | Archive APM