On the 20th of July, 1860, M. G. de Mortillet wrote a letter to Sig.
Cornalia, president of the Italian Society of the Natural Sciences,
at Milan,[37] in which, while mentioning the discoveries made in
Switzerland, he suggested that similar antiquities might be found in
the lakes of Lombardy. The reading of this letter led to a discussion
which at once elicited one or two statements of archæological
importance. The vice-president, Sig. Antonio Villa, recalled the
fact that a bronze axe-head and some flint arrow-heads were found in
the turf-bog of Bosisio, at a depth of 10 feet, which were described
and figured in a Milan journal, _Il Fotografo_, 2nd August, 1856.
The president also mentioned that he possessed weapons of a similar
character, which were found, along with some human bones, in the
peat-beds of Brenna. Shortly afterwards the celebrated naturalist
Gastaldi, in an article in _Il Nuovo Cimento_, directed attention
to certain antiquities which the turf-cutters were in the habit of
finding in the "torbiera di Mercurago." (B. 37.) Subsequently Gastaldi
visited this locality, and along with Professor Moro, of Arona (who
first recognised the importance of the objects in question), made
further researches in the peat at Mercurago, the result of which was
to leave no doubt that they had here to deal with the remains of a
true palafitte analogous to the pile-dwellings in the Swiss lakes.
During the next two years Gastaldi's report was considerably enlarged
by further finds at Mercurago. (B. 43 and 52.)
About the same time that these discoveries at Mercurago were being
made the existence of a palafitte in Lake Garda was surmised from
the finding, at various times, of bronze implements and weapons in
the harbour at Peschiera; but nothing further of a very definite
character occurred till the summer of 1863, when Professors Desor
and De Mortillet visited Lombardy in search of lake-dwellings. These
eminent archæologists were joined by Professor Stoppani, and the
immediate result of their investigations was the discovery of several
settlements in the Lake of Varese and elsewhere. (B. 67.) Since then
the lacustrine stations south of the Alps have greatly increased
in number, there being now scarcely any of the smaller lakes and
turbaries of North Italy that have not yielded more or fewer remains
of this character.
In addition to these ordinary lake-dwellings, whether in water or in
peat, there are, in the valley of the Po, other ancient remains known
as "Terremare," which are now shown to be so closely analogous to the
former that they fall to be described as land palafittes. They are
found only in the eastern part of the valley, and as some of their
relics, in common with those of the adjacent palafittes, present some
characteristics which are not found in western Lombardy, I fasten on
this distinction as a convenient principle of classifying the lake
and peat dwellings into a western and an eastern group, reserving the
"terremare" for separate treatment. Accordingly we begin with Lake
Varese, whose settlements appear to have been the most important and
the most central in the western group.