Horgen

Horgen is a municipality of about 23,000 inhabitants in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland, and one of the larger towns along the south bank of Lake Zürich. On 1 January 2018 the former municipality of Hirzel merged into it. The oldest vestiges found to date come from the lake-shore station of Horgen-Dampfschiffsteg, discovered during dredging of the channel in 1950, 1961 and 1973 with further surveys in 1973 and 1988. The excavations identified four levels of occupation separated by lake chalk sediments; the oldest level ends with a fire layer, and the next held a house dated by dendrochronology to 3713 BC. The ceramics of the oldest layer belong to the middle Pfyn culture and those of the upper layers to the late Pfyn period, and the finds included clay crucibles for melting copper, weights, flint and stone tools, bone and antler tools and wooden objects.