London Quarterly. APRIL, 1867.x SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS.* As might be expected, the scientific spirit of the age is zealous in its efforts to track out the beginnings and primordial life of man on the earth. The same enthusiasm of research, which leaves the chemist and metaphysician dissatisfied unless they can reach the bottom of things material and spiritual, takes hold of the student of human nature. Some three or four thousand years back we find ourselves on the dubious frontier of Old Series Com the oldest secular history. Races, we *The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland and Other Parts of Europe. By Dr. FERDINAND KELLER, President of the Antiquarian Association of Zurich. Translated and Arranged by JOHN ED-nish, do little more than show how utter WARD LEE, author of "Isca Silurum, is the darkness. London: Longmans. 1866. Habitations Lacustres des Temps Anciens et Modernes. Par FREDERICK TROYON. Lausanne: Georges Bridel. 1860. etc. Prehistoric Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages. By JOHN LUBBOCK. London: Williams & Norgate. 1865. The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man. By Sir CHARLES LYELL. London: Murray. 1863. NEW SERIES-VOL. V., No. 4. science should sit down contentedly unIt is neither likely nor desirable that der such a condition of things. If inquiry be legitimate anywhere, or any. where tend to noble and serviceable issues, that will surely be the case, when the question is one so vast and yet so near to us as man his birthplace; the home of his youth; his first migrations 26 of man. and settlements; the multifarious fortunes which befell him before history began; the processes by which he came to be personally and socially what he was as he first appears in Western Asia and Egypt, in Tartary and Scandinavia, in the Americas and in the Islands of the Southern Ocean. And, as matter of fact, for some years past scientific men of both hemispheres have evinced a growing interest in this obscure but most attractive province of antiquarian and philosophical investigation. No doubt the geographical discoveries of the last century did much to call attention to the race distinctions and primeval history The labors of modern missionaries, too, have prodigiously enlarged the sphere of our knowledge on these points, and have stimulated and sustained a spirit of inquiry into the unknown past of human life. The like effect has been produced by the marvellous revelations which Assyria, Babylonia, Mexico, and other countries of the old or new world have recently given us of "kindreds, and nations, and peoples, and tongues," whose life had previously been either a cipher or a name. Moreover, the steady advance and ever strengthening fascination of a strictly inductive geology has at once kindled new lights in the ancestral darkness of man's career on the earth, and has awakened an irrepressible curiosity and purpose in multitudes of minds to acquaint themselves, so far as may be, with the facts which the finger of science thus marks and points to. To crown all, the purely scientific interest in prehistoric man, which causes such as those now named have either created or confirmed, has of late, particularly, been linked with a religious feeling, which has intensified it for good or evil a hundredfold. The cosmogony and chronology of Holy Scripture have been supposed to look unfavorably upon what are affirmed to be the plain straightforward readings of the newly-discovered scientific phenomena; and this circumstance has invested the phenomena themselves with a more than scientific importance, and has added indefinitely to the zest with which the physicists and savans have prosecuted their researches. According to the views which men have taken of the interpretation and authority of the Bible, they have looked with hope or alarm to the findings of the geologist and antiquary; and a keen-sighted, religious jealousy has stood by while busy hands have explored the mysteries of cairns and cists, of barrows and bone caves, of prehistoric dead men's skulls, and of ancient remains of human industry buried in water or in earth. If the man of science is disposed to complain of all this, let him remember that the blame lies partly at the door of the rashness and flippancy of some of his own class; that the interests which hang upon the credit of the Sacred Volume are such as may very well excuse even a passionate clinging to what is believed to be its testimony; and that the exactness and caution demanded by religious faith at the hands of science on ground which justly belongs to both, will really promote the interests of science itself, and will help to bring about that final accord between history, nature, and the Scrip. ture revelation, of which all true knowledge is the sure herald and earnest. Whatever the philosophy of the fact may be, it is certain that a keen, widespread, and constantly augmenting interest is gathered in the present day about those many and various monuments of the prehistoric part of man's life on the globe, which modern science is everywhere dragging from their sepulchres, and by means of which it seeks to recompose the forgotten annals of our race. The focus of the interest in question has undoubtedly been those mysterious flint implements, which the geologists have discovered in so great numbers and in so great a variety of circumstances, in different parts of the world, especially such of these implements as have been found buried in ancient river gravels, and in the stalagmitic floors of osseous caverns of the mountain limestone and other rock formations. Second only, however, to the importance of the chipped and trimmed flints, in the feeling of the scientific world, has been a most unlookedfor series of discoveries made within the last few years, and still making, in Switzerland-discoveries which show that in times antecedent to the known history of that country, the margins of very many of its lakes were tenanted by a people or peoples, who lived not