In the summary of the remains of lake-dwellings which I have brought
under your notice in the previous lectures, you will have observed
that there was often a great diversity in the character of the relics
even in stations that were lying close to each other. From the study
of this feature alone we must conclude that some flourished at a time
when the use of metals was entirely unknown to their inhabitants, as
all tools and weapons recovered from the _débris_ were made of such
materials as stone, bone, horn, etc. The substitution of bronze for
these materials marks a decided change in the culture and civilisation
of the lake-dwellers--a change which becomes further modified by the
introduction of iron. We have thus a great variety of lake-dwellings,
distinguishable from each other generally by the character of their
industrial remains, according to the particular civilisation which
prevailed at the period of their habitation, some dating from the
pure Stone Age, others from the Bronze Age, while others again
bear the imprint of various later civilisations, as Roman, Celtic,
Carlovingian, Slavish, etc. In dealing, therefore, with lacustrine
remains as a whole, we have to take into account not only their
distribution over a wide geographical area, but also their continuance
in various parts of Europe for a long period extending from the
Neolithic Age to the dawn of written history.
The outlying parts of this wide field, comprising more particularly
the lake-dwelling remains in North Germany and in Great Britain and
Ireland, I have already sufficiently dealt with when treating of
their archæological details, so that it is unnecessary to bring them
again prominently forward. There remains, therefore, only the central
area of Europe, where they originally developed and so extensively
flourished during the Stone and Bronze Ages. To draw, from a general
criticism of the mass of recovered materials which I brought before
you in the first three lectures, some general notion of the culture
and civilisation which characterised their occupiers is therefore the
first and primary object of this lecture.
Though the famous three ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron had been
established as a method of classification before lacustrine treasures
became known, I question if there is in the whole range of prehistoric
archæology any class of antiquities that gives greater support to
this remarkable chronological sequence, or throws more light on the
introduction of metals into Europe than those collected from the
lake-dwellings. The period of duration of the early pile-dwellings
in Central Europe entirely covers and overlaps that which witnessed
the introduction of the great art of metallurgy in Europe. While the
contents of graves and ceremonial burials are important in preserving
special products of the technical skill of a people, we have from some
of these lacustrine dwellings materials for reconstructing the entire
life history of their inhabitants, giving, as it were, a complete
picture of their arts, industries, luxuries, and amusements.
That many of these lake-villages, built as they were on wooden
platforms and constructed of combustible materials, were liable to
conflagrations, we can readily believe, and we have had conclusive
evidence that many of them came to an untimely end in this manner. It
is, indeed, to such catastrophes that we owe much of our information,
as the sudden interruption of busy life-scenes in such a manner and
especially when accompanied by circumstances that tended to preserve
the ruins from decay, has been the means of supplying us, as it were,
with a photographic picture of the habits, customs, and industries of
the people; and it requires only a sufficient number of such instances
to be able, from a comparative examination of the recovered relics, to
construct a fair scale of the progressive civilisation and culture of
the lake-dwellers. On the other hand, there are lacustrine villages
which have existed, through various ages, such as Nidau, but the
association of objects so widely separated in point of time in one
place becomes misleading, especially if their relative ages cannot be
tested by superposition in the relic-bed--which can rarely be the case
in lacustrine investigations, as in the act of dredging the relics are
all jumbled together.
Professor Desor, observing that large quantities of pottery of every
description were found in certain localities, which could not belong
to one family, and that many of the bronze weapons and implements were
new and unused, suggested that the palafittes in Lake Neuchâtel were
merely magazines or shops, and not the ordinary residences of the
people. (B. 252, p. 3.) But this opinion has not been adopted by Swiss
archæologists; nor indeed is it at all justified from a study of the
character of the multifarious objects discovered among their _débris_,
which undoubtedly point to village life and the exercise of social
and domestic avocations on the spot. Dr. Gross, in combating Desor's
opinion, so far as founded on the unused condition of many of the
relics, remarks:--"Je possède dans ma seule collection les tronçons de
plus de dix épées réduites à l'état fragmentaire par un long usage.
Un grand nombre d'outils s'y montrent altérés et modifiés par la même
cause." (B. 392, p. xii.)
