CH-VD-11
Morges, | Les Roseaux
Short Description
The coastal village of Les Roseaux is located northeast of Morges Bay, bordered to the east by the Bief stream. It extends under shallow water on a gently sloping coastal terrace. This site gave its name to the ‘Roseaux type’, characterised by richly decorated ceramic cups and bronze axes with spatula-shaped blades. It is the best-preserved Early Bronze Age site on Lake Geneva. It is one of the few groups of villages from this period that still has a preserved archaeological layer containing a wealth of ceramic artefacts. Dendrochronological dating indicates several phases of occupation over a period of at least 176 years, between 1776 and around 1600 BCE, covering almost the entire Early Bronze Age. An even more recent phase of occupation, during the Late Bronze Age, has also been identified a little further offshore.
Please find more details in theDictionnaire historique de la Suisse DHS
Special Features & Highlights
Less than two kilometres further east is another coastal settlement also attributed to the Early Bronze Age: Préverenges / Préverenges I. It yielded a spatula-shaped bronze axe, which may have been cast in the same mould as an axe found at Les Roseaux.
Pile Dwelling up close
Archaeological artefacts collected from sites on the Vaud shores of Lake Geneva are on display at the Cantonal Museum of Archaeology and History in Lausanne.
Musée cantonal d'archéologie et d'histoire
Palais de Rumine
Place de la Riponne 6
1005 Lausanne
+41 21 316 34 30
to the website
Bronze Age
Early and Late Bronze Age, 1776-1600 and ca. 1056-1042 B.C.
Lake Geneva
369-370 m.a.s.l.
Size of the site:
0,86 ha / approx. 1 soccer pitch
Size of the bufferzone:
8,19 ha / approx. 12 soccer pitches
