INTRODUCTION

The landscape to be discussed - the Middle Aare valley on the south foot of the Jura range – comprises a stretch of land, roughly 60 km long, in the centre of the Swiss plateau (fig. 1). In antiquity, this area was part of the civitas Helvetiorum. The valley is positioned to the east of Lake Biel and between the Jura and the Napf hills, a prominent rise of the Alpine foothills. It is a landscape strongly moulded by glaciers, a river valley with a width of 20-25 km with the Aare meandering at a height of 420-430 m above sea level. In the northeast it is bordered by the first chain of the Jura range, to the south by the hills of the lateral moraines, which cover the molasse ranges and were left untouched by the glaciers. The settlements lie above the Aare plains, at around 440-460 m above sea level, preferably on the gently sloping foothills of the southern Jura range, or less often, on the opposite side of the valley on the lateral moraines, created by landslides after the glaciers’ retreat. The hillsides are all drained by many streams. The ground is composed of moraine material and is thus fertile.

Climatically, the valley is exposed to both storm bringing west winds as well as the cold bise from the northeast. In the winter, it is often covered by a dense fog. In antiquity, when the Aare had not yet been diverted into Lake Biel, as was the case after the Jura water correction in the 19th century, the river would have periodically flooded the plains, like in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

In a cultural sense, the western part of the middle Aare valley belonged to the hinterland of Aventicum (Avenches), capital of the civitas Helvetiorum, possibly forum Tiberii from the 2nd decade AD onwards and was elevated to the status of colony around 70 AD − colonia Pia Flavia Constans Emerita Helvetiorum Foederata. However, the eastern part of the valley, as the cooking vessels suggest, is oriented to the east, towards Vindonissa, where a legionary camp stood in the 1st century AD. The border zone between both regions is not just defined by the diffusion of the different types of cooking vessels, but also by a thinning out of the settlement.