Impressive Bronze Age axe found in Switzerland
A bronze axe of impressive size and quality has been discovered in the village of Burg im Leimental, northwestern Switzerland. Dating to the Middle Bronze Age, it is approximately 3,500 years old. Cast of solid bronze, it is 22cm (8.7 inches) long and unusually heavy. The level of craftsmanship is exceptional.The artifact was unearthed by Sacha Schneider, a metal detectorist working with the Archaeology Department of Basel-Landschaft on a systematic archaeological survey of a steep slope below the outcropping that overlooks the village. It is a flanged axe of the Grenchen type, named after the town at the foothills of the Jura mountains where a hoard of Bronze Age axes and sickles discovered in 1856.Schneider found a second bronze artifact, a garment pin, nearby. They do not appear to have been part of a single deposit.The deposition of multiple metal objectswas widespread in the Bronze Age. Sometimes, more than a hundred objects were deposited in a very small area. Often, various objects such as tools, weapons, and jewelry were found mixed together. Research assumes that such hoards were deliberately buried. In most cases, they are interpreted as votive offerings to unknown deities. Individual bronze objects, often found in specific locations such as rock crevices or in water, are also interpreted in this way. The axe from Burg was also found in a rock pocket filled with earth and could therefore have been a single offering. However, because other bronze objects were found at the same location, it cannot be ruled out that it was a larger hoard that was later looted or dispersed.The village of Burg lies on the border between Switzerland and France. Its somewhat peripheral location today shouldnt obscure the fact that we are in a very fertile region with good connections to the Rhine and Rhone valleys (Burgundy Gate). Finds in nearby Rodersdorf show that people settled here during the Middle Bronze Age. Another bronze axe of the Grenchen type was found in 1968 during the construction of the swimming pool in Aesch and could indicate a route into the Birs Valley. In Biederthal (France), about one kilometer from the Burg find site, a larger bronze hoard was unearthed in 1998, which is currently on display in the Treasure Finds exhibition at the Historical Museum. Clearly, the area between the flat Sundgau region and the northernmost foothills of the Jura Mountains held special significance for the people of that time.The newly-discovered axe is now on display with the other bronze objects found in the area in a special exhibition at the Historical Museum Basel (Barfsserkirche).
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