LAKE-DWELLINGS
The winter of 1853-1854 was exceedingly cold and dry. The surface of the
Swiss lakes sank lower than at any time during many preceding centuries.
The lowering of the water tempted the inhabitants along the shore to
erect dikes and thus fill in the newly gained flats. During this process
the workmen along the edge of the retreating water came upon the tops of
piles, and between those great quantities of horn and stone implements
and fragments of pottery. Aeppli, a teacher in Obermeilen, called the
attention of the Antiquarian Society in Zurich to these discoveries. The
society recognized at once their importance, and under the leadership of
its president, Ferdinand Keller, began a series of most careful
investigations which have contributed more to our knowledge of life
during the Neolithic period than any discoveries before or since.
The number of these lake-dwellings is very large. Lake Neuchatel has
furnished over 50; Lake Leman (Geneva) 40; Lake Constance over 40; Lake
Zurich 10. The shores of the smaller lakes have also contributed their
full quota.[49] In some of the lakes where the shore was favorable,
remains of a lake-dwelling have been found before almost every modern
village. Sometimes we find the remains of two villages, one somewhat
farther out than the other. In these cases the one nearer the shore is
the older, usually Neolithic, while the one farther out belongs to the
Bronze period.
These settlements are by no means limited to Switzerland. They stretch
in a long zone along the Alps from Savoy and southern Germany through
Switzerland into Austria.[50] Herodotus mentions them in the Balkan
Peninsula. The amount of bronze seems to increase as we pass from east
to west. They are found frequently in the Italian lakes, mostly
containing relics of the Bronze Age, though here the western settlements
contain little or no metal. A second series has been discovered in
Britain and northern Germany, and extending into Russia. These are
considerably younger. The scheme of the lake-dwelling was used in
historic times in Ravenna and Venice. Large numbers are still inhabited
in the far east.
A sunny, sheltered shore, protected by hills from storms and action of
waves, was always an attractive site.[51] The character of the land, if
open and suitable for pasturage and cultivation, was doubtless
important. Much depended on the character of the bottom. Where the shore
shelved off gradually and was composed of marl or sand, the piles could
be easily driven, and could hold their place firmly. Even if the shore
was somewhat too hard and the piles could be driven only a little
distance, they were strengthened by piles of stones, often brought from
a considerable distance. When a suitable location had been discovered
and selected the trees were felled partly by the use of stone axes, and
partly by fire, and one end of the log was pointed by the same means,
according to Avebury. Their diameter was from three to nine inches, and
their length from fifteen to thirty feet. During the Bronze period
larger trees were felled and split, and larger piles had to be used in
the deeper water farther from the shore.[52]
These rudely sharpened piles were driven into the bottom by the use of
heavy stone mallets. This must have involved an immense amount of hard
labor, for at the settlement of Wangen 50,000 piles were used, though
not all probably at the same time. Messikommer calculated that at
Robenhausen over 100,000 were used. We find sometimes a different
foundation. It consists of a solid mass of mud and stones, with erect
and also horizontal logs binding the whole structure firmly together.
This is evidently a ruder, simpler, and perhaps more primitive, mode of
building. It was less suited to an open situation, exposed to heavy
waves, and seems to occur more often in smaller lakes now often filled
with peat.[53] Wauwyl and Nieberwyl are good illustrations of such a
"_Packwerkbau_." Some have considered them as originally floating rafts.
When the piles had been firmly driven, cross-pieces were laid over the
top, and on this a "flooring" of smaller poles, or of halved logs or
even split boards, whose interstices were probably filled with moss and
clay, forming a solid and fairly even surface, on which the dwellings
could be erected. The framework of the houses was of small piles, some
of which have been found projecting considerably above the
platforms.[54] "The size of the house is further marked out by boards
forced in between the piles and resting edgeways on the platform, thus
forming what at the present day we should call the skirting boards
(mop-boards) of the hut or rooms. The walls or sides were made of a
wattle or hurdle work of small branches, woven in between the upright
piles, and covered with a considerable thickness of loam or clay." This
is proved by numbers of pieces of clay half-burnt, or hardened in the
fire, with the impressions of the wattle-work still remaining. These
singularly illustrative specimens are found in nearly every settlement
which has been destroyed by fire. The houses were rectangular except in
a few cases. They were apparently thatched with straw or reeds. The
hearths consisted of three or four stone slabs.
These houses were calculated by Messikommer at Robenhausen to have been
about 27 by 22 feet, a very respectable size. One was excavated at
Schussenried, whose side-walls and floor were fairly well preserved.
