In 1864 Professor Ferdinand v. Hochstetter gave a report of researches
conducted by him, at the request of the Royal Academy of Sciences of
Vienna, in the lakes of Carinthia and Carniola in search of remains
of lake-dwellings. (B. 98.) But the results were, in the main, of a
negative character, as no traces whatever were found in the lakes of
Millstätter, Afritzer, Brenn, and Weissen, in Carinthia; nor in those
of Weldeser, Wocheiner, and Zirknitzer, in Carniola. In the latter
lake it was confidently expected that lake-dwelling remains would be
discovered, as the chronicler Valvasor (1689) relates that in this
lake there was an old bridge, whose piles he himself had seen; but
upon Von Hochstetter and Deschmann visiting the locality nothing
whatever could be seen of this character.[31]
On the other hand, Von Hochstetter believed that he had succeeded in
finding traces of these settlements in no less than five lakes in
Carinthia, viz. _Wörther_, _Keutschacher_, _Rauschelen_, _Ossiacher_,
and _Längsee_. The _Keutschachersee_ is, however, the only one which
has yielded positive remains of a sufficiently varied character to
render the evidence of Pfahlbauten more than problematical. This
small lake, known also as the _Plaschischersee_, which lies to the
south of the Wörthersee, contains near its middle a shallow portion
which can be readily distinguished from the shore by the rushes which
grow over it. The area of the space thus marked out is not great,
measuring only 20 fathoms long (Klafter) by 10 fathoms broad, and it
is covered by water never less than 4 to 6 feet in depth. Here piles
and large beams were seen embedded among stones and mud, but so firmly
that they could not be drawn up. Notwithstanding the difficulty of
examination, some relics of human occupancy were collected. These,
which were subsequently augmented by a further investigation by Mr.
Ullepitsch, of Klagenfurt, are deposited in the museum of that town;
they consist of portions of half-burnt clay with the impression of
wattling, and are supposed to be part of the walls of a cottage. There
are also one or two fragments of black and grey pottery, one of which
is ornamented (=Fig. 41=, No. 10); a sharpening or grinding stone; a
bit of staghorn, together with charcoal; heaps of shells (_Adonta_);
hazel-nuts, and portion of a wooden pile.
Dr. v. Hochstetter draws attention to the extraordinary number
of submerged cairns which he discovered along the shores of the
Wörthersee and Ossiachersee. On the eastern shore of the latter he
counted no less than 29. These cairns are about 6 feet high, with a
diameter of 15 to 20 feet, and their tops are generally covered with
4 to 6 feet of water. It will be remembered that similar cairns were
observed in Lake Morat.
The only other place which suggested the existence of lake-dwellings
was the "Laibacher Morast," in which, a few years previously, a couple
of canoes, and some other industrial relics, were dug out of the peat,
the full significance of which only now became apparent. Since then
the vast morass has yielded a large quantity of the _débris_ of these
settlements, which I shall now proceed to describe.