Oppidum Zürich-Lindenhof

Lindenhof

estimated to be Turicum (Zürich)
Lindenhof hill and Schipfe as seen from Predigerkirche Zürich
Shown within Switzerland
Alternate name	Lindenhof-Sihlbühl
Location	Lindenhof–Sihlbühl–Münsterhof
Region	Zürich, Switzerland
Coordinates	47°22′22.74″N 8°32′26.04″E / 47.3729833°N 8.5405667°E / 47.3729833; 8.5405667
Type	section moats between district, minting, Circular rampart or Oppidum
Part of	Turicum (Zürich)
Length	c. 350 metres (1,148 ft)
Width	c. 250 metres (820 ft)
Area	10 hectares (25 acres)
Height	c. 28 metres (92 ft)
History
Builder	Celts or probably Helvetii, later Roman
Material	stone, earth, wood
Founded	c. 1st century BC
Periods	Iron Age
Cultures	Celts, La Tène later Gallo-Roman
Associated with	probably Helvetii, later Gallo-Roman
Site notes
Excavation dates	1906, 1989, 1997, 2004, 2007 and 2008
Archaeologists	Margrit Balmer, Dölf Wild
Condition	aeaorchological access
Ownership	City and canton of Zürich
Public access	Yes

Lindenhof is the present name of the probably Helvetii oppidum on the Lindenhof hill on the western shore of the Limmat in Zürich.

The Lindenhof is a moraine hill that since the European Middle Ages is used as a public square, situated amidst the historic center of Zürich. It was the site of the Roman and Carolingian era Kaiserpfalz around which the modern city has historically grown. The hilltop area including its prehistoric, Celtic, Roman and medieval remains, therefore dominates the historical center alongside the easterly Limmat riverbank and the historical Schipfe quarter. Its northern part, where the former medieval Oetenbach nunnery was built at the site of a prehistoric cultic place at the present Uraniastrasse road, is called Sihlbühl, meaning the slope towards the Sihl river delta. At the same place, the Urania Sternwarte and Waisenhaus Zürich were built in 1901/02, and therefore important historical archaeaological excavations never were done. To the south, near the St. Peter church hill, there was another cultic construction towards Münsterhof, and in the west, the hill is limited by the today's Rennweg—Bahnhofstrasse lanes, the site of the Helvetii accommodation and artisan district. The now largely flattened Lindenhof area elevates at 428 metres (1,404 ft) above sea level, and rises about 25 metres (82 ft) above the level of the Limmat at Schipfe—Limmatquai.

At the flat shore of Zürichsee, there are Neolithic and Bronze Age (4500 to 850 BC) finds, most of them related to the lakeside settlements Kleiner Hafner and Grosser Hafner (both small former islands west of Sechseläutenplatz, near Bauschänzli at the Stadthausquai, and Alpenquai at the Bürkliplatz square. Lindenhof then was largely surrounded by water: until the early medieval area, the neighboring Münsterhof area was a swampy, by the Sihl river delta flooded hollow, so that Lindenhof hill was an optimal location for early probably fortified settlements.Middle bronze age (1500 BC) artefacts were found at Schipfe).