This was a rectangle about 33 by 23 feet (10 by 7 metres), and was
divided into two chambers. The front room, 6-1/2 by 4 metres, opened by
a door facing south, and with remains of a hearth in one corner. The
rear room, 6-1/2 by 5 metres, was without outer door, and was apparently
a bedroom.[55] Beside these houses, or forming a part of them, were
stalls for the cattle, granaries, and probably workshops. (The
distribution of different remains is well shown in Keller's _Lake
Dwellings_, I, p. 45.) The stone and bone implements, and the pottery of
the lake-dwellers can be more conveniently considered in connection with
those of other regions.
We pass now to the remains of animals and plants found here, especially
in their relations to the food supply of the people.[56] Altogether
about 70 species of animals have been discovered. Of these 10 are fish,
4 reptiles, 26 birds, and 30 mammals, of which 6 were probably
domesticated. The largest of these were the great _Cervus alces_ or
moose--sometimes called elk--the wild cattle, and the stag (_Cervus
elaphus_). Bones of the stag and ox are very numerous and equal those of
all others together. Of the horse very few remains are found until the
Bronze period. Wild horses seem to have lived on in certain parts of
Europe until a late date, but apparently they had emigrated almost
altogether from this region. The horse of the Bronze Age was
domesticated. The lion had left this region, but lingered on in the
Balkans down to historic times. The brown bear and the wolf still roamed
in the forest. In the oldest lake-dwellings the bones of wild animals
make up a far larger proportion of the remains than in the latest ones.
We find a somewhat small dog (_Canis familiaris palustris_) closely
resembling that of the Danish shell-heaps. It was apparently of the
jackal type, and much like the modern Spitz. This would have been an
excellent watch-dog to give warning of the approach of enemies. But at
the close of the Neolithic, with the increase of flocks of sheep, a
larger dog more closely related to the wolf seems to have spread widely
through the country (_Canis familiaris matris optimæ Juit_). This form
was much like, and probably the ancestor of, our present sheep-dogs. A
third form (_Canis intermedius_) also occurs. The origin and
relationships of the various forms of this oldest domesticated animal
are still anything but clear. That they all go back to the jackal and
the wolf rather than to a form like the Australian dingo, still seems to
be most generally accepted. (But see Schenk.[57])
Man gained the dog by domesticating the jackal and different species of
wolves in different parts of the world and then by crossing, or, by a
more or less unconscious selection, bred different varieties, until we
have at present a chaos of intermingled forms. Something similar but on
a smaller scale was true of the domestic cattle. One kind of domestic
cattle appears fully domesticated in the oldest lake-dwellings. It is
unlike any wild European form. This is the _Bos brachyceros_. It was
almost certainly imported. Mingled with its forms we find those of the
_Bos primigenius_, a native of Europe and North Asia, but apparently not
domesticated. This is the urus, which was common in Europe in Cæsar's
day, and lasted in central Europe until 1000 A. D. and still lingers in
Poland.[58] This was a very large and powerful form with long spreading
horns, whose domestication appears to have commenced toward the close of
the Neolithic period. It is not improbable that it was domesticated, or
at least tamed, independently in different countries at quite different
times. Raising of cattle was at its height during the Bronze Age;
afterward the results seem to decline and the cattle to degenerate.
One of the Vaphio vases of about 1500 B. C. represents the capture of
large, long-horned cattle in a net, while the second shows similar
animals tamed. Apparently the smaller and lighter brachyceros was first
tamed, and this success led to a series of experiments with the larger
and more difficult form.[59]
If we draw a line from northwestern Russia diagonally across Europe
southwestward to the mouth of the Rhone, it will divide fairly well the
distribution of the descendants of those two forms. To the eastward in
Russia and Austria, also generally through Germany, and extending also
along the shores of the Baltic, we find the large, heavy, usually
long-horned descendants of the primigenius stock. The cattle of Spain,
and southward into Africa, of France and England, are more of the
short-horned, light-built, smaller brachyceros type. Holstein and Jersey
are good representatives of the two types, though the Holsteins are,
perhaps, a somewhat marked variety. Some regard the cattle of the Scotch
highlands as the best representatives of the _primigenius_ type, though
reduced in size. This same type, on account of its size and endurance of
harsh climate, has furnished the range cattle of our Western plains.
