In reviewing the salient features of the Iron Age we have still
more complicated problems to deal with. There are, in reality, no
lake-dwellings of the early Iron Age in Central Europe, showing a
Transition period, as we have seen to have been the case between the
Stone and Bronze Ages; nor, indeed, any which can be said to have
a continued sequence to the great system of pile-dwellings which
prevailed so extensively in earlier times. No doubt iron shows itself
in a few objects characteristic of the Bronze Age, such as a few
swords and bracelets encrusted with ornamental bands of this material,
but there are no tools or weapons made of iron at all analogous to
those which characterise the Bronze Age. No Transition period such
as we find in the relics from the graves at Hallstadt, where iron
is seen, as it were, competing with bronze. On the contrary, in
the Swiss lake-dwellings iron-working appears in a state of great
perfection. The few objects found on their sites are mostly of the La
Tène type, which we have seen to be entirely different in character,
manufacture, and style of ornamentation, from anything known in the
previous ages. In some stations we find not only La Tène types, but
Roman tiles, pottery, and coins, and even objects of a still later
period, such as Gallo-Roman, Allemanisch, and Merovingian remains.
Thus, at Starnberg, we have of iron, two spear-heads, a horseshoe, and
a remarkable kind of knife (=Fig. 37=, No. 1). In the investigations
conducted during the winter of 1864-5 in the Überlingersee, Dr.
Lachmann records the following iron objects from the bronze station
of Unter-Uhldingen:--one lance-head, five arrow-points, one axe, two
chisels, 12 knife-blades, two sickle-like objects, one dagger-knife,
one ring, one triangular plate with attached ring, one fibula, one
pin, part of a two-edged sword, a short sword with a wooden handle,
a fork, a stamp, a pair of pincers, etc.--in all 40 objects. Also at
Sipplingen there were three arrow-heads, two sickles, one lance-head,
a one-edged sword, and a Roman key. In the Museum at Friedrichshafen
are several objects of iron taken from Uhldingen, viz. two knives
like pruning-hooks (_hippen_), a hammer-hatchet, a fibula (La Tène) 9
inches long, two harpoons, several arrow-heads, six horseshoes, one
dagger, and a girdle-hook. Still more interesting are fragments of
fine glass found on both these stations, as well as at the Rauenegg
in the Bay of Constance. One bit of this glass, of a grey greenish
colour, had been ornamented with gold enamel. According to the opinion
of Mr. Hofrath Klemm, of Dresden, this glass belongs to the sixth or
seventh century. (B. 378.)
In Lake Zürich on the station of Grosser Hafner were found an iron
spear-head like those from La Tène, Roman tiles, and pottery of the
kind known as terra sigillata, and coins of the time of Augustus,
Tiberias, and Vespasian, etc., thus bringing the station down to
the end of the first century of the Christian era. From Nidau and
Sutz there are some curious iron spear-heads, and from Chevroux a
three-pronged harpoon identical with analogous objects from La Tène
(=Fig. 13=, No. 15). Moeringen has yielded an iron horse-bit, an iron
sword (La Tène), a curious iron fork, etc. On the south side of St.
Peter's Island, in the Lake of Bienne, Colonel Schwab found among some
piles objects of the stone, bronze, and Gallo-Roman periods, together
with 40 Roman coins. From the same place there is in the Berne Museum
an iron hatchet with a wooden handle of the La Tène type (=Fig.
197=). On several stations in Lake Neuchâtel similar objects have
occasionally turned up. In Lake Morat iron objects and Roman remains
were found at Greing, Faoug, Guevaux, and Motier. Also a knife, the
blade of which was partly of iron and partly of bronze (=Fig. 14=, No.
1).
Iron objects have also been occasionally found on a few stations in
the Lake of Geneva, as at Plongeon and Morges; from the latter of
which Dr. Forel records a number of sickles of various forms, some
of which were like those of La Tène. In Lake Bourget a knife with a
bronze handle and an iron blade (International Congress, Paris, p.
