Pully

Pully (pyˈji) is a municipality in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, located in the district of Lavaux-Oron. It is one of the eastern suburbs of the city of Lausanne, located on the shores of Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) and at the foot of the vineyards of Lavaux on the road to Vevey and Montreux. Pully is first mentioned in 994 as Pulliacum. In 1826 a neolithic cemetery with about 30 graves was uncovered at Pierra-Portray. However, the artifacts were not fully preserved and only one flint blade and a soapstone fragment still exist. Near Pierra-Portray, along the Chemin de Chamblandes, Albert Naef examined 23 tombs from 1901 to 1910. These tombs belonging to a similar set of tombs which were sporadically excavated and recorded between 1880 and 1993. The local rectangular graves consisted of boxes assembled from four vertical slabs of about in length, with a fifth plate that served as a lid. The dead were lying on their left side with their legs drawn up to the chest and the head pointed to the east. The largest find of stone box graves in Pully was the cemetery at Chamblandes. Due to the number of finds at Chamblandes, all similar cist or stone box graves in the surrounding area came to be known as Chamblandes type graves. The cemetery of Chamblandes extends over a length of about a hundred meters (yards) and included 76 graves and over 100 skeletons. This Middle Neolithic (4300-3900 BC) graveyard included as grave goods; ocher, various commodities (polished stone ax) and jewelry (wild boar tusks, pendants made of shells, coral and lignite). Two collars, one needle, a dagger and a bronze knife-blade hatchet are attributed to an early Bronze Age grave. In 1992 a cremation grave was discovered that dated from the Late Bronze Age. In the 1970s, while working on foundation of a terrace of the Le Prieuré building, the corner of a large Roman era villa was discovered. The villa dates from the period between the second half of the 1st century and 4th century AD. The accompanying small thermal baths, a monumental pool and several walls were already known from earlier excavations.