Two fairly distinct forms of swine occur in the lake-dwellings. The
first is the so-called turbary pig (_Sus scrofa palustris_). This is a
small form with comparatively long legs. It differs markedly from the
wild boar, and was probably imported already domesticated. Being more or
less left to feed and shift for itself, it may well have declined in
size from its primitive oriental ancestors. Remains of the larger
European wild boar (_Sus scrofa ferus L._) also occur from the beginning
as products of the hunt. But during the Bronze period domesticated
descendants of this variety grow numerous, and are crossed with the
smaller turbary pig.
"The domestic sheep," says Brehm, "is a quiet, gentle, patient, simple,
will-less, cowardly, wearisome animal. It has no character. It
understands and learns nothing; is incapable of helping itself."[60] It
is certainly absolutely dependent upon man for guidance and protection.
This lies partly in its inherited nature and original surroundings, but
suggests long domestication. Like the goat, it is originally a mountain
form, but adapts itself readily to the dry herbage of the steppe. It is
not a native of central Europe but introduced. It is much rarer than the
goat in the oldest lake-dwellings, but gradually becomes more abundant,
especially in the Bronze period.
The turbary sheep (_Ovis aries palustris_) is very small, with slender
legs, long narrow skull, and bones somewhat like those of the goat. It
was certainly not developed in Switzerland, and before it arrived there
it had apparently been much modified by conditions of life or by
crossing. Its anatomical characteristics are made up of at least three
wild forms. The first of these is the goat-like maned sheep (_Ovis
tragelaphus_) ranging over the mountains of northern Africa, extending
across into Abyssinia. This form seems to have been domesticated in
Egypt before the middle of the fourth millennium. At a much later date,
in Homeric times, herds of sheep of a similar form were kept in Greece.
It was much larger than the turbary form.
The arkal (_Ovis arkal_) is the steppe sheep of central and western
Asia. It is the ancestor of the oriental and African fat-tailed sheep.
The western Asiatic forms seem to have developed the fine wool at the
expense of the coarse hair, like that of the goat and of many other
forms.
A third form is the Moufflon, of the mountains around the Mediterranean
and of its larger islands--here probably introduced. Similar forms appear
in Europe during the Bronze period.
Other species are found in different parts of Asia. The balance of
probabilities seems to incline toward the view that the turbary sheep
came into Europe from western and central Asia with other "turbary"
forms, that it had been long domesticated, and either here or on its
westward migration may have more or less crossed with the descendants of
other varieties. The oldest domesticated goats seem to be descended from
the Bezoar goat (_Capra ægagrus_), from the mountains of southwestern
Asia.
The presence of oxen, sheep, and goats is enough to prove that the
people must have practised agriculture to some extent to have kept these
animals alive through the winter. That they were kept on the platform is
shown by the presence of manure in the remains underneath. Whether this
was used for fertilizer we do not know, nor their method of cultivating
the ground. No agricultural implements have come down to us.
"The small-grained, six-rowed barley (_Hordeum hexastichum sanctum_) and
the small lake-dwelling wheat (_Triticum vulgare antiquorum_) were the
most ancient, most important, and most generally cultivated farinaceous
seeds of our country. Next to them come the beardless compact wheat (_T.
vulg. compactum muticum_) and the larger six-rowed barley (_Hordeum
hexastichum densum_), with the two kinds of millet, the common millet
(_Panicum miliaceum_) and the Italian millet (_Setaria italica_). The
Egyptian wheat (_Triticum turgidum L._), the two-rowed wheat (emmer,
_Triticum dicoccum Schr._), and the one-grained wheat (_Trit.
monococcum_) were probably, like the two-rowed barley, only cultivated
as experiments in a few places; and the spelt (_Triticum spelta L._),
which at present is one of the most important cereals, and the oat
(_Avena sativa L._) appeared later, not till the Bronze Age, while rye
was entirely unknown among the lake-dwellings of Switzerland."[61]
Oats occur in the Bronze period in western, middle, and northern Europe,
in the Alpine lake-dwellings, and in the Danish islands. The ancient
Egyptians and Hebrews, Indians and Chinese, did not cultivate them; they
were raised in Asia Minor and America only since historic times. We
remember that wheat and barley are mentioned in the oldest records of
the Old Testament--as in Gideon's barley loaf--but rye and oats not at
all.
The grains seem to show a gradual improvement in productiveness from the
very oldest settlements to those of the Bronze period. They are found
charred and perfectly preserved wherever the houses were destroyed by
fire. Even the ears and stalks have been saved for us in the same
manner. Charred loaves of bread, and cake made of poppy-seeds, were also
found. "Bread was made only of wheat and millet, the latter with the
addition of some grains of wheat, and, for the sake of flavoring it,
with linseed also. Bread made of barley has not yet been found, and it
is probable that barley was chiefly eaten boiled, or more probably
parched or roasted."[62] Flint sickles made of a long flake set at a
right angle with the wooden handle have been found in Denmark, and
others whose blade is formed by a row of small, sharp flints set in the
edge of a wooden block occur in Egypt. The hand-mills or mealing-stones
are very abundant, as might be expected.