266), and a piece of pottery with the name _Severinus_ stamped on it.
(B. 176, p. 24.) In the Museum of Chambery there is a large spear-head
of iron encrusted with broad lines of copper or bronze from this lake
(=Fig. 198=) which is very similar to one found near the Pont de la
Thiele.
[Illustration: =Fig. 197.=--Iron Axe with portion of Wooden Handle
(⅓).]
[Illustration: =Fig. 198.=--Iron Spear ornamented with Bronze (about
⅓).]
But in all these instances the occurrence of iron is so exceptional
that only probable deductions can be founded on them. Most of the
iron objects have undoubtedly the same origin as those of La Tène.
The rare bronze objects with encrusted iron bands, such as a few
bracelets (Moeringen, Auvernier, Cortaillod, and Corcelettes), and one
or two swords (Moeringen), need not cause surprise when we remember
the extent to which commercial intercourse seems to have been carried
on by the lake-dwellers with eastern nations; and that both iron and
bronze were in use in Greece at least 1,200 years before the Christian
era, while in Egypt and Central Asia these metals were known some
1,500 years earlier. Between those objects in which iron is used as an
ornament (all of which are of the same style as the bronze objects),
and the La Tène weapons, there is a wide gap which is not bridged over
by any relics found in the lake-dwellings. In short, the evolutionary
stage between the smelting of bronze and the forging of iron is here
represented by a corresponding _hiatus_ between the styles of art
of the two periods more striking than that which distinguishes the
neolithic from palæolithic industrial remains.
So far as I have looked into these matters I can only conclude that,
with the introduction of iron into general use in Switzerland, we
have a new people who conquered and subjugated the lake-dwellers and
gave the death-blow to their system of lake-villages. Henceforth
these villages fell into decay, and in the general destruction which
ensued these La Tène implements might have been introduced by the
invaders. In Roman times there remained only the ruins of a few
stations. One thing is clearly established, that the conquerors of
the lake-dwellers had a full knowledge of the working of iron in all
its phases. The important point here is not the date of the discovery
of this metal, but that of its application to the manufacture of
all weapons and cutting implements. It is not likely that an art so
complicated and requiring so much metallurgical and technical skill
as that of the smelting and forging of iron had a sudden origin;
and consequently we must look for its birthplace and evolutionary
stages elsewhere. The remarkable collection of weapons, implements,
and ornaments found at La Tène, to which I specially directed
attention in a previous lecture, gives us a striking picture of the
metallurgical skill to which their owners had attained prior to
any influences from Roman art. So important are these antiquities
considered by archæologists that the name La Tène has now become a
generic expression, and represents a special group which, both in form
and style of ornamentation, cannot be confounded with any other,
either Greek, Roman, Etruscan or Phoenician. Who were these
new comers into Switzerland who so suddenly intruded themselves on
the peaceful lake-dwellers? To this question there is no response
from the skulls and other portions of human skeletons found at La
Tène. Out of ten skulls submitted to Professor Virchow he found
that five were brachycephalic and two dolichocephalic, while the
other three had intermediate cranial indices. We must therefore
fall back on the character of the antiquities; and for this purpose
I place before you some typical examples of this remarkable group
(=Fig. 199=) culled from various sources for the purpose of showing
their complete identity with those from the oppidum La Tène. Having
satisfied ourselves on this point I proceed to glance rapidly over the
geographical area in which such objects are found, with the view of
showing to what people they belonged.
