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<< Our Photo Pages >> Oberbipp Dolmen - Burial Chamber or Dolmen in Switzerland in Bern

Submitted by davidmorgan on Friday, 10 September 2021  Page Views: 7559

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Oberbipp Dolmen
Country: Switzerland
NOTE: This site is 3.029 km away from the location you searched for.

Canton: Bern Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Nearest Town: Solothurn  Nearest Village: Oberbipp
Latitude: 47.263201N  Longitude: 7.660183E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

Megalithic89 visited on 15th Mar 2022 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 The discovery site is in the construction zone. No one has yet dared to build a house there.

aolson visited on 12th Oct 2019 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Nicely placed in the quiet churchyard.

Andy B have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4 Ambience: 4 Access: 4

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by wirzroland : Site in Bern Switzerland (Vote or comment on this photo)
A Neolithic burial chamber discovered in October 2011. Initially only a large granite slab was exposed but investigation by the Archaeological Service of Canton Bern uncovered a dolmen 2 x 3m wide and 1m high. The dolmen has now been reconstructed behind the village church.

The dolmen is in large parts still intact, and thought to date from the second half of the 4th Millennium BC, and to be a collective grave of a residents of Oberbipp farming community. In past centuries it was protected by a layer of sediment from which only a small piece was sticking out of the top plate. The dolmen is very rare surviving evidence for this type of grave in Switzerland, most were destroyed because they hindered agricultural use.

The massive cover plate of Oberbipp rests on several smaller blocks of granite, which form the walls of the actual grave chamber. Roman and medieval finds from the adjoining layers show that the dolmens was for the most part was visible above ground, at least to the 13th Century. The sediment was deposited around him until later, probably during floods of the mill stream, which are likely to be the reason why the dolmen has been damaged.

The original find spot was 47.260490N, 7.660278E.

Note: Who lived on the Swiss Plateau around 3300 BC? Analyses of human skeletal remains from the dolmen of Oberbipp and other sites have now been published - more in the comments on our page.
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Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by wirzroland : Dolmen Oberbipp 03.03.2021 (Vote or comment on this photo)

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by dodomad : The dolmen at the beginning of the excavation: an enormous boulder serves as a capstone that rests on several blocks of granite. (Source: ADB) Site in Bern Switzerland (Vote or comment on this photo)

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by wirzroland : Site in Bern Switzerland (Vote or comment on this photo)

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by wirzroland (Vote or comment on this photo)

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by aolson : The field in the village where the dolmen was found by 11 year old Roman Obi, who wanted to use a backhoe to remove an annoying stone which had been sticking above the ground for quite some time.

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by aolson : The well preserved dolmen in the churchyard

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by aolson : The dolmen reconstructed behind the village church.

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by Andy B : The dolmen during the excavation: Layers of earth are carefully removed to understand how the system is structured. (Source: ADB) Site in Bern Switzerland

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by dodomad : A look at the internal chamber.: The dolmen is filled with material that was probably washed in from the stream. (Source: ADB) Site in Bern Switzerland

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by Megalithic89 : The limestone slabs of the tomb chamber floor have been reinstated in the original. Photo taken March 2022.

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by Megalithic89 : Grave goods. Knife blade and eleven arrowheads: flint. Ornamental pendants: animal teeth. Snail shell. Stone beads. 3,350 – 2,650 BC. Switzerland, Canton of Berne, Oberbipp. Photo taken November 2021 at this exhibition: Humans. Carved in stone. Exhibition at the Swiss National Museum Zurich. Apologies for the shadows.

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by wirzroland : Site in Bern Switzerland

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by wirzroland

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by wirzroland

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by dodomad : A reconstruction of the monument, showing the capstone in relation to the uprights. and the ‘blocking stone at the entrance. Source: ADB Site in Bern Switzerland

Oberbipp Dolmen
Oberbipp Dolmen submitted by dodomad : The top slab must be removed before work can begin in the chamber. It is thought a flood of water moved the stone blocks. (Source: ADB) Site in Bern Switzerland

