André Perler23.05.2023Since they were founded centuries ago, place name have undergone constant change. Unsophisticated descriptions of the local landscape, or ownership, have morphed into abbreviations popular among the young. In Winterthur’s case, it has gone from ‘Uitoduro’ to ‘Winti’.
Thomas Weibel23.12.2022"Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel": in the 1973 Czech-German fantasy film, three enchanted hazelnuts make all the heroine’s dreams come true. But even without any magic, the hazelnut is a remarkable fruit.
Thomas Weibel28.03.2022Birch bark pitch is the oldest all-purpose adhesive in history. Ötzi used birch pitch to affix his arrowheads to the shafts of the arrows; other prehistoric peoples glued broken pottery with birch pitch, or sealed canoes with it. Recently, science has also solved the mystery of how it was produced.
Ina Wunn08.11.20215,000 years ago, people in Europe began erecting stone stelae in the shape of humans. These monuments were likenesses of ancestors that served to unify and nourish the village community through rituals, and legitimised land ownership.
Alexander Rechsteiner17.09.2021Stone stelas from Neolithic Europe tell of a new social class: the heavily armed warriors who were supposed to protect the property of the elites.
Bernhard Graf20.11.2020Pottery was being made in what is now Switzerland as long ago as 3800 BC. Now, there’s no longer any industrial production in this country. But some big names have remained.
Samuel van Willigen26.06.2020Who invented the wheel? Historians still debate this point today. And the Zurich region is in the running to claim the honour. Wheels dating from the Neolithic period have been found here.
Alexander Rechsteiner20.06.2019Inscriptions, grave finds and remains bear witness to the enduring relationship between humans and dogs, extending across millennia.