In the course of making the high-road from Berne to the bridge of
Tiefenau in 1849-50 the workmen came upon a large quantity of weapons
and implements of iron which, though very much rusted and decayed,
can be clearly identified as belonging to the La Tène group. These
objects, now preserved in the Museum at Berne, consist of the _débris_
of arms, coats of mail, chariots, bridle-bits, bones of horses,
pottery fine and coarse, some thirty pieces of money (_massaliotes et
celtiques_), glass beads, iron and bronze buttons, sickles, knives,
hatchets, etc. These objects, which were all mixed together in a
miscellaneous manner, some two or three feet below the surface, had no
appearance of ordinary burial, and are therefore considered to be the
huddled up _débris_ of a battle-field. The objects, so far as they can
be made out, are described and figured by Baron de Bonstetten in his
"Supplément au Recueil d'Antiquités Suisses, 1860," and "Notice sur
les Armes et Chariots de Guerre découverts à Tiefenau, 1851."
[Illustration: =Fig. 199.=--Objects of La Tène types for comparison.
Nos. 1, 7, 8, 12 and 16 = ¼; 2 = ⅙; and the rest (including the
designs on No. 7) = ½ real size.]
During the excavations for the "Correction des Eaux du Jura," some
remarkable discoveries were made, especially while deepening and
rectifying the lower Thielle between Nidau and Meyenried. Immediately
below the village of Port the _débris_ of a pile-village was
encountered, to which I have already alluded. Above this village the
dredgers came in contact with a row of piles which Dr. v. Fellenberg
concluded to have been the supports of a bridge. These piles were
from 8 to 12 inches thick, and near them were collected over 100
weapons of the La Tène types, including swords, spears, etc. Another
locality was a little below Brügg, where traces of two bridges were
encountered, one of the Gallo-Roman period and the other supposed to
be of later date. Near the former a large collection of antiquities
was made, including objects, not only of the La Tène type, but also
others of Etruscan and Roman origin. Amongst the La Tène objects
collected during these operations are swords and sheaths (one of the
latter being of bronze), spear-heads, axes, sickles, etc., which are
identical with those figured from La Tène. One of the spear-heads is
ornamented with incised lines producing two designs, one on the right
side of each surface, as shown in _Fig. 199_, No. 7.
In France similar antiquities have been collected on the
Helvetico-Romano battle-fields, such as Alise St. Renne (Alesia of
Cæsar), and Mont Beuvray (Bibracte), as well as in some graves in
northern France, particularly in the valleys of the Marne and the
Aube. Some of these graves were evidently the final resting place
of Gaulish chiefs, and contained in addition to the body a complete
suite of military equipments. For comparison I have given here some
illustrations of these discoveries. No. 1 represents the famous bronze
helmet known as the Casque de Berru, described by Bertrand, which
is particularly interesting on account of the ornamental designs
which it displays.[146] No. 2 is a similar helmet ornamented with a
kind of fretwork, and along with it in the same grave were a great
many objects, weapons, ornaments, the bronze mountings of horses'
harness, and the _débris_ of a chariot.[147] A few of these are here
illustrated, viz. an iron spear (No. 8), a sword and its sheath both
of iron (No. 16), two bronze fibulæ (Nos. 10 and 11), a gold bracelet
(No. 13), a bronze horse-bit (No. 12), and some specimens of mountings
for a chariot (Nos. 14 and 15), and harness (No. 9).
Characteristic finds of this period have also been found in Savoy,
the Alpine Passes, and North Italy. In the Museums of Bologna,
Este, Milan, Turin, etc., are deposited the contents of numerous
warrior-graves, which show unmistakable examples of the characteristic
swords and scabbards and other objects of La Tène civilisation. Its
central home, however, appears to have been the middle and upper Rhine
districts, Baden, Bavaria, and eastwards to Bohemia and Laibach.
Northwards sporadic examples are found as far as the Baltic.
