Schweizersbild

Schweizersbild

Schweizersbild Location in Switzerland Show map of Switzerland Schweizersbild Location in the canton of Schaffhausen Show map of Canton of Schaffhausen
Location	Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Coordinates	47°43′25.95″N8°38′23.67″E / 47.7238750°N 8.6399083°E / 47.7238750; 8.6399083
Type	Rock shelter
History
Periods	Upper Paleolithic (Magdalenian)
Site notes
Excavation dates	1891–1893
Archaeologists	Jakob Nüesch

Schweizersbild is a rock shelter from the Paleolithic period, located in the municipality of Schaffhausen in Switzerland, at the foot of a southeast-facing cliff near a spring. Beneath the natural rock overhang, remains of a significant Upper Paleolithic (Magdalenian) habitation (camp) dating to approximately 15,000–12,700 BC were discovered. ^{[1] [2]}

Discovery and excavations

Excavations in 1892

The site was discovered in 1891 by Jakob Nüesch  [ de ], who conducted archaeological excavations there from 1891 to 1893. Beneath a gray archaeological layer containing remains from post-Paleolithic periods (including Neolithic tombs) ^[3] were the habitation levels from the Upper Paleolithic. Below this, a layer containing rodent remains but practically no artifacts covered a bed of Ice Age pebbles. ^[1] Some of the smaller skeletons have initially been interpreted as the remains of pygmies, ^[4] but they may rather represent shorter individuals. ^[5]

Stratigraphy

Model of the habitation at the Allerheiligen Museum

The stratigraphy cannot be reconstructed with certainty. Lower down, a second layer of rodent debris also contained remains of collared lemming, Arctic fox, reindeer, wild horse, mountain hare, as well as a rib fragment from a woolly rhinoceros. Above this, a yellow archaeological layer yielded primarily bones of reindeer, wild horse, mountain hare, and red deer. In this layer, a hearth and a flint knapping workshop were also observed. ^[1]

Artifacts

The artifacts uncovered by the excavators include several hundred tools made of flint (including shouldered points), bone, and antler (notably double-beveled spear points, harpoons, awls, perforated batons, needles, and ornaments). ^[1]

Paleolithic art

The Schweizersbild site is especially known for the pieces of Paleolithic mobiliary art discovered there, notably a slate plaquette engraved on both sides with animal figures and a perforated baton made of reindeer antler depicting two wild horses in a line. ^[6] The engravings are more stylized than those from objects found at Kesslerloch, and executed with a more fluid line. A small jet statuette representing a woman, found in 1954 in the spoil from Nüesch's excavation, is less well known. ^[1] The original is exhibited at the Museum of Cultures (Basel).

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  Perforated baton with two wild horses (Swiss National Museum)
• 
  Copy of the woman statuette
• 
  Engraved slate plaquette

See also

• List of caves in Switzerland
• Paleolithic in Switzerland

References

 This article incorporates text from a free content work.Licensed under CC-BY SA.Text taken from Schweizersbild​,Markus Höneisen, Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. Translated by Laurent Auberson.

1. Schweizersbild in German , French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland .
2. Geikie, James (1897). "The prehistoric rock‐shelter at Schweizersbild, near Schaffhausen". Scottish Geographical Magazine . 13 (9): 466–475. doi: 10.1080/00369229708732969 .
3. Kollmann, Julius (1894). "Das Schweizersbild bei Schaffhausen und Pygmäen in Europa". Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (in German). 26: 189–254.
4. Kollmann, Julius (1896). "Pygmies in Europe". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 25: 117–122.
5. Obermaier, Hugues (1907). "Quaternary Human Remains in Central Europe". Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year 1906 (PDF). Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 373–397.
6. Andrej Abplanalp (31 March 2017). "Magic in Palaeolithic times". Swiss National Museum . Retrieved 16 November 2025.

Bibliography

• Nüesch, Jakob: Das Schweizersbild, eine Niederlassung aus palaeolithischer und neolithischer Zeit, 1896.
• Höneisen, Markus; Peyer, Sabine: Schweizersbild – ein Jägerlager der Späteiszeit. Beiträge und Dokumente zur Ausgrabung vor 100 Jahren, 1994.

External links

Media related to Schweizersbild at Wikimedia Commons

• Schweizersbild on Hikr