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Catalog Number : A 15012
Accession Number : 3884

Burnt clay (Daub)

Catalog Number : A 10130
Charred wheat and barley
Catalog Number : A 15046
Accession Number : 3884

Charred wheat and barley

Catalog Number : A 10162
Spindle whorl limestone

Swiss Lake Collection

The Swiss Lake sites were first excavated in the mid-1840s and popularized by Swiss archaeologist Ferdinand Keller. Their interpretation as villages located over the lakes brought them much acclaim and made the collections from the sites' excavations much sought after by museums worldwide. Today, it is known that some, but not the majority, of these sites were built over water. They date from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age (4000 BC-700 BC). The sites are known for preservation of organic materials such as plant remains, wooden artifacts, bone, and textiles, like the one depicted here, that do not usually survive in the archaeological record. Most of the Swiss Lake collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum comes from the site of Robenhausen, Switzerland, located east of Zurich.

Item Image
organic materials
Catalog Number
10108 - 10175, 10185 - 10189
119
Catalog Number : 2385
Accession Number : 17465

Shears, Scissors psalis (Greek); forfex (Latin) These were usually used to cut hair, what Oribasius and Celsus call a "therapeutic procedure". It seems that the blades could not be sharpened to use for cutting tissue, although they would have been used to remove hair around a surgical site prior to surgery.