At the end of the 1930s and for much of the Second World War, unemployed workers and interned French and Polish soldiers helped uncover the past of the former Roman capital of Switzerland, Avenches.
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Among their discoveries between 1938 and 1943 was a gold bust of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, found in a waste water pipe. But they also helped clear out the city’s old amphitheatre and other sites that can still be seen today (Pictures: Avenches Roman museum)
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Switzerland’s past faces an uncertain future
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Chevenez in canton Jura: it’s here that a well-known watchmaker is building a new factory on a tight schedule. It’s also here that the initial spadework revealed what could be a major archeological site. The local authorities had to scramble to save what they could find in a few short weeks, after the firm building…
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Travelling across Switzerland, especially in the summer months, it is not unusual to come across people working on an archaeological dig somewhere out in the country. But the digging, scraping and vacuuming are just one part of the job. Once a survey is complete, what does it tell us, and what is the story behind…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.