Daniela Schwab10.09.2024The term is relatively recent but the concept is as old as mankind: the 'circular economy' where goods are reused, recycled and repaired.
Isabelle Hausmann08.08.2024Alcohol has been a companion to humankind since the year dot: as an enjoyable beverage and addictive substance, but also as a hygienic alternative to water and even as a remedy for intestinal worms. A short cultural history of an everyday toxic substance.
Felix Graf18.07.2024The fossilised skeleton of a giant salamander found in the stone quarries at Öhningen is one of the most famous fossil finds in history. Zurich-born Johann Jakob Scheuchzer believed it to be the remains of a human who had drowned in the biblical Flood.
Selina Stokar26.03.2024In the early Bronze Age, the area around Lake Thun benefited from its position on important trade routes. Members of the wealthy elite had themselves buried along with magnificent grave goods. These objects indicate connections reaching as far afield as Mycenae, Cyprus, Anatolia and the Gaza Strip.
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.