One of the most important finds of this character in Europe was
discovered, investigated, and described some ten years ago.[148] Near
the village Stradonic in Bohemia there is a truncated eminence known
under the name "der Berg Hradischt," which, owing to the precipitous
nature of its slopes, is only accessible on one side. By nature this
rocky eminence is admirably adapted for a military camping place,
and that it was occupied in such a capacity in prehistoric times
is evident from the mass of industrial remains of all ages found
at various depths on its summit. Among these, however, by far the
largest number were of the La Tène type, including a large quantity
of money precisely similar to that found on La Tène. Gold pieces were
particularly numerous, some 200 being found in one place. Others were
of silver and potin, some imitating the coins of Philip of Macedon,
and others bearing impressions of the fantastic horse with the long
tail and horn (=Fig. 92=, Nos. 5 to 8). Roman coins were also present,
but very sparingly. Among industrial and ornamental remains were
fragments of glass bracelets of a yellow, blue, or red colour (Nos.
3 and 4), pincers, torques, grotesque figures of animal heads, iron
axes, bridle-bits, etc. Upwards of 100 dice pieces of bone (Nos.
17 and 18). The characteristic fibulæ were of iron and bronze, the
former, however, predominating. I have here placed side by side two
bronze fibulæ precisely alike except in dimensions, one (No. 5) being
from La Tène and the other (No. 6) from Hradischt. The former is after
Vouga (B. 428, Pl. xvi. 17), who describes it as of the Hallstadt
type, and probably of an older date than the ordinary La Tène objects.
The presence of two objects so similar in style and ornamentation
in such distant localities not only proves that they are forms of
fibulæ then prevalent, but also becomes a striking confirmation of
the contemporaneity of oppidum La Tène and the occupation of the camp
on Hradischt. That they were the same people who occupied both places
there can be little doubt.
The repeated incursions of the Gauls into North Italy, prior to its
conquest by the Romans, so often referred to in classical writers,
have been strikingly confirmed by recent archæological researches. In
the cemeteries of Benacci, Villanova, and Marzabotto, in the vicinity
of Bologna, the Gallic element has been for some time recognised by
many of the most competent archæologists. During the excavations at
Benacci three series of graves were observed, at different depths,
the contents of which clearly prove that they were the cemeteries of
different races. The first, or uppermost, were burials of the Roman
period. Underneath them was a group of twelve graves which, from
the long iron swords and characteristic fibulæ found along with the
bodies, are now universally accepted as Celtic or Gaulish. Below
these, again, was a third group which in every respect corresponded
with the Etruscan cemetery of Villanova.[149] Helbig assigns the
date of the Celtic graves at Marzabotto to the end of the fifth or
beginning of the fourth century B.C. (B. 335, p. 35.)
In 1878 Castelfranco investigated a cemetery at Soldo, in the Brianza
district, in which, among other things, he found the following
relics:--A bronze fibula and an iron knife, precisely similar to those
here figured from the Starnberg lake-dwelling (=Fig. 36=, No. 22, and
=Fig. 37=, No. 1); an iron shears like those from La Tène: a Celtic
silver coin; a vase with the word VITILIOS scratched on it in rude
_graffiti_, which Fabretti ascribes to a Celtic source ("La direi
celtica per la desinenza, come pure per la forma del T"). See B. 343,
pp. 6 to 28, and Pl. i.
More recently (1886) the same author described several groups of
cemeteries scattered over Lombardy, particularly on the left side
of the Po, in which he found characteristic examples of the La Tène
civilisation--swords, spears, knives, fibulæ, saws, shears, nodulated
rings, etc.[150]
During the earlier discoveries of objects of this peculiar phase of
art there was considerable diversity of opinion as to the people and
period to which they should be referred. The Tiefenau "find" was
assigned by Mr. Albert Jahn to the old Helvetians ("Canton Bern"),
while Baron de Bonstetten referred it to the German races who invaded
Helvetia in the fourth century. M. Veschère de Reffye, in describing
the discoveries at the ancient fortress of Alesia, assigned the
weapons found in the trenches, which turned out to be of the same
character as those of La Tène, to the Helvetians.[151] Acting on
this suggestion, Desor expressed the opinion that the La Tène iron
weapons and other implements were introduced into Switzerland by
the Helvetians, who hailed from Germany, and entered the country as
conquerors. Dr. Keller, apparently prejudiced by his preconceived
notion that the lake-dwellings of the Stone and Bronze Ages were
due to the Celts, had a difficulty in believing that the advanced
civilisation of La Tène was a direct evolutionary product of the
Bronze Age; but yet he would not agree with the opinion that these
civilisations indicated different races.
