# The Pile Dwellings (c. 3800 BCE)

URL: https://allhistories.com/swiss/timeline/-3800-the-pile-dwellings
Themes: Key Events

From around 4300 BCE and especially after 3800 BCE, dozens of villages were built along the shores of Swiss lakes and bogs, from Lake Geneva and Lake Neuchâtel to Lake Zürich and Lake Constance. Houses stood on piles or on the damp shoreline, and were rebuilt many times over the centuries. When lake levels fell dramatically in the dry winter of 1853–54, remains of these settlements appeared at Obermeilen on Lake Zürich. Ferdinand Keller's interpretation of them as 'lake dwellings' caused a sensation and fuelled a Swiss national myth of peaceful ancestors. Tree-ring dating now fixes many construction phases to the year. In 2011, 111 sites around the Alps, 56 of them in Switzerland, were listed by UNESCO.

## Why it matters
The pile dwellings preserve an extraordinary archive of prehistoric daily life and became a founding image of Swiss national identity.

Ruler at the Time: [Prehistoric Switzerland](https://allhistories.com/swiss/rulers/prehistoric-switzerland)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_pile_dwellings_around_the_Alps)
- [Wikipedia — Stilt house](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stilt_house)
- [Wikipedia — Ferdinand Keller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Keller)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — The Pile Dwellings](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=The+Pile+Dwellings)
- [Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (HLS) lookup — The Pile Dwellings](https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/en/search/?text=The+Pile+Dwellings)
- [Wikipedia — Early history of Switzerland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_history_of_Switzerland)
- [Wikipedia — History of Switzerland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Switzerland)