Between the villages of Mombello and Cerro, on the east shore of Lake
Maggiore, and a few miles south of Laveno, there was a small turbary
in which Dr. Carlo Tinelli discovered the remains of a palafitte. The
peat was being excavated from 1844, but it was 20 years later before
the remains of the palafitte were detected. The further progress
of the peat-cutting was carefully watched by Tinelli and a priest,
Guiseppe Della Chiesa, in the interests of archæology. Some of the
piles were extracted, and were said to show marks of having been
fashioned by stone implements.
The relics collected here are:--Flint objects in considerable
abundance, among which were two saws, a lance-head, and a beautiful
knife-flake (=Fig. 50=, No. 1), now in the Museum at Varese; fragments
of coarsely-made dishes without handles or ornamentation. Three
canoes, roughly made and similar to those from Mercurago, were found
at a depth of 8 feet. One of the canoes, 7 feet long, was presented to
the Museum at Varese. Along with these objects were bones of the stag,
goat, and roe. (B. 171.)