The settlements of the pure Stone Age are found only in a limited
area in Central Europe. Their greatest development has been in the
lakes bordering on both sides of the Alps, and it is especially
from the data there supplied that we become acquainted with their
characteristic features. This area may be more specifically defined as
including the lakes of Lombardy, Laibach, Bavaria, Switzerland, and
Savoy, with the exception perhaps of Lake Bourget--whose palafittes
appear to have been constructed exclusively in the Bronze Age.
One of the most striking facts, and one to which I invite special
attention, is the advanced state of the culture and social
organisations which prevailed amongst the earliest constructors
of these singular abodes. It is beyond doubt that, from the very
start, their inhabitants were acquainted with various industries,
especially weaving, which they sedulously practised; that they
reared the ordinary domesticated animals; and that they cultivated
flax, fruits, and various kinds of grain. For example, at Wangen
two varieties of wheat and the two-rowed barley were distinctly
recognised both in whole ears and in the separate grain, the latter
in quantities that could be measured in bushels. The stones of the
grape, which Professor Heer (B. 123) somewhat hesitatingly announced
among the fruits from this station, may now be accepted as genuine,
as the grape (_Vitis vinifera_) has recently been found at Steckborn,
another station of the pure Stone Age,[124] and at Haltnau. (B. 462,
p. 58.) Several varieties of well-made cloth of flax, and mats of
bast, were also found at Wangen. There is preserved in the Museum
of Fribourg a carbonised spindle from Lake Morat, which shows fine
threads still coiled round it, and Dr. Gross figures a similar
object from Locras. (B. 392.) Most antiquaries are acquainted with
the remarkable varieties of cloth, fringes, nets, cords, and ropes
brought to light by Messikommer from the very lowest relic-bed at
Robenhausen (=Fig. 25=). Even specimens of embroidery were found at
the adjoining station of Irgenhausen. (B. 126, Pl. xvi.) Remains of
linen cloth, thread, nets, basket-work, etc., have also been found in
a great many other stations, as Vinelz, Locras, Schaffis, Lagozza,
Laibach, etc. But the absence of such fragile and perishable relics
from many other stations is not to be taken as evidence that their
inhabitants were unacquainted with such industries; for it must be
remembered that it is only when fabrics are carbonised, or deposited
in circumstances exceptionally favourable to their preservation, that
they are prevented from undergoing the natural process of decay.
Thus, at Schussenried, though there was no actual cloth found, the
impression of a well-woven fabric is clearly seen on a consolidated
mass of wheat--probably that of the sack in which the grain had been
stored--and at Laibach a similar impression was observed on a fragment
of pottery.
One of the stations in Moosseedorfsee which became completely exposed
in consequence of drainage operations, and was carefully examined
by the experienced archæologists Messrs. Jahn, Morlot, and Uhlmann,
yielded a large assortment of the osseous remains of animals,
amongst which the following were supposed to have been in a state of
domestication, viz.:--dog, sheep, goat, pig, and various kinds of
oxen. A few bones and teeth of the horse were also found, but these
might have belonged to the wild species, as it is not agreed, nor is
there any evidence, that this animal was domesticated till the Bronze
Age. The cultivated plants from this station were barley, two kinds
of wheat, pea, poppy, and flax. Among an assortment of its industrial
remains, now in the Bern Museum, are about a dozen celts of nephrite
(one of jadeite), bits of cord, a wooden comb, a fish-hook made of
a boar's tusk, flint saws in their wooden handles, and fragments of
pottery, some of which are ornamented with nail-marks or perforations
round the rim. One piece of dark pottery (=Fig. 184=, No. 5) has a
series of triangular bits of birch bark stuck on its surface by means
of asphalt. (B. 336, p. 37.) If any further evidence were required to
show the skill of the early lake-dwellers in the arts of spinning and
weaving, and the extent to which they followed agricultural pursuits
and the rearing of domestic animals, I have only to call attention
to the vast number of spindle-whorls, loom-weights, etc., which are
everywhere to be met with; the corn-crushers, yokes for cattle (=Fig.
