The site of the first discovered settlement in this lake lay a little
to the north of the town of Zug. A section of some excavations made
for building purposes about 50 feet from the lake showed first a bed
of common mould 2½ feet thick, then a layer of sand and rolled stones
1½ foot thick, after which came the relic-bed--a blackish band of
decayed organic matter, varying in thickness from 8 inches to 1 foot,
and containing the tops of piles and various industrial remains. The
heads of the piles were on a level, and in some places cross-beams
were observed. The relics include some stone hatchets, one fragment
being of nephrite; a few flint objects--lance and arrow-heads, and one
knife. There were also portions of sawn stones, apparently for making
implements. From a small collection of bones Professor Rütimeyer
identified the horse, cow, dog, marsh pig, red deer, roe, and hare.[19]
The surface of the soil where these discoveries were made was about 15
feet above that of the water in the lake, which of course would leave
the relic-bed still on dry land--a peculiarity which is accounted
for by the reported deepening of the outlet in former times. This
explanation is very probable, as the channel of the Lorze, which
carries off the surplus waters of Lake Zug, in passing through the
town of Cham, bears evidence of having been artificially deepened. The
large amount of detritus conveyed annually into this end of the lake
also satisfactorily accounts for the depth at which the relic-bed lies
below the surface.
Farther round the head of the lake, at Koller, near Cham, another site
was discovered, on which some excavations were made, which revealed a
relic-bed 3 feet below the surface. The finds here were broken celts
of serpentine, fragments of pottery indicating large vessels. The
present level of the lake is 3 feet below this relic-bed.
A third station was at St. Andreas, the evidence of which was
the finding of a great number of stone celts, flint knives and
arrow-points, over a certain part of a cultivated field bordering on
the lake. Peculiar among the finds here are some curious oval objects
made of limestone, with a short neck perforated (=Fig. 16=, No. 8).
Traces of three other stations--viz. at Derschbach, Zweieren, and
Badeplatz--have been noted beyond Cham, but they have not been
carefully investigated. Pottery ornamented with triangular lines and
the "meander" pattern would seem to point to a later period. (B. 126,
Pl. iii.)
A few of the objects collected on these stations are in a small museum
in Zug; others are at Zürich; and in Bern there are 12 stone celts
and one of copper, marked as coming from the station at Lorze.