Markus Roth

From July 2004 to July 2005, an area of 6200 m² was investigated in the Heerenwis district of the municipality of Rheinau. The excavation revealed numerous structures from the Late La Tène period, the early to late Middle Ages—with a primary focus on the High Middle Ages—as well as from modern times. The Late Celtic findings and the associated artifacts will be presented at a later date in a monograph on Celtic Rheinau. This work will showcase the many medieval and modern structures and their associated finds.

The medieval findings are distributed more or less evenly across the entire excavation site. The earliest traces of medieval settlement in Heerenwis date back to the 7th century. These consist of a sunken house, which could be dated based on the pottery. This marks the first archaeological evidence of settlement activity in Rheinau during the Early Middle Ages. Two additional sunken houses date from the 9th to around the mid-11th century. A notable finding is a moated enclosure with a gate structure in its southwestern corner. Inside the enclosure, there were either one or two post-built structures, depending on interpretation. Another free-standing post-built structure was located to the north, outside the moat. The post-built structures have been dated to the 11th and 12th centuries. Around the mid-12th century, a building with a cellar measuring 5 x 15 m was constructed. In an initial phase, five treadlooms were arranged side by side within it. The remains of a total of ten treadlooms discovered in the two weaving cellars show the same pattern of traces, including the tread pit and the four posts for anchoring the loom frame, as was first encountered in 1990 in the old town of Winterthur due to excellent organic preservation. The function of a system of basins, i.e., several basins arranged in a serpentine manner, could not be clarified. The high medieval pottery from the site.