But perhaps the most important contribution to the subject was by
Mr. Franks,[152] who demonstrated by an analysis of the style of
ornamentation, together with an array of historical references bearing
on the customs of the ancient Celtic races, that to them alone must be
assigned the remarkable remains now in question. The few additional
notices of later discoveries here introduced only strengthen this
opinion. In my investigations of the British lake-dwellings, almost
the only instance in which analogous remains have come to light is the
"find" at Lisnacroghera; but the prevalence of such antiquities in
Britain from about the second century B.C. till the introduction of
Christianity, when the spiral and trumpet-shaped ornamentation became
modified, and to a considerable extent superseded, by the addition of
interlacements, has been so fully established by Mr. Franks that on
this point nothing remains to be said.
From these remarks you see that we are among the class of antiquities
(described and illustrated in "Horæ Ferales") to which Mr. Franks has
given the name "Late Celtic." The owners of these La Tène weapons in
Switzerland were the Helvetians, of Roman celebrity, who, according
to Cæsar, were a branch of the great Celtic family who so long
dominated over the rest of the Aryan races, and whose civilisation is
only now in its death struggle in the outlying districts of Western
Europe. Who these Celts were is a question which still puzzles
historians, philologists, and archæologists. The term "Late Celtic"
is sufficiently clear, and, as we have seen, accurately defines a
most remarkable group of antiquities; but it necessarily involves a
counterpart, viz. an "Early Celtic" period, in regard to which no
archæologist has offered any opinion beyond mere conjecture. Before
my rambles among the ruins and relics of the lacustrine villages I
had no reason to doubt the correctness of the opinion advanced and
promulgated by the late Dr. Keller, viz. that the early lake-dwellers
belonged to the Celtic race. I do not think that archæology supports
this opinion. If the "Late Celtic" relics correctly represent the
Celts of that period they must have been a large-bodied race, wielding
great swords with massive grips, totally out of keeping with the
small-handed weapons of the Bronze Age as found on the sites of the
lake-dwellings. The few indications derived from the data supplied
by lake-dwelling research suggest the idea that the evolution of the
Celts in Europe coincides with the substitution of iron for bronze in
the manufacture of the more important cutting implements and weapons,
and that the earlier stages of this transition are to be found
considerably to the east of the Rhine districts--as, for example, at
Hallstadt.
In hazarding an opinion as to the original founders of the
lake-dwellings in Central Europe I would say that they were part
of the first neolithic immigrants who entered the country by the
regions surrounding the Black Sea and the shore of the Mediterranean,
and spread westwards along the Danube and its tributaries till
they reached the great central lakes. Here they founded that
remarkable system of lake-villages whose ruins and relics are now
being disinterred as it were from another or forgotten world.
Those following the Drave and the Save entered Styria, where they
established their settlements on what was then a great lake at
Laibach. From this they crossed the mountains to the Po valley,
where they founded not only the pile-villages, but subsequently the
terremare. The Danubian wanderers having reached the upper sources of
the Danube, crossed the uplands by way of Schussenried, and arrived
on the shores of Lake Constance, from which they quickly spread over
the low-lying districts of Switzerland. From Lake Neuchâtel, still
continuing a westward course, they reached the Rhone valley by way
of Morges, where they erected one of their earliest and largest
settlements. From the Lake of Geneva they had easy access to the lakes
of Annecy and Bourget.
It is worthy of note that almost the only historical notices of the
habit of constructing lake-dwellings which have come down to us
refer to districts along this supposed route. The following quotation
from Herodotus (v. 16) gives a vivid description of a lake-village
which flourished some 500 years before Christ. The Lake Prasias here
referred to is situated in the south of Roumelia, not far from the
mouth of the river Strymon, and the rather remarkable fact which is
here recorded shows that its lake-dwellers were so powerful as to
successfully defy the resources of a Persian army.
