Moosseedorf

Moosseedorf is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The village is located south of Moossee, the lake that gives it its name. Moosseedorf is first mentioned in 1242 as Sedorf. In 1389 it was mentioned as Mossedorf. In the 18th and early 19th Century, it officially became Moosseedorf to avoid confusion with Seedorf in the District of Aarberg, which is also in the Canton of Bern. Two of the largest paleolithic sites in Switzerland, Mossbühl I and II, are located on a low hill near Moossee Lake. The sites date to the last Ice Age (about 13,500 BC) and contain over 70,000 Magdalenian flints. Other discoveries include a needle of bone, ochre beads for dye, lignite pearls, a female statuette made from jet (height ) as well as fragments of imported amber from the Baltic region. Fire pits surrounded by what appear to be tent sites were also discovered. A number of animal skeletons and bones show that the people at Mossbühl mostly hunted reindeer. In addition to Mossbühl I and II, in 1856 several neolithic lake shore settlements were found on both ends of the lake. The larger eastern site contained a number of Cortaillod culture pottery fragments from the first half of the 4th millennium BC. In 1886 workers excavating a site for a monument to the Battle of Grauholz, allegedly discovered a late-Bronze Age grave, which probably dated to around 1300 BC. According to reports, the grave contained several small tools and jewelry. However, the site was destroyed in construction and any artifacts were lost. During the Middle Ages the village belonged to the Kyburg Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family of Seedorf or Moser. The family only appears in historical records during the 13th and 14th centuries, so very little is known about their history or their rule. One well documented record comes from 1242 when they quarreled with the Priory of St. Peter's Island over the patronage rights to Moosseedorf's village church.