Temporary exhibitions
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A subsoil steeped in history
Dates : 2004 - 2004
New batches of antiquities regularly emerge from Nyon’s subsoil as the excavations carried out by the archaeologists of Archeodunum SA under the aegis of the Department of Cantonal Archaeology of the State of Vaud advance.
Repair work begun in 1988 on the infrastructures under the streets of central Nyon has led to intensive archaeological research, the most recent manifestations of which date back to 2003. These activities have considerably enriched the collections of the Museum which in 1993 presented the initial results of five years of urban archaeology.
The time had come for a new update of the discoveries made, even though the studies are far from complete and the majority of the cases presented are not closed.
Some examples:
A still little-known sector of the Roman town, below the amphitheatre and in Roman times near the lake shore, has yielded a fine set of 12 vases found broken and burned in a cremation pit – the remains of a funeral banquet held at the very beginning of our era.
Near the basilica, the corner of a room in a house has been excavated and the form of decoration of its wall paintings recreated. With its highly coloured geometrical design, this is the first painting in Nyon that it has been possible to date to the 2nd century AD.
A Celtic statue in Nyon, predating the foundation of the colony around 45 BC? Martin Bossert’s study confirms Edgar Pelichet’s intuition about the head of a statue that had long been preserved in the Museum.