Messikomer, Jakob

▪ Swiss archaeologist

born c. 1828, , Switzerland

died , Switzerland

      Swiss farmer and archaeologist who excavated one of the most important Late Stone Age lake dwelling (Lake Dwellings) sites at Robenhausen, near Lake Pfäffikon, in Switzerland.

      In his youth, as Messikomer dug peat for his mother's kitchen fire, he dreamed of finding remains of the Helvetii, the Celtic inhabitants of Swiss lands whom Julius Caesar described. In 1857 a skeleton wearing bronze jewelry was unearthed near Robenhausen. Messikomer reported the findings to Ferdinand Keller (Keller, Ferdinand), the eminent Swiss authority on lake dwellings, who encouraged him to search for prehistoric remains around Lake Pfäffikon, where in 1858 wood pilings characteristic of lake dwellings were found. Messikomer purchased a tract of peaty land and for more than 50 years systematically excavated it, one small plot after another. His work revealed three successive stages of occupation and a great variety of artifacts of flint, wood, straw, and bone. Bones of domestic animals and remains of cereals and other comestibles vastly enriched the emerging picture of Stone Age life. Though his work brought him an honorary doctorate from the University of Zürich, it also led him into straitened circumstances that required him to sell many of the objects he had uncovered.

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