184=, No. 1), field hoes, picks, and other agricultural implements
found on the sites of the earliest settlements, as Robenhausen,
Schaffis, Schussenried, etc.
[Illustration: =Fig. 184.=--MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS. No. 1 = about 1/14,
4 = 4⅓ feet long, 3 and 8 = ¼, and the rest = ½ real size.]
That the potter's art was well known to, and practised by, the early
lake-dwellers hardly needs any demonstration when we look at the mass
of fragments, and even whole dishes, consisting of bowls, plates,
cups, jugs, spoons, and large vases, now tabulated and stored in the
various museums of lacustrine objects. These dishes were made without
a knowledge of the potter's wheel, and the paste generally contained
coarse sand or small pebbles; but a finer kind was also used for the
smaller vessels. Generally speaking they are coarsely made in the
earlier stations, having perforated knobs instead of handles, yet
occasional examples turn up which show that handles were not unknown.
The ornamentation consists of finger and string marks, irregular
scratchings with a pointed tool, raised knobs, perforations round the
rim, together with dots and lines in various fantastic combinations.
No two vessels exactly alike in style and ornamentation have ever been
found. The only approach that I have seen is in the case of two vases,
one from Bodmann (=Fig. 30=, No. 20), and the other from Schussenried
(=Fig. 35=, No. 4), which certainly suggest that the vessels were made
under the influence of the same artist. In Lagozza and Polada artistic
patterns were made from the impressions of a small tube, probably a
stiff straw or a bone instrument, alternating with panels of crossed
lines. In Laibach great skill is exhibited, not only in the variety
and elegance of the vessels, but also in their ornamentation, which
consists of various figures, rectangles, crosses, rhombs, triangles,
etc., the lines of which are flanked with small pointed impressions.
In the Mondsee a similar taste for geometrical figures is displayed,
and here the lines are large and deeply cut so as to admit of the
insertion into them of a white substance which, on the originally
black pottery, must have had a striking effect. Associated, however,
with these fantastically ornamented dishes, both in Laibach and the
Mondsee, are others of a much inferior type.
To the food supply derived from agriculture, the rearing of domestic
animals, and the seeds and fruits of wild plants, they added the
produce of hunting and fishing; and the remains of the weapons used
in these pursuits are numerous. Arrow-points of flint and sometimes
of other minerals, as rock crystal and jade, and of bone, are amongst
the most common relics; and even a few of the bows made of yew wood,
notwithstanding their liability to decay, have come to light, two from
Robenhausen, and one from each of the stations of Vinelz, Sutz, and
Clairvaux.
It appears that the earlier arrow-points were of the triangular type,
with or without stems, and it is supposed that the addition of barbs
was an evolutionary process of improvement, and of course of later
date. Thus none of the arrows from Schaffis have barbs, but on the
other hand Vinelz has supplied some beautiful examples (=Fig. 7=). The
barbed forms are also prevalent on the palafittes of Lake Varese and
Polada, but they are entirely absent from the stations in the Mondsee,
Attersee, and Laibach Moor.
The discovery of some arrow-points with a portion of the wooden
shaft still attached has disclosed the fact that this union was
accomplished, at least in some instances, by means of an adhesive
material like asphalt. In the Neuchâtel district this material might,
indeed, be the natural product of this name, as it is so readily found
in the neighbouring _Val de Travers_. It is more probable, however,
that, as suggested by Dr. Dom, of Tübingen, it was the manufactured
product of birch-bark--a suggestion which explains the frequency with
which rolls of this material were found among the _débris_ of so many
lake-dwellings. This adhesive material was used, not only for fixing
arrow-points and other implements in their handles, but also, when
mixed with charcoal, to give a black gloss or varnish to pottery.
Its discovery and application for such purposes in Polada, Mondsee,
Schussenried, and many of the Swiss stations of the Stone Age, as St.
Aubin, Locras, Moosseedorf, etc., proves that its use was prevalent
over the whole lake-dwelling area of the Stone Age.
Spear-heads and daggers were manufactured from flint, and specimens of
the latter have been found inserted into a wooden handle or surrounded
by a withe so as to give a better grip to the weapon. There were also
very effective weapons of this class made from the leg-bones of deer
and other animals, as well as from the tines of staghorns, etc.
