Propylaeum

At Altreu, a hamlet in the municipality of Seuzach on the River Aare, it was its proximity to the river that caused the archaeological substance to disappear. Since 1949, partial features of a settlement have come to light in numerous construction pits. The publication has assembled these sections to form an overall picture, which is of great importance, both for medieval research in Canton Solothurn and for the archaeology of the Middle Ages in the whole of Switzerland. Thanks to the fact that much has been preserved in a coherent overall picture that elsewhere has to be painstakingly reconstructed from isolated fragments, the study provides invaluable insight into what life was like in a small medieval town. With fortification walls, a citadel and residential buildings facing onto the alleyways, Altreu had all the elements typically associated with a medieval town. Following a conflagration in the second half of the 14th century, the town was abandoned and subsequently forgotten. A considerable legacy, however, has survived in the ground: more than 20,000 artefacts were retrieved and are presented in an extensive catalogue sorted by category.