The occurrence of the seeds of the Cretan catchfly (_Silene cretica L._)
is interesting, as it is not found wild in Germany or in southeastern
Europe, but over all the countries of the Mediterranean. Similarly, the
corn-bluebottle (_Centaura cyanus L._) is found wild in Sicily. This
seems to show that these plants came in with the wheat from Italy. But
it is still possible that both Switzerland and Italy received them from
a source somewhat or considerably farther east or south.
Apples and pears, split and dried, occur abundantly. Some of the apples
are so large that they suggest a certain amount of care and cultivation.
Sour crabapples, and the stones of cherries, plums, and sloes are found
accompanied by the seeds of the wild grape; of elderberries,
raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. Acorns, beechnuts, and
hazelnuts were stored up. Besides the seeds of the poppy, already
mentioned, those of caraway were used apparently to flavor the bread.
Altogether some 170 plants have been discovered and determined from
these localities.[63]
Basket-making and the weaving of mats from bast-fibres had led up to a
highly developed weaver's art. Few or no remains of wool have come down
to us from Neolithic time, though it occurs in graves of the Bronze Age
farther north. It would not preserve by charring, as all other
lake-dwelling organic remains have been saved for us, and our failure to
discover it is not surprising. We can hardly believe that these people
did not use the wool of their flocks of sheep, or failed to felt the
hair of their goats. But flax has been found in all stages of
preparation and manufacture in great quantities. Says Messikommer of
Robenhausen: "Every house had its loom." We find not only threads,
cords, and ropes, twine and nets, but cloth of varying pattern and
design. Some pieces were so finely woven and well preserved that their
discoverers could hardly believe that they were not of modern make.
Fringes and embroidery occur.[64]
Linen alone could hardly have furnished sufficient protection against
the cold and dampness of the Swiss winter climate. The more primitive
inhabitants had an abundance of furs. Garments of sheepskin were
doubtless in use. And probably wool and goat's-hair were woven or felted
into outer garments. Dye-stuffs of black, yellow, red, and blue coloring
furnished a variety of tints and shades.
Very few human bones have been found among those lake-dwelling remains;
and only a few burial-places, or rather tombs, in the neighboring
mainland. The discussion of their mode of burial and racial
characteristics may well be deferred to a later chapter.
Of their religious cult we know almost nothing.[65] No idols or fetiches
have been recognized. Certain "crescents" of clay, supported with the
horns turned upward, have been considered by some as head-rests, for
which purpose they are still used by certain African tribes. Others have
considered them as representatives of the crescent moon; still others as
conventionalized ox heads and horns. It seems highly probable that
they had some religious significance, but its exact nature is still
uncertain. We shall return to them later.
[Illustration: WEAVING AND PLAITING FROM LAKE-DWELLINGS]
A lake-dwelling of any size is inconceivable without a well-advanced
social development. It could hardly be founded, builded, or maintained
without close co-operation. Families had to live closely crowded
together, almost as in our modern cities. Neighbors had learned to get
on with one another and live together in peace, and to submit to a close
regulation or discipline by law or custom. They seem to have been a
peaceful folk and exposed to no great dangers from outside attack, at
least in Neolithic time. When the ice fringed the shores or covered the
small lakes, they must have been easily open to attack. A few brands
thrown into the thatched roof would have brought sure destruction.
Traces of conflagration occur, as at Robenhausen, which was twice
destroyed by fire.[66] But these occurrences are rare. Neolithic
settlements seem to have been more frequently abandoned because of the
growth of peat than by any sudden or violent destruction. Conditions
probably changed in this respect during the Bronze period.
Their food was varied and more than fairly abundant. They had their
domestic animals to furnish flesh, milk, probably butter and cheese.
Agriculture was primitive, but in some cases we find large stores, we
might say granaries, of wheat; and wild fruits and vegetable foods were
abundant. The forests offered game, and the lakes were well-stocked with
fish. There may have been times of hardship and dearth, but famine could
hardly have ravaged a people with these three sources of supply.