For the purpose of carrying on the ordinary avocations of domestic
and social life the lake-dwellers were in possession of a varied
assortment of tools and implements, the precise function of some
of them, however, being difficult to determine. They had hatchets,
knives, saws, scrapers, borers, etc., of flint and other hard stones.
Cutting instruments were also made of horn, bone, and the tusks of the
wild boar, as well as an endless variety of pointers, chisels, etc.
With such tools they constructed wooden houses, scooped out canoes,
and shaped wood into various kinds of dishes, clubs, and handles.
The stone celt or axe-head, the most indispensable of all implements
to the Stone Age people, was mounted in a variety of ways. Most
frequently there was a casing of horn into which the axe was fixed,
and this casing was then fitted into a wooden handle (=Fig. 185=,
Nos. 8 and 10). Sometimes the horn fixing had a =V=-shaped slit in
the opposite end from the hatchet (=Fig. 7=, No. 13), which fitted
into a corresponding slit in a crooked handle (=Fig. 185=, Nos. 1,
13, and 14). When locked the instrument became a kind of adze, the
cutting edge transverse to the axis of the handle. This method Dr.
Gross thinks was more especially used in the Copper Age. At Wangen
horn fixings were rarely used, the hatchet being inserted into a
split cleft in a crooked branch. It is interesting to note that this
method was in use among the prehistoric salt-miners at Hallein, near
Salzburg,[125] and at Castione in Italy (=Fig. 185=, No. 13).[126] The
smaller axes and chisels, as well as a variety of flint implements,
were not infrequently inserted directly into suitable portions of
deer-horn, as shown in many of the accompanying illustrations.
The perforated axe of stone or horn had simply a wooden handle
firmly fixed by a wedge inserted into a split at its end in the
perforation, an example of which, found at Schussenried, Mr. Frank
carefully preserves. Besides these there is a variety of objects of
horn and bone which might have been used as implements or weapons, but
mostly, I should say, for agricultural purposes, such as picks (=Fig.
185=, Nos. 4 and 7), hammers, clubs, etc. Some of the smaller bone
implements were also inserted into handles, specimens of which were
particularly numerous at St. Aubin.
Flint saws were extremely abundant, and are to be found among the
remains of almost all the earlier stations, many of which still retain
their wooden or horn handles. Only in Polada has the compound and
double-handed saw been found (=Fig. 67=, No. 12). It consists of a
casing of wood with four flints cemented into a groove along one of
the edges.[127]
[Illustration: =Fig. 185.=--MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS. Nos. 20 to 24 =
⅔, and the rest, except No. 25 = ⅓ real size.]
Another curious implement supposed to be a saw was found at Vinelz,
and is now in the Cantonal Museum at Berne (=Fig. 185=, No. 17). It
consists of a massive handle of wood, evidently fashioned for the
hand, with three worked flints stuck in a row and kept in their place
by asphalt.
Among domestic utensils, in addition to pottery, are small cups and
boxes made of horn (Nos. 12 and 18). There are also spoons, pins,
needles, buttons, awls, knives, flax-combs, etc., of bone. Combs for
the hair were generally made of wood in the usual form (=Fig. 11=, No.
7). Another most ingenious method was by binding together a series of
prepared twigs with their ends folded one way, as seen in =Fig. 185=,
No. 19.
Wooden dishes cut out of the solid, such as ladles, bowls, tubs, etc.,
have been found in many stations, but especially at Robenhausen; and
there can be no doubt that similar vessels were in general use among
the early lake-dwellers.
I have already noticed the finding of fishing-nets at Robenhausen
and Vinelz, and a fish-hook ingeniously made from a boar's tusk.
Other fish-hooks were made of bone, as seen in the illustrations from
Bodmann, Wangen, and Bauschanze.
Nor were these early settlers insensible to the charms of personal
ornament. Shells (both recent and fossilised), coloured pebbles, the
teeth of carnivorous animals, ornamented pieces of bone and horn,
stone and clay beads, and even roundlets of the human skull, were
pierced for suspension, and worn either as pendants or necklaces (Nos.
