Monastic Island of Reicheneau - UNESCO: World Heritage

An occupation site of the Urnfield Culture of
the Late Bronze Age has been found on the
shoreline terrace around 400 m above sea
level at Mittelzell. The small range of finds
suggests a late phase of the culture, when the
use of iron objects begins in south-western
Germany. Another occupation site of the
Urnfield Culture is situated in the shallow
waters of the Wollmatinger Ried off the
Reichenau shoreline. This site dates a little
earlier, dendrochronologically dated 975 -
934 BC. Two pins from the Bronze Age
come from the southern island shore. Large
shoreline settlements with densely built rows
of houses surrounded by palisades would
have characterised the contemporary Lake
Constance shore. At the end of the Bronze
Age there is a shift of settlement onto the
shore terrace. Reichenau-Mittelzell is an
example. At the same time evidence for
settlements on the Bodanrück and in the
Hegau is stronger than ever before. Density
of population and development of landscape
undoubtably come to a first peak, which
cannot have left the island of Reichenau
untouched. The island is situated in the
potential catchment area of the above
mentioned settlement in the Wollmatinger
Ried and had - as the findings at Mittelzell
show - dwellings of its own on dry land; on
the mainland contemporary burial mounds
have been found not far from the ford
leading to the island.
The Iron Age, by contrast, is poorly
represented on the island of Reichenau.
While in the woods of the Bodanrück a great
number of burial mounds of the Early Iron
Age Hallstatt Culture are preserved, the island
itself is lacking in such evidence. The same is
true for the early Latène Culture. The Late
Latène Culture, coinciding with the arrival of
the first Roman troops in the early Augustan
Age, is poorly represented in the whole of the
Lake Constance region, even though a large
History of Human Occupation of the Island Add. 2
oppidum was built at the Upper Rhine River
near Rheinau/Altenburg, and the first
settlement emerged on the Minster hill of
Constance. From the island of Reichenau
there is a single finding of a Celtic gold coin.
The island again shows a complete lack of
substantial evidence of the Roman Age which
shaped the island’s environs with the nearby
Constance Castle and villae on the
Bodanrück, and spread the military,
mercantile and agricultural structures of an
advanced civilisation. The Invasion of the
Alamanni and the foundation of numerous
ancient settlements all around Lake
Constance in the 5 th and 6 th century, which is
still clearly visible in village names and
cemeteries, does not extend to the island.
And so the history of the island until the
foundation of the monastery by Pirmin remains
shrouded in mystery.
Helmut Schlichtherle
A complete archaeological survey of the
nominated area does not yet exist. It is
planned, however, in the process of the
publication of the “Denkmaltopographie” of
the Island of Reichenau in Lake Constance
and will be elaborated within the next few
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