NIEDERWYL.--The settlement of Niederwyl was situated in a small basin
covering only about 60 acres, which, though now entirely overgrown
with peat, must have been formerly a lake, as its ancient name
Egelsee implies. Immediately to the south there is an open valley,
from which it is separated by a narrow ridge of land, through which
its proprietors made a deep excavation for its better drainage,
thereby facilitating the removal of the peat. While the peasants
were thus occupied, they came upon a portion of the basin near its
centre, where the peat began to thin out; and as they advanced, it
turned out that there was something like a mound entirely submerged
in the peat, and composed of clay, wooden beams, stones, charcoal,
and all sorts of rubbish. On the centre of this mound the depth of
peat was only 2 or 3 feet, while all around it amounted to 8 or 10
feet. This curious elevation was simply passed over by the workmen
after removing its covering of peat; and so it remained exposed, till
one day the Reverend Mr. Pupikofer happened to pass along the moor,
when he recognised its archæological importance. This was in 1862,
and immediately the Historical Society of Thurgau arranged to have
the matter investigated; and Mr. Jacob Messikommer, whose experience
of the lake-dwelling at Robenhausen had made him an authority on
such matters, was asked to conduct the necessary researches. Upon
making sections through the exposed part of this mound, he found an
artificial sub-structure of faggot-sticks, laid transversely, and
mixed with upright piles which penetrated to the original lake-bottom.
It was fortunate, however, that the whole of the mound had not been
bared of peat, and Messikommer wisely selected an undisturbed portion
for his subsequent excavations. The following quotation from his
report will convey a better idea of these structures than any abstract
I could make:--
"When I began the excavation with a few workmen on the 18th of June,
I was surprised to find, under a pavement of clay and gravel, from 2
to 4 inches thick, and from the top of which 3 feet of peat had been
removed, a structure of faggot-sticks, regularly laid and perfectly
solid; and as the wood was exceedingly soft, we had to use every
care in uncovering as large a portion of it as we could. We first
bared a space, which was in perfect condition, 20 feet long, 6 feet
wide at the ends, and 10 feet wide in the middle. The upper platform
was of split timber or boards of oak, laid down with great care,
and it rested on round timber, or faggot-sticks, from 3 to 4 inches
in diameter, which were surrounded with piles. The back part of the
space was covered with charcoal, and was somewhat charred; there were
also found tolerably large stones (hearth-stones) in their original
position. A most striking fact was that the lowest part of the side
wall was still standing; it consisted of a kind of shutter pushed in
between the upright piles surrounding the space. On this I had other
portions uncovered, and everywhere met with the same construction,
only differing in having the platform or floor made of faggot-sticks
instead of boards. Here and there the floor had sunk considerably,
often one or one inch and a half in six inches.
"This place was then left to be examined by the members of the
associations of Thurgau and Zürich, and excavations were made in
another place to examine the sub-structure. The result proved no
less interesting; for 1 foot deep, under the first platform, we came
upon a second; a foot deeper we found a third; then a fourth, and so
on; so that the arrangement is similar to that of Wauwyl. The huts
were placed on masses of wood, consisting of five or six platforms,
one above the other, the spaces between which were filled in with
brushwood and branches of trees, chiefly alder, rushes, gravel, and
clay. We were surprised to meet with bones, cones of earthenware, and
a great wooden mallet between the platforms; we also found woven cloth
under the fifth platform, and charcoal close to the bed of the lake.
From this I conclude that the platforms were not made at the same
time, but at intervals, one after the other; or that they had been
repaired, a portion at a time, as we found single charred stems under
fresh wood." (B. 119, 2nd ed., p. 77.)
In another section Messikommer observed a slight variation in the
fascine structures above described, which he thus explains: "What I
have called the lattice or trellis work consisted of thin stems of
trees, which were not laid close together, but at intervals of from
one to two inches apart; the uppermost stems rested on others lying
under them at right angles, and these again on others parallel with
those on the upper layer. The spaces between the timbers were filled
in with charcoal and burnt clay."
Each structure seemed to have been adapted for one cottage, as between
them there were narrow spaces which had got filled up with _débris_,
and contained relics such as broken stone hatchets, carbonised cloth
and fruits, etc.
