The Engstligenalp in the Berne Alps – The Diachronic View of an Alpine Landscape

In 2018 the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the University of Bern, in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Zurich, held the first Swiss International Summer School for Alpine Archaeology (SISA). The summer school usually consists of workshops with external experts to discuss current research on archaeology in the Alps. Moreover, fieldwork is included in order to train practical excavation and prospection methods in (high) alpine area. This year‘s SISA will take place in the Bernese Alps, in Adelboden and on the Engstligenalp.
The main topics of the Summer School are the Alps as a communication area as well as prospecting and excavation methods in high alpine terrain. The SISA is combined with preceding field research that will take place in a rock shelter above the Engstligenalp at around 2600 m asl. The Engstligenalp and the rock shelter is a hitherto archaeologically unexplored terrain, but one that shows great potential due to outstanding sites in the region like the nearby Schnidejoch pass and the Tierberg rock shelter. It is known from written sources that alpine farming has been practised on the Engstligenalp since the Middle Ages. The aim of the fieldwork is to trace the prehistoric usage of the alp, in order to create a holistic and diachronic view of land use on the alps and to record the area as a communication and interaction zone. In this presentation we will present the history of SISA, the event of the current SISA 2023 and the results of the fieldwork.