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 1.7km SW 222° Menhir Wiedlisbach* Modern Stone Circle etc
 4.0km WSW 239° Attiswil Freistein* Standing Stone (Menhir)
 5.5km NE 50° Oensingen Schalenstein* Rock Art
 9.1km WSW 246° Schildchrott - Solothurner Megalithweg* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 9.1km WSW 244° Steinsetzungen - Solothurner Megalithweg* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 9.1km WSW 244° Rütschelistein - Solothurner Megalithweg* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 9.3km WSW 246° Chli Matterhorn - Solothurner Megalithweg* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 9.3km WSW 246° Namenloser Findling - Solothurner Megalithweg* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 10.2km WSW 248° Rüttenen Schalenstein Rock Art
 11.7km S 170° Findling grosse Fluh* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 14.9km NNW 339° Meltingen Schalenstein* Rock Art
 16.0km WSW 238° Nennigkofen Schalenstein* Rock Art
 17.1km WSW 253° Selzach Schalenstein* Rock Art
 20.4km SW 224° Murlistein Rock Art
 20.5km SW 227° Fuchsenstein Schalenstein Rock Art
 20.6km ENE 62° Archaeological Museum of the Canton of Solothurn* Museum
 21.5km NW 326° Laufen Dolmen* Chambered Tomb
 22.6km WSW 247° Eichholz Schalenstein* Rock Art
 23.3km WNW 294° Pierre de Saint Germain* Rock Art
 23.4km SW 227° Hubelstein Schalenstein Rock Art
 23.8km NNW 343° Aesch Dolmen* Chambered Tomb
 25.7km NNW 341° Summstein Ettingen Modern Stone Circle etc
 26.9km SE 138° Älbacher Lochstein* Holed Stone
 27.3km SW 236° Dotzigeberg Schalenstein Rock Art
 30.4km N 9° Augusta Raurica* Ancient Village or Settlement
View more nearby sites and additional images

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"Oberbipp Dolmen" | Login/Create an Account | 10 News and Comments
  
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Re: Swiss dolmen reveals rituals of the Neolithic by Andy B on Friday, 10 September 2021
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The helping hand of Stone-Age farmers
Two thousand bone fragments from a megalithic grave in the Swiss midlands provide a glimpse into the life of people 5,000 years ago. They were just under five feet tall, and helped each other.

Archaeologists are penetrating the history of the Swiss midlands, one layer at a time. Beneath the church and the houses in the historical centre of the village of Oberbipp lie the remains of an eighth-century church, a graveyard from the early Middle Ages, the remains of a Roman farm, and beneath them all the alluvial deposits of the Mühlebach stream. When a large stone block was removed from the meadow near the railway station, the researchers discovered a 5,000-year-old dolmen – a rock burial chamber two metres square, with carefully laid-out slabs of Jura limestone at the bottom. Subsequent excavations brought forth more than 2,000 fragments of human bones.

More at
https://www.horizons-mag.ch/2019/09/05/the-helping-hand-of-stone-age-farmers/
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Ancient genomes reveal social and genetic structure of Late Neolithic Switzerland by Andy B on Friday, 10 September 2021
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Genetic studies of Neolithic and Bronze Age skeletons from Europe have provided evidence for strong population genetic changes at the beginning and the end of the Neolithic period. To further understand the implications of these in Southern Central Europe, we analyze 96 ancient genomes from Switzerland, Southern Germany, and the Alsace region in France, covering the Middle/Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. Similar to previously described genetic changes in other parts of Europe from the early 3rd millennium BCE, we detect an arrival of ancestry related to Late Neolithic pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Switzerland as early as 2860–2460 calBCE. Our analyses suggest that this genetic turnover was a complex process lasting almost 1000 years and involved highly genetically structured populations in this region.

Open Access paper available here
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15560-x
or
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15560-x
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Who lived on the Swiss Plateau around 3300 BCE? by Andy B on Friday, 10 September 2021
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Who lived on the Swiss Plateau around 3300 BCE? Analyses of commingled human skeletal remains from the dolmen of Oberbipp - Inga Siebke, Noah Steuri, Anja Furtwängler, Marianne Ramstein, Gabriele Arenz, Albert Hafner, Johannes Krause, Sandra Lösch

Nowadays, the discovery and excavation of an almost intact Late Neolithic dolmen is rare, as those monuments were often visible in the landscape and have been investigated or destroyed in earlier times; therefore, information about the buried individuals has often been lost. The excavation of the dolmen, a stone grave chamber, from Oberbipp, Switzerland, in 2012 provided a unique opportunity to study human skeletal remains from a Late Neolithic collective burial (3350–2650 BCE).

Over 2,000 fragmented and commingled skeletal elements were recovered and form the basis of this morphological study. Established morphological methods were employed to evaluate the minimum number of individuals, age at death, sex, stature, and the presence of pathological alterations and trauma. Sex was determined additionally by aDNA analysis. Elements of the entire human skeleton were recovered indicating a primary burial site. At least 42 individuals (femora) from all age classes (57%:43% adults to subadults) were buried in the dolmen.

