The thin section and ground section collection comprises over 5000 covered thin sections (0.03 mm) and polished sections from numerous archaeological sites (with a focus on Switzerland) from the Palaeolithic to modern times.

The collection includes archaeological layers from a wide variety of contexts (including lakeshore settlements, trampling levels, house floors, pits, ditches, ovens, latrines, agricultural soils, demolitions, stables, Dark Earth, etc.) as well as pedological thin sections and natural deposits (fluvial and limnic deposits, loess, peat, periglacial phenomena, etc.).

This is complemented by reference collections of coprolites, organic remains and pottery (archaeological and recent samples in each case), histotaphonomy and experiments (e.g. trampling and firing experiments).

The collection is available to researchers and students on request [contact form follows].