9, 11, and 20 to 24).
The skill displayed in the manufacture of the perforated stone axes
and hammers has often excited the astonishment of antiquaries; and
many of them thought that it was hardly possible to bore perfectly
round or oval holes through such hard materials without the use of
metal tools. Yet this was undoubtedly done, as we find not only bored
implements, but smoothly sawn portions, in the very earliest stations,
as, for example, Schaffis, Moosseedorf, Wangen, Robenhausen, etc. From
the former there are in the Berne Museum stone celts with a round
hole and one with an oval-shaped perforation. Quite as inexplicable
are the numerous fragments of stone, clearly indicating, from the
parallel grooving, that they were sawn off. Some of these pieces
are by no means small, and such as could be readily accounted for
by the use of flint saws. In the Museum of Zürich there is a large
water-rolled stone of serpentine, measuring 14 by 9 by 8 inches, which
was dredged up at Wollishofen, showing a cut 11 inches long and ⅝
inch deep. One side of the cut was broken off, but the fragment was
fortunately also recovered and when made to fit in its place, which
it does to a nicety, the maximum breadth of the cut can be readily
ascertained to be ⅜ of an inch. The sides of this cut are finely
striated with parallel grooves, which are not exactly straight, but
bent slightly downwards in the middle. Before the sawing was begun
there are clear indications of a superficial groove having been made
by chipping, evidently with the intention of guiding the saw in the
initiatory stages of the process. What could this saw have been made
of? I do not think that with a flint implement this cut could have
been made. It is as regular as that from a modern steel instrument. It
is now supposed that the sawing of stones was performed with a thin
wooden board and some dry sand. The late Dr. Keller experimented with
these simple means, and found that they were quite sufficient for
the purpose. He also practically proved that in the same way, with a
wooden tube set in rapid motion round its axis, he could easily bore
a hole in the hardest stone. (B. 336, p. 49.) Anyone visiting the
Museum in Zürich may practically test the efficacy of these processes
for himself, and the obliging custodian delights in showing the method
of working. Soft wood is found to be better than hard, as the former
takes up more of the particles of the sand, which act like fine teeth
in grinding the stone. That tubes of some kind were used for boring
stones by the lake-dwellers is demonstrated by the finding of hundreds
of round cores, the result of boring on this principle, as well as,
sometimes, implements with the boring begun but incompleted, showing
the round core still in the hole as shown in =Fig. 184=, No. 6. In the
Zürich Museum there is also a staghorn hammer from Robenhausen with a
partially bored hole having a core in its centre, thus proving that
horns were also manipulated in the same way (=Fig. 24=, No. 12).
No problem has for many years puzzled archæologists more than the
effort to account for the finding, from time to time in various
parts of Europe, of those remarkably elegant implements made from the
mineral substance commonly known as jade. Hitherto they have been
generally found isolated in the soil or in graves of the Stone Age,
such as the dolmens of Brittany. The favourite theory, seeing that
no local habitat could be assigned to this mineral, was that these
implements were imported by the original neolithic people, who were
supposed to have migrated westwards from the plains of Northern India.
The discovery of a large number of celts and small chisels in the
lake-dwellings, together with a few other objects made of nephrite,
jadeite, and chloromelanite, has reopened the problem as to their
origin, with the result, however, of making the controversial flame
burn brisker than ever. Independent of the lake-dwelling finds, the
number of jade objects now known in Europe may be roughly stated at
200, about the half of which come from some 44 departments of France.
Of the remaining 100 about 80 are from Western Germany, the rest being
assigned to various localities in Italy,[128] Austria, and Greece.
According to the opinions of competent mineralogists the vast majority
of those from Western Europe are made of jadeite and chloromelanite,
the number made of the former being slightly in excess of the latter.
In the French group there is only one of nephrite, from the vicinity
of Rheims, and in the German group three or four, found in Baden and
Bavaria. Mr. A. B. Meyer states that, with the exception of one from
Posen, all the German examples were found to the west of the Elbe.
