Permanent exhibitions

From the Glacial Retreat to Today

In the areas close to the Alps, the oldest vestiges of human occupation were obliterated by the advancing glaciers. As a result, the visitor route starts in around 15,000 B.C. with evidence of the last hunter-gatherers, who were nomads and who had inherited a way of life that went back to the dawn of humanity.

The first farmers and cattle breeders then settled in a landscape that they gradually took control of and modelled through land clearing and agriculture.

The Bronze Age saw an increase in exchanges and trading and the emergence of a hierarchical society.

The Iron Age was characterised by the development of Celtic civilisation and saw the beginning of what we can call history, with the first written traces, which mention the names of "barbarian peoples", including the Helvetii.

Following the adoption of Roman culture, especially its language, the written sources became abundant and they supplement the archaeological data.

Download the room plan brochure (plan & visitor information).

Here's the Money !

Since the Renaissance, numismatics has been devoted to the description and history of coins, tokens, medals and paper money, as well as any other media of exchange or measuring instruments concerning trade. By analysing them, researchers attempt to define monetary production, which reveals the political and economic strategies of States.

The discovery of monetary history and the different aspects of the operation of money are displayed in the room, which is dedicated to the collections of coins and medals. In this way, coinage and the economy are put into context in the past and in the present.

The interactive economic demonstration offered to visitors encourages them to better understand the role of money; the main presentation about monetary history shows the grandeur, decadence and sometimes fall of the powers that succeeded each other in Europe and in Switzerland, in a historical panorama.

Exhibition Catalogues (in French)

. 15000 ans d'histoire. 20 regards sur les collections du Musée, Jérôme Bullinger, Pierre Crotti, Claire Huguenin, Gilbert Kaenel, photographies d’Yves André. (Publication à l'occasion de plusieurs améliorations et mises à jour de l'exposition permanente en 2012 et 2013). Document du Musée cantonal d’archéologie et d’histoire Lausanne, 2014. 72 p. ISBN 978-2-9700581-7-5. CHF 20.-
Télécharger en ligne

. Par ici la monnaie ! Anne Geiser, Maia Wentland (dir.). (Publication à l’occasion de la nouvelle exposition permanente des collections monnaies et médailles). Document du Musée monétaire cantonal Lausanne, 2017. 21 x 21 cm, 190 p. ISBN : 978-2-940094-83-7. CHF 25.-