Lyss () is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipality of Busswil bei Büren was merged with Lyss. History Lyss is first mentioned in 1009 as Lissa. The oldest traces of humans in Lyss include neolithic, Bronze Age and Hallstatt culture items scattered around the municipality. One of the best preserved items is a 6th-century BC Etruscan bronze statue. Roman era bricks have been found in Kirchhübeli along with early medieval and medieval tombs and the remains of a Carolingian church. A number of graves dating from the 7th Century were discovered at Sonnhalde-Kreuzhöhe. The Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family of Lyss is first mentioned in 1185-87 under the Counts of Neuchâtel-Aarberg. In 1367, Lyss, along with the rest of the land around Aarberg, was transferred to the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau. About ten years later, around 1377-79 it was transferred again to the City of Bern and became part of the Bernese bailiwick of Aarberg. While Bern owned the village of Lyss, a number of nobles and monasteries owned property, farms or rights in the village and surroundings. Until the Reformation, Lyss had two parish churches. The church of St. John the Evangelist was built in the 7th or 8th century. Around 1246 it was replaced with a new church, which was partially renovated in the 15th century. It became the center of an important deanery in the second half of the 14th century. After the Reformation it was the only church in Lyss until the current Reformed church was built in 1934–35. The other church St. Mary's Church at Kirchhübeli which was built on the foundations of a Carolingian church. In the 15th century the church began to fall into disrepair, and during the Reformation it was abandoned and demolished in 1533. For centuries, the meandering Aare and Lyssbach rivers flooded Lyss repeatedly. Over the centuries several dams and levees were built to protect the village. Starting in the 17th century a number of water powered mills, including an oil mill, sawmills, fulling mills and dyeing factories, were built along the river. The first Jura water correction (1868–91) diverted the Aare river into Lake Biel. This, together with the Lyssbach correction (1911–16) opened up extensive farm land along the old river. The population of Lyss was always greater than