Based on aDNA analysis (n = 23, partes petrosae) slightly more males than females (44%:35% males to females, 22% indeterminate) were recovered. Stature was estimated from complete femora (n = 3) indicating an average body height between 154–157 cm. Pathological alterations and trauma could be observed on several bones, however, without indications for major interpersonal violence. The caries intensity of Swiss samples seems to be higher compared with other Neolithic European sites. A possible separation of burial areas for males and females based on the recovery of skeletal elements within the dolmen along with aDNA results is postulated. In addition, this article contributes to a better understanding of Late Neolithic populations in Central Europe.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oa.2791
https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2791

Preprint PDF available here: https://boris.unibe.ch/132324/7/Siebke_et_al_2019_accepted_version.pdf
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Re: Oberbipp Dolmen by wirzroland on Saturday, 20 March 2021
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Swiss stone monuments inventory - Oberbipp Dolmen
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Re: Swiss dolmen reveals rituals of the Neolithic by Megalithic89 on Wednesday, 21 October 2020
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Professional news, in a report at the very end of the page:

https://www.oberbipp.ch/de/portrait/sehenswuerdigkeiten/dolmen/

Written in German.


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Re: Oberbipp Dolmen by aolson on Monday, 14 October 2019
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[updated. thank you. have saved original find spot co-ordinates in case anyone needs to know. admin] New location 47.263201, 7.660183 accuracy 5

Current coordinates are for the find spot.
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Re: Swiss dolmen reveals rituals of the Neolithic by mpwpir on Thursday, 21 February 2013
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The grave was probably built in the second half of the 4th Millennium BC as a collective grave of a resident community in the neighborhood.
The town is near the glacial moraine of the Rhone Glacier, which is the line at which the ice arrived during the peak of the last ice age.
Megalithism and rituals of inhumations of the deads were practiced in the Neolithic. This prehistoric age is earlier than 2000 years, compared to the appearance of Celts.
The earliest archaeological culture that may justifiably be considered as Proto-Celtic, in fact, is the Late Bronze Age Urnfield Culture of Central Europe from the last quarter of the second millennium BC.
The discovery of these Megaliths in Oberbipp (Canton Bern, CH) demonstrates the importance of N.W. of Switzerland from Neolithic to Bronze and Iron Ages. I remember that La Tène is in Canton Neuchatel, on the homonymous lake, close enough to Oberbipp.
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Re: Swiss dolmen reveals rituals of the Neolithic by Andy B on Friday, 15 February 2013
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A couple more news reports in German

http://www.oberbipp.ch/documents/Der_Sonntag091212.pdf

http://www.oberbipp.ch/documents/NZZ_1.pdf
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Video: Swiss dolmen reveals rituals of the Neolithic by Andy B on Thursday, 14 February 2013
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A sensational archaeological discovery has been made in canton Bern: a community grave dating back 5,000 years, containing 30 bodies and Stone Age artifacts. It is the first intact burial chamber to be found north of the alps.

A team from Swiss television’s flagship science programme, Einstein, has been following the archaeologists as they continue their research on the so-called dolmen or megalithic tomb.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/The_Stone_Age_people_of_Oberbipp.html?cid=34856464
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Swiss dolmen reveals rituals of the Neolithic by davidmorgan on Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Submitted by jackdaw1:

A sensational archaeological discovery has been made in the region of Bern, Switzerland, consisting of a communal dolmen grave dating back to over 5,000 years, containing 30 bodies and Neolithic artefacts. It represents the first intact burial chamber to be found north of the Alps.

In October 2011, specialists from the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern began investigation of the large granite slab weighing in at 7 tonnes. The glacial erratic measured 3 metres long, 2 metres wide and was nearly 1 metre thick – what they did not realise at first was that it still covered a grave belonging to a Neolithic community.

The site was originally found when a farmer decided to try and remove the glacial boulder that he had to mow around when cutting grass in his field.

The boulder is from the last glacial maximum – some 20,000 years ago – and used by the early farmers during the 4th millennium BCE for burial purposes.

According to a report in the Berner Zeitung, Roman and medieval artefacts were found directly overlying the Neolithic layers and show the dolmen was a visible feature in the landscape until at least the 13th century CE. Most of the sediments that cover the site are flood deposits from the nearby river.

The site director of the Oberbipp dolmen excavation, Marco Amstutz comments, “What we found here is like winning the lottery. “

An intact Neolithic communal burial is slowly coming to light, after fears the grave may have been ransacked in the past. The uprights are slightly tilted due to constant flooding from the nearby river, but despite this, the site is reasonably intact.

The excavation of the burial chamber has revealed over 30 individuals as well as what must represent grave goods from the period, including flint arrowheads pendants made of animal teeth and one bead, probably of limestone.

DNA testing of the occupants as well as sophisticated analysis of their teeth will be taking place over the next two years.

The Swiss Neolithic begins around the middle of the 5th millennium BCE and is coeval with both the Bandkeramik culture in Central Europe and the Vinca culture in the Balkans. During the 4th millennium – when this dolmen is constructed – the culture seemed to develop independently from the rest of Europe and this excavation may help open up further study into the connections that linked the region during this period.

A team from Swiss television’s flagship science programme, Einstein, has been following the archaeologists as they continue their research on the dolmen.

Source: Past Horizons.
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