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openinghours.days.long.monday closed
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23.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
Christmas Eve 24.12.2024 10:00 - 14:00
Christmas 25.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
St. Stephen´s Day 26.12.2024 10:00 - 19:00
27.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
28.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
29.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
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New Year´s Eve 31.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
New Year´s Day 01.01.2025 10:00 - 17:00
Saint Berchtold 02.01.2025 10:00 - 19:00
accessibility.openinghours.special_opening_hours.link
Show all10:00 - 17:00
openinghours.days.long.tuesday Open till openinghours.days.long.wednesday openinghours.openfromto.long
openinghours.days.long.thursday openinghours.openfromto.long
openinghours.days.long.friday Open till openinghours.days.long.sunday openinghours.openfromto.long
openinghours.days.long.monday closed
openinghours.days.long.tuesday Open till openinghours.days.long.wednesday openinghours.and openinghours.days.long.friday openinghours.openfromto.long
openinghours.days.long.thursday openinghours.openfromto.long
openinghours.days.long.saturday Open till openinghours.days.long.monday closed
Closed on public holidays.
23.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
Christmas Eve 24.12.2024 10:00 - 14:00
Christmas 25.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
St. Stephen´s Day 26.12.2024 10:00 - 19:00
27.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
28.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
29.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
30.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
New Year´s Eve 31.12.2024 10:00 - 17:00
New Year´s Day 01.01.2025 10:00 - 17:00
Saint Berchtold 02.01.2025 10:00 - 19:00
accessibility.openinghours.special_opening_hours.link
Show allThe Swiss National Museum owns a collection of 450-odd caskets; about 100 of them are from the Middle Ages. In the process of updating the inventory in 2016, the decision was taken to test a number of anomalous items with a view to dispelling doubts they might have been of more recent manufacture. Testing was expected to show whether they were medieval objects or commissions from the era of historicism. Three techniques were available for the analysis: dendrochronological analysis, metallurgical and pigment analysis, and radiocarbon dating (carbon-14). Twenty-one caskets were tested non-destructively or with minimal loss of material; none was found to date to the 19th century. Testing confirmed that the items were indeed medieval in origin.
Publication
Sonderegger Christina, Baschung Adrian, Mittelalter oder Historismus? – Ein Datierungsprojekt mittelalterlicher Kästchen am Schweizerischen Nationalmuseum [Middle Ages or Historicism? Dating medieval caskets in the Swiss National Museum], in: Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie and Kunstgeschichte (ZAK), Band 78, Heft 4, 2021 311–326.
Project participants
Partner institutions
Dendrochronological Analysis: Stadt Zürich, Amt für Städtebau, Felix Walder, Seefeldstrasse 317, 8008 Zürich www.stadt-zuerich.ch/dendrolabor
Metallurgical and pigment analysis: Swiss National Museum, Conservation Research, Vera Hubert, Erwin Hildbrand, Tiziana Lombardo, Lindenmoosstr. 1, 8910 Affoltern am Albis, www.sammlungszentrum.ch/de
Radiocarbon dating (carbon-14): ETH Zürich, Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, Irka Hajdas, HPK H25, 8093 Zürich, https://ams.ethz.ch/
Head of Cultural History 1, Curator, Furnishings & Interiors