In appearance, nephrite, jadeite, and chloromelanite closely resemble
each other, and, owing to considerable variations in the colour to
which they are all more or less liable, it is difficult to distinguish
them by the unaided eye. Generally speaking nephrite has a somewhat
soapy feel, with a lighter and more transparent tint of green than
jadeite, while chloromelanite is darker and less transparent than
either. According to Meyer their specific gravity is:--nephrite 2·9 to
3·2, jadeite 3·3, and chloromelanite 3·4 to 3·6. From the large number
of implements, especially hatchets, small chisels, and sometimes
knives (=Fig. 185=, No. 28)--rarely arrow-points and ornaments--found
in almost all the lake-dwelling stations of the Stone Age, it would
appear that they were greatly admired and much sought after by the
inhabitants of these settlements. Dr. Gross thinks they were in
greatest abundance in those stations which flourished in the period
immediately preceding that of the introduction of metals, and that
after this event they disappear altogether. (B. 392, p. 10.)
From Lake Constance the number of jade implements now considerably
exceeds 1,000, as may be verified by an inspection of the museums
in the neighbourhood. One station alone, Maurach, has supplied 349
tolerably well, and 141 badly, made implements, and no less than 154
chips and sawn portions varying from the size of a finger-nail to a
few inches. (B. 378, p. 78.) Similar chips have also been occasionally
met with in other stations. This at once settles one important
point, viz. that the lake-dwellers were in actual possession of the
raw material, which they worked on the spot. Although most of the
settlements in Lake Constance have yielded more or less specimens,
there is none that even approaches Maurach in point of numbers, the
next highest being Unter-Uhldingen, Immenstadt, and Sipplingen, from
each of which two or three score have been collected. In moving
eastwards towards the Danubian valley they become much rarer. Thus
Schussenried has yielded only one (jadeite), Olzenreuthe seven (all
nephrite), Starnbergersee two (nephrite), Laibach one (nephrite).
Only one (jadeite) is recorded from the Mondsee, and none from the
Attersee. According to Fischer[129] 97 per cent. of the implements
from Lake Constance are of nephrite, while the other three per cent.
are nearly equally divided between jadeite and chloromelanite. In the
Zürich Museum he found 28 implements of nephrite, one of jadeite, and
six of chloromelanite. Of the former, 22 are from Meilen and four
from Robenhausen. Out of 295 in the museums of Berne (which came from
the lakes of Neuchâtel, Bienne, Morat, Inkwyl, and Moosseedorfsee),
118 are of nephrite, 124 of jadeite, and 53 of chloromelanite. From
these approximate calculations we see that while nephrite was greatly
in excess of jadeite in the settlements of Lake Constance and its
neighbourhood, this inequality becomes gradually removed as we move
westwards, till we come to France, where their relative frequency
becomes actually reversed. Chloromelanite, on the other hand, though
as a whole much rarer than either nephrite or jadeite, seems to have
been more evenly distributed. Roundly speaking, we have in all Europe
between 300 and 400 worked objects of jadeite, and about 200 of
chloromelanite, while those of nephrite amount to twice these numbers
combined.
These facts are very suggestive, and undoubtedly give some support
to the theory that these minerals were found by the lake-dwellers
somewhere in their own neighbourhood. But notwithstanding the most
careful searching on the part of geologists and mineralogists not a
particle of any of them has yet been found _in situ_ in any part of
Switzerland. As an inducement to country people to be on the look-out
a reward of 200 francs was offered a few years ago[130] to anyone who
could produce a bit of nephrite, found _in situ_, of the size of a
man's fist, but as far as I know, the reward still lies unclaimed.
Three isolated portions have been found in Germany, one in the
alluvial sands of Potsdam, another in the vicinity of Meersburg, and
a third in the vicinity of Leipzig.[131] Also in somewhat similar
circumstances two portions have been recorded from Styria.[132] It is
said to have been found _in situ_ in small quantities in the rocks of
Silesia, as recorded by H. Traube, of Breslau, in an article entitled
"Über den Nephrit von Jordansmühl in Schlesien."[133] Mr. Roediger
directs attention (by a note in _Antiqua_, 1884, p. 150) to the fact
that it was stated to have been found in the Canton Freiburg, in a
work published in 1834. A few chips were found in the prehistoric
caves at Mentone associated with worked flints.[134]
To these remarks on the jade question I have only to add that
Dr. Arzruni[135] maintains that the nephrite and jadeite of the
lake-dwellings can be microscopically shown to differ from the Asiatic
mineral. It may also be interesting to note that 13 small axes or
chisels of jade were found by Schliemann in the prehistoric cities of
Troy (_Ilios_, p. 240).