"We cannot imagine," continues Messikommer, "that this settlement was
destroyed by fire, for although we occasionally met with burnt beams,
not a single trace of conflagration was to be seen in the upright
piles, which projected as much as 2½ feet above the floor--nay, even
in most of them the bark was still in good preservation.
"The products of the potters art were in general very coarse, and
yet we found a few fragments which had been ornamented, and also
parts of the rims of vessels made with washed or purified clay, and
without quartz grains. Fragments of vessels also were found neatly
polished, blackened, and with handles of a convenient form. No smaller
implements were met with, such as pins, little chisels, etc. It is
very singular that so few bones were found; the cow, stag, and the pig
were the only animals the remains of which were discovered here.
"At the bottom of some broken earthenware vessels there still remained
grains of wheat and barley and hazel-nuts. Doubtless all the food,
whether animal or vegetable, was kept in large or small vessels of
earthenware."
Subsequently, on two occasions, Messikommer was asked by archæological
societies to give a practical exposition of this interesting
_Packwerkbau_ for the edification of their members--once in 1872,
when the meeting of the Swiss Natural History Society was held at
Frauenfield; and again in 1877, when the German Anthropological
Association met at Constance. (B. 406c.)
On all these occasions Messikommer paid particular attention to the
size and kind of cottages the lake-dwellers possessed. In 1862, from
the stumps of piles protruding through a portion of undisturbed
flooring, he estimated the size of the habitable area for each cottage
at 24 feet long by 18 feet broad. On these floorings were seen the
remains of food and industry, just as fresh as if the people had
recently left the place. ("Die Mühle mit Gerste und Weizen daneben,
als wäre sie erst gestern noch bewohnt gewesen.") He believes that
each cottage possessed not only its own domestic utensils but also its
weaving and corn-grinding machines, etc.
The area occupied by the entire settlement was 20,000 square feet, and
the nearest shore, when the basin was a lake, would be 30 or 40 yards
distant.
The industrial remains collected from time to time at Niederwyl
consist of:--Wheat, barley, flax, cakes of bread, wooden implements,
clay weights (=Fig. 26=, No. 3), stone hatchets (Nos. 7 and 8),
flint saws (No. 1) and scrapers; some well-made dishes (Nos. 4, 5
and 6), one a remarkable jug (No. 6) with handle; another, of black
earthenware, had been mended with asphalt. A strip of birch-bark (now
in the Museum at Zürich) had been neatly sewn (No. 10). In the same
Museum there is a stone (perforated) axe-hammer head which vies in
elegance of workmanship with any from Scandinavia (No. 9).
Recently Messikommer has come to the conclusion that the _Packwerkbau_
at Niederwyl existed during the early Bronze Age, as he found a piece
of oak wood having cuts which could not have been made by a stone
implement. From various considerations of the more recent facts
brought to light in the course of his frequent excavations here and at
Robenhausen he enunciates the opinion that wherever split oak beams
or piles are found we may with certainty conclude that the settlement
belongs to the early metal age. ("Man darf mit Bestimmtheit annehmen,
dass alle jene Niederlassungen, in welchen gespaltenes Eichenholz
in grösserer Menge zum Vorschein kommt, auch das Metall in einfacher
[Kupfer] oder zusammengesetzter Form [Bronze] gekannt haben.") (B.
454c, p. 2.)
[Illustration: =Fig. 26.=--NIEDERWYL. Nos. 5 to 7 = ⅙, 10 = ⅔, and
the rest = ⅓ real size.]
_Second Station._--Adjacent to the Egelsee basin, and separated
from it only by about a dozen paces, is another small peat-basin
known as the Riedsee, in which were recently found the remains of a
true pile-dwelling. Here for some time fragments of pottery, stone
hatchets, horns and bones of various animals, were met with in the
peat; but in August, 1884, Messikommer discovered the actual piles
associated with the usual objects of a Stone Age dwelling. The area
of this Pfahlbau was small, measuring only 13 yards by 10. Its site
lay near the margin of the peat, and the antiquities were met with 1
foot under the surface. Among these were a small earthenware dish or
cover ornamented with four prominences and a few rows of punctured
dots (No. 2), several wooden dishes in all stages of manufacture,
entire handles of stone hatchets, worked horn, etc. A crucible similar
to those from Robenhausen was also found near the same place.
Among the osseous remains are portions of a skull of the urus with
both horn-cores attached. The other animals represented are the bison,
stag, ox, pig, goat, etc. (B. 420d.)