ABSTRACT
The profuse urban and road development which has taken place in Switzerland in the past 150 years has resulted in a large number of lake settlement discoveries. As result, a large amount of animal bones have been obtained and analysed. Due to the exceptional level of preservation below the water table large mammal bones are recovered in excellent condition and the bones of smaller animals, such as small birds, reptiles, amphibians and even fish, are also preserved. Many of the lake-dwelling sites have been precisely dated using dendrochronology and we know how long the villages were occupied. Therefore, compared to other regions the quality of information from lake-dwellings based on the animal bones benefits from the high density of sites analysed the excellent state of conservation and the opportunity for precision dating.