As to the huts or cottages in which the lake-dwellers lived the
evidence is still somewhat scanty. For a long time the only
indications that huts were erected over the platforms consisted of
portions of clay having the impressions of round timber (=Fig. 184=,
No. 2), hearth-stones, and some stray beams and bits of thatching.
Recently, however, more definite information has been brought forward
by Mr. Frank, the investigator of the lake-dwelling at Schussenried.
This settlement had none of the signs of having been destroyed by
fire, and it is supposed that its inhabitants voluntarily abandoned
it on account of the growth of the surrounding peat. In this case
it is probable that the huts would be allowed to fall into natural
decay, but before this happened there was a chance that some part of
the buildings would become overtaken by the moss, and so become, as
it were, hermetically sealed up. That something like this actually
occurred is now proved by the discovery at this station of the
foundations and portions of the walls of a cottage deeply buried in
the moss. Upon the discovery being known Mr. Frank had the ruins
at once uncovered, and before the crumbling materials disappeared
there was a plan of the building taken, which by the courtesy of the
investigator I had an opportunity of inspecting. The structure was of
an oblong rectangular form, about 33 feet long and 23 feet wide, and
was divided by a partition into two chambers. On the south side there
was a door, a little over 3 feet wide, which opened into one of the
chambers. The other, or inner chamber, was somewhat larger, and had no
communication with the outside, except through the former by means of
a door in the partition. There were no relics found in these chambers,
but in the outer there was a mass of stones which showed signs of
having been a fire-place. The walls were constructed of split stems
set upright and their crevices plastered over with clay. The flooring
in both chambers was composed of four layers of closely laid timbers
separated by as many layers of clay. These repeated floorings may have
been necessitated by the gradual rise of the surrounding peat which
ultimately drove the inhabitants away.
Mr. Messikommer (B. 406c) in the course of his investigations at
Robenhausen found, over an area of 33 yards long and 10 broad,
indications of what he considered to be four separate dwellings. From
a study of the peculiar grouping and distribution of the industrial
remains over this area he came to the conclusion that each cottage had
its own special furniture, a hearth, weaving appliances, a millstone,
sharpening-stones, etc., and on this principle he determines the size
of the huts. From these calculations the size of the Robenhausen
cottages would be almost identical with that at Schussenried, each
having an area of about 750 square feet. From observations made at
Irgenhausen similar results were obtained. At Niederweil, where
the limits of contiguous dwellings were clearly definable, the area
assigned to each was found to be somewhat less.
Swiss archæologists pretend to see, in the remains of their lacustrine
villages of the Stone Age, evidence of three distinct periods, which
are thus formulated by Dr. Gross:--
"Les fouilles que j'ai faites, depuis une dizaine d'années, dans les
villages lacustres de l'âge de la pierre, m'ont prouvé qu'ils n'ont
pas tous été habités à la même époque, mais qu'ils remontent à trois
périodes différentes bien caractérisées.
"Dans la _première période_, je range les stations les plus anciennes,
représentées, dans le lac de Bienne, par la palafitte de Chavannes
(Tschaffis), près de Neuveville. Les produits de l'industrie humaine
trouvés sur ces emplacements, dénotent un art tout-à-fait primitif;
les haches de pierre sont petites, à peine polies et presques toutes
en minéral indigène; les haches-marteaux n'apparaissent que sous
forme de grossières ébauches, et les outils en corne et en os sont
mal travaillés. On ne remarque aucune trace d'ornementation, ni sur
les armes et les instruments, ni sur les produits de la céramique. La
poterie, du reste, est façonnée d'une argile grossière, sans l'aide du
tour naturellemente, et revêt des formes qui trahissent l'enfance de
l'art du potier.