"They, on the other hand, who dwelt about Mount Pangæum and in the
country of the Doberes, the Agrianians and the Odomantians, and
they likewise who inhabited Lake Prasias, were not conquered by
Megabazus. He sought, indeed, to subdue the dwellers upon the lake,
but could not effect his purpose. Their manner of living is the
following:--Platforms supported upon tall piles stand in the middle
of the lake, which are approached from the land by a single narrow
bridge. At the first the piles which bear up the platforms were fixed
in their places by the whole body of the citizens; but since that
time the custom which prevails about fixing them is this: they are
brought from a hill called Orbelus, and every man drives in three for
each wife that he marries. Now the men have all many wives apiece,
and this is the way in which they live. Each has his own hut, wherein
he dwells, upon one of the platforms; and each has also a trap door
giving access to the lake beneath; and their wont is to tie their baby
children by the foot with a string, to save them from rolling into the
water. They feed their horses and their other beasts on fish, which
abound in the lake to such a degree that a man has only to open his
trap-door and to let down a basket by a rope into the water, and then
to wait a very short time, when up he draws it quite full of them."
Another reference to lake-dwellings occurs in a passage by Hippocrates
("De Æribus," etc., xxxvii.), and the locality to which the remarks
were applied lies to the east of the Black Sea.
"Concerning the people of the Phasis, that region is marshy and hot,
and full of water, and woody; and at every season frequent and violent
rains fall there. The inhabitants live in the marshes, and have houses
of timber and of reeds constructed in the midst of the waters; and
they seldom go out to the city or the market, but sail up and down in
boats made out of a single tree-trunk, for there are numerous canals
in that region. The water they drink is hot and stagnant, putrefied
by the sun, and swollen by the rainfall, and the Phasis itself is the
most stagnant and quiet-flowing of all rivers."
In the works of recent travellers I find statements corroborating the
opinion already published by Dr. Keller (B. 119, 2nd ed., p. 666),
that the remains of lake-dwellings have been detected in Asia Minor,
more especially in the Caucasus and the region between the Black Sea
and the Caspian. As early as 1849 Bayern discovered palafittes in
Lake Gok-chai and in Lake Paleostrum, not far from the embouchure of
the Rion (Phasis). Mr. Chantre states that on the lowering of Lake
Toporovan, near the village of Choucha at the embouchure of the Koura,
and in some other lakes on the coast of the Black Sea, indications of
their existence have been observed.[153] None of these have, however,
been sufficiently explored to be of archæological value.
While the lake-dwellers of Switzerland were quietly living in the
peculiar habitations which the hydrographical conditions of the
country enabled them to develop so largely, great and progressive
changes were going on elsewhere among the neolithic settlers in
Europe. Probably other immigrants soon found their way to the far
west, and brought with them a knowledge of bronze. As time rolled on,
considerable divergences from the primitive civilisation took place,
partly the outcome of geographical and climatal conditions, and partly
the result of innovations by freer intercourse with the inhabitants
of the shores of the Mediterranean. Then were laid gradually the
germs of the historical nationalities of Europe. Just at the dawn of
history we find the Celts, not in the sunshine of their power, but
with faded strength and departed glory, confined to a limited area
in Europe. After the collapse of the great lake-villages it is not
singular to find that a knowledge of the system remained among the
surrounding nationalities which subsequently germinated into activity
in various sporadic corners, and produced not only the Scottish and
Irish crannogs, but the analogous remains in Friesland, North Germany,
Paladru, etc. As the great extinct mammals are known to have lingered
in the recesses of mountain ranges and other secluded localities, so
the artificial islands or crannogs and other lake-habitations of the
Iron Age are but the deteriorated remnants of a doomed system which,
like every dying art before final extinction, passed through a stage
of decay and degeneration.