Protohistory Archive – Swiss National Museum

26. June 2020

The wheel

Who 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.

20. June 2019

Humans and dogs

by Alexander Rechsteiner

Inscriptions, grave finds and remains bear witness to the enduring relationship between humans and dogs, extending across millennia.

17. January 2019

Close the door!

by Samuel van Willigen

The National Museum Zurich houses one of the oldest preserved doors in Europe. The Robenhausen door is more than 5,500 years old.

5. October 2018

The oldest writing in Switzerland

by Eva Carlevaro

Writing first appeared on the territory of modern-day Switzerland 2,500 years ago, south of the Alps. Some of Europe’s oldest evidence of writing in a Celtic language has been found in Ticino and the Val Mesolcina.