"La _seconde période_, à la quelle appartient l'ancienne station de
Locras, celle de Latrigen et en général la plus grande partie de
nos établissements de l'âge de la pierre, présente déjà un notable
progrès sur la précédente, en ce que les armes et les outils sont
perfectionnés, les haches en pierre, quelquefois perforées pour
recevoir le manche, sont fort bien travaillées, polies avec soin et
revêtent parfois des dimensions colossales. On constate aussi dans ces
stations une abondance relative de hachettes en néphrite, jadéïte et
chloromélanite. En effet, tandis que ces objets en minéral étranger
font presque entièrement défaut pendant la première et la troisième
période, on les rencontré dans les stations qui nous occupent dans une
proportion qui peut varier du 5 au 8% des haches en minéral indigène.
"Le métal n'apparaît pas encore dans cette période, ou du moins pas
dans la couche archéologique; exceptionnellement, on trouve, ici et
là, entre les pilotis, quelques lamelles de cuivre, et plus rarement
de bronze.
"La poterie, faite d'une pâte plus fine et mieux façonnée, présente
quelques traces d'ornementation sous forme d'éminences percées et de
dents de loup.
"Enfin la _troisième période_ comprend les stations de l'époque
de transition de la pierre au bronze. C'est _l'époque du cuivre_,
si je puis l'appeler ainsi, caractérisée par la présence dans la
couche archéologique même, d'armes et d'instruments de cuivre pur
(très-rarement de bronze), de haches-marteaux habilement perforées,
d'outils de bois et de corne très bien façonnés, et surtout de vases
de formes variées, quelques-uns munis d'anses et la plupart ornés de
dessins faits avec les doigts ou au moyen de ficelle imprimée dans
l'argile encore molle. Comme je l'ai déjà fait remarquer plus haut,
les haches en néphrite et jadéïte sont devenues plus rares et font
même presque entièrement défaut." (B. 392, p. 2.)
It will be remembered that a similar subdivision of the Stone Age was
adopted by M. Borel in his essay on the lacustrine stations along the
Bevaix shore. (See page 49.) In my opinion there are no archæological
grounds for such a classification; but I retain its nomenclature as a
matter of convenience, especially the term "Transition" period. The
inhabitants of Schaffis (referred to by Dr. Gross, and acknowledged
to be one of the oldest stations in Switzerland), knew and practised
the art of boring and sawing stones; they possessed implements of
nephrite and jadeite (=Fig. 185=, No. 29), and in the manufacture of
the usual flint implements they were, according to Dr. v. Fellenberg,
pre-eminent. In the assortment of objects from this station in the
Cantonal Museum at Berne are to be seen some fantastically-shaped and
perforated clubs of horn and bone, a large needle, and five peculiar
objects of horn, similar to those found on so many of the stations
of the period of transition as Sutz, Gerlafingen, etc. (Nos. 26 and
27), pieces of cloth, flax combs, a variety of clay weights, stone
axe-hammers in all stages of manufacture, well-shaped daggers of
flint and bone, flint saws in their wooden handles. On this station
Dr. Gross also describes the finding of portions of a ladder; and Dr.
Keller (B. 336, p. 48) part of a door or window containing a long
bolt (No. 25). It is true that the specimens of pottery are coarse
and devoid of ornamentation; but this might have been due to social
causes rather than a deficiency of knowledge, as we find that in some
of the other early stations, as for example Schussenried, the pottery
is highly ornamented. In the struggle for existence the original
founders of the lake-dwellings, surrounded by fierce aborigines and
wild animals, had to pay more attention to the mere necessaries of
life than to art. With the progress of time there are indications of
considerable prosperity and a corresponding advancement in culture,
but nothing worthy of being characterised as a separate period till
the introduction of bronze, which, by facilitating all mechanical and
industrial operations, produced a social revolution. But this change
was only by degrees, and the overlap of the Stone and Bronze Ages is
appropriately designated the period of transition. However long or
short the lake-dwellers existed in the pure Stone Age (in regard to
which there is not much evidence), one thing is clear, that during all
that time the essential elements of their culture and civilisation
underwent little or no change.