Between East and West: Combined Analysis of Stylistic and Technological Aspects of Pottery at the Neolithic Site of Burgäschisee-Nord (Switzerland)

The wetland site of Burgaschisee-Nord is located on the northern shore of the small lake Burgaschi in Central Switzerland. It is one of several Neolithic sites located at the lake shore and has been newly excavated between 2015-2017 within the framework of the international and interdiscpiplinary project “Beyond lake villages. Studying Neolithic environmental changes and human impact at small lakes in Switzerland, Germany and Austria”. During the 37th century BC, the site Burgaschisee-Nord is culturally located between two regions each associated with a specific pottery style (eg. Western Switzerland with the so-called Cortaillod style and the region of lake Zurich with the so-called Pfyn style). Both stylistic influences are reflected in the ceramics of the sites at lake Burgaschi, however in Burgaschisee-Nord (3700-3650 calBC) an unexpected quantity of pots is produced in a style related to eastern Central Switzerland (Lake Zurich region). To conduct an in-depth study of these stylistic interrelationships a crossed-analysis was applied, combining stylistic, technological and petrographic methodologies. The technological analysis, based on the reconstruction of the “chaines operatoires”, shows comparable results to the stylistic study of the material. For example, the surface treatments of pots in Burgaschisee-Nord are close to those identified on pots of settlements around lake Zurich. Nevertheless, the techniques of shaping refer to both the regions of Western Switzerland and Lake Zurich. The petrographic analysis reveals that the analysed ceramics have been produced with local raw materials, without having a relation to stylistic features. The combined approach allows us to draw a more profound picture of the pottery production at lake Burgaschi in the 37th century BC and its entanglements with Western Switzerland and the Lake Zurich region.