The lake offered a thoroughfare for their canoes, and communication was
easy for long distances. To cite only one illustration: flint was
brought from Grand Pressigny, in France, and manufactured in certain
Swiss localities. There was much variety and division of labor between
different villages. One manufactured flint very largely--so at and around
Moosseedorf; while Robenhausen and Wangen have furnished great
quantities of cloth. Others were rather centres for the manufacture of
pottery. Even in the same village one area is richer in one product, a
second in another. There was much variety as well as freedom of
intercommunication. The whole region lay a little back from the great
Danube thoroughfare, but near enough to it to retain connection with the
larger world. Life was not altogether monotonous.
The lake-dwellings have been divided according to their age into three
groups or stages, representing three epochs more or less marked.[67]
_Stage I._ _Archaic Epoch._--Axes small and made out of indigenous
material. "Hammer-axes" and utensils of horn and bone rude. No
decorations on weapons, utensils, nor on the crude pottery. Plaiting and
weaving practised. Population in Switzerland at this time seems to have
been sparse. Food obtained from hunt more than from domestic animals.
Examples: Chavannes (Schafis) Moosseedorf, Wauwyl. People
brachycephalic.
_Stage II._ _Middle Neolithic Epoch._--Weapons and utensils more perfect.
Stone axes finely polished, often with hole for handle, sometimes very
large. Beside the commoner minerals five to eight per cent of implements
made of nephritoids (nephrite, jadeite, and chloromelanite). These are
almost absent in Epochs I and III. Pottery of far better material and
manufacture, with traces of ornament. Remains of domestic and wild
animals nearly equal. Domestic animals are turbary pig, goat, sheep,
turbary cattle, but _primigenius_ form present though less common.
Brachycephalic and dolichocephalic people nearly equal in number.
Examples: Robenhausen and Concise.
_Stage III._ _Copper Epoch._--Hammer-axes, beautifully finished. Bone and
horn implements. Nephritoid minerals less used. Pottery more artistic.
Cord-decoration appears. Certain ornaments, weapons, and implements are
made of copper. Domesticated animals improve and form a larger part of
the food than game. Cattle especially increase in numbers, and a new
race of sheep has arisen. Long-heads more numerous than broad-heads.
Examples: Roseax, at Morges. Locraz, Ferril (Vinelz).[68]
It is interesting to notice that remains of domestic cattle are abundant
in all ages, that goats are more abundant than sheep in the earliest
lake-dwelling, but that the sheep became equally numerous in the second
epoch, while they decidedly outnumbered the goats during the Bronze
period. This is what we should expect from the advance of culture.
Says Keller:[69] "The shores of the western portion of Lake Constance
are probably more thickly studded with settlements than those of any
other Swiss lake. In fact, here are found happily united all the
requirements necessary for the erection of dwellings of this nature. A
deposit of marl stretches along nearly the whole of its shores and of
tolerable breadth. A rich tract of country between the shore and the
hills which rise quietly behind; forests of pine and oak; pleasant bays
with a gravelly bottom; a great abundance of fish in the lake, and a
superfluity of game in the surrounding forests, were circumstances
highly favorable to the colonization of these shores."
Could we have sat on one of these village platforms of a summer
afternoon and looked out to the wheat-fields on the shore, and seen the
canoes come in with fish or game, and the cattle returning from the
mainland pasture; could we have watched the men fashioning implements
and all manner of woodwork, and the women grinding the grain or moulding
pottery, or spinning and weaving; we should have found a great deal to
please and interest us. The fruits and berries, the smell of roasting
fish and baking bread, of cakes well flavored with the oil from beechnut
or flax, or perhaps sifted over with the seeds of poppy or caraway,
would have been far from disagreeable. We should have felt that it was a
goodly land, and that life was well worth living. We should not have
been disturbed by shrieking steamboats, puffing and groaning
locomotives, or honking automobiles, or by telegraphs or telephones, by
letters which must be answered or books which must be read. There were
no stocks and bonds, bills or notes, strikes or lockouts. There was no
labor question; all simply had to work. No one went to school, except to
nature, and there were no lectures. "The name of that chamber was
peace."
We ought not to forget in our comfort that everybody could not live in a
lake-dwelling, that all over Europe there were other settlements or
dwellings, more lonely or isolated, where food was never abundant and
sometimes very scarce, where labor was unremitting and the reward
scanty. But even in those less civilized regions there was probably
usually much rude comfort; and if there were times of scarcity and want,
there were also times of feasting and abundance. All over Europe there
were, even in Neolithic time, children, boys and girls playing around
the houses; and young men and women looking out on life with the same
inexperience and illusions, courage and hopes, which lure us onward
to-day.