on the shores of the lakes, but in houses built on piles | by him. In a few instances I have added driven into their water-beds; and whose notes of my own; my province, however, personal and social habits and condition was not to illustrate but to translate; are, in not a few cases, brought clearly to view by innumerable remains of their dwellings, dress, food, utensils, weapons, etc., which have rewarded the search of a crowd of eager explorers. and as these few notes rest on my own authority alone, they are marked at foot with the letters Tr." The value of Mr. Lee's volume is greatly enhanced by nearly a hundred carefully-executed lithographic plates, illustrating the construction of the lake dwellings, and the objects of art found buried in the wreck of them. On this subject the translator writes: "With respect to the plates, it may be well to mention, that about one half are actual from plates drawn at Zurich, either for the 'transfers' (reärranged in the octavo form) last report or for the previous ones. Another considerable portion consists of copies, either by myself or my friends, from the other plates of the Zurich reports; while a smaller portion, including the sketches of localities, were drawn by myself from nature, or from the objects themselves, during a visit to Switzerland last summer."-Preface, p. 6. The first account of these Swiss lake dwellings, presented to the scientific world with anything like pretension to combined detail and completeness, was that given in M. Troyon's elegant volume, entitled Habitations Lacustres, which was written in French, and published at Lausanne_in_1860. Prior to this date, however, Dr. Ferdinand Keller, president of the Antiquarian Association of Zurich, and the original discoverer of the lake dwellings, had begun to issue in German, under the auspices of his society, what is now, on the continent at least, a well-known series of reports on these extraordinary antiquities. On this side of the water Dr. Keller's publications were not likely to make their way into the is an "Ideal Restoration of a Lake hands of more than a few readers; and what Englishmen knew of his topic, they learned either from M. Troyon's work or from the comparatively brief descriptions of the lake dwellings and their appurtenances furnished by Sir John Lubbock and Sir Charles Lyell. Prefixed to the volume as frontispiece, Dwelling." This is not the often-copied "Restoration" which appeared in Dr. Keller's first report, but a new drawing made at Dr. Keller's suggestion, "in accordance with the latest discoveries," and approved by him before it finally left the hands of the lithographer. If Under these circumstances, Mr. Lee the plate has something of the dimness was led to entertain the idea of trans- of dreamland about it, this will be easily lating, rearranging, and putting into a excused by those who consider how unshape fitted for the use of Englishmen, scientific it would be to give a sharpthe whole contents of Dr. Keller's re-lined reality to things only just emerging ports. He rightly believed that such a from the airy sphere of fancy and mythwork would be acceptable and useful to ical song. his countrymen; and in the noble and The story of the first discovery of the thoroughly English book, the title of Swiss Lake Dwellings is pretty familiar. which heads this article, we have the "In the winter of the years 1853 and praiseworthy results of his laborious and 1854, the extraordinary drouth and longjudicious editing of his originals. In continued cold occasioned a very unuaccordance with his plan, Mr. Lee has sual phenomenon in the Alpine districts. not simply translated Dr. Keller's re- The rivers shrank to their smallest comports in the order in which they were pass, and the level of the lakes was lowgiven to the public. To use his owner than ever had been known before. words: "The order is entirely different the substance remains, though the mode of stating it is altered in most cases the language and expressions are the same translated into English. Some few things have, under his (Dr. Keller's) direction, been omitted, and several additions have been made On the stone of Stäfa the watermark of 1674 had always been considered the lowest known in history, but in 1853-4 the water was one foot below this mark. This circumstance of the extreme lowness of the water of the lakes led to the adoption of measures, in certain cases, for the recovery of land on their shores; and while this was being done in the little bay between Ober Meilen and Dollikon, on the east side of the Lake of Zurich, the workmen, to their astonishment, lighted upon the heads of wooden piles, with stags' horns, and sundry implements, all sunk in the bed of the lake, and indicating, to appearance, the former occupation of the spot as the residence of man." This was in January, 1854. The Antiquarian Association at Zurich was immediately informed of what had occurred, and took steps without delay to secure to science the full advantage of the discovery. The proprietors of the land at Ober Meilen were forward to cooperate with the savans. As the excavations proceeded, the importance of the discovery became more and more manifest. Plainly human beings of a prehistoric age had lived in houses built on the tops of these piles; for here were the visible, tangible relics of the timbers that had formed or supported their huts, of their hearth-plates, their corn-crushers, their pottery, the creatures they had fed upon, and a multitude of other objects, connected with their personal habits, or social condition and manner of life. on the great moor on the southern side of the Lake of Pfäffikon," is one of the most curious and interesting of all the monuments of its order. The Zurich lake has not hitherto added much to its original honors as the father of our knowledge of the Swiss lake dwellings. Some five or six such dwellings have been discovered on the borders of the Lake of Zug, southwest of that of Zurich. Further west, the Lakes of Baldegg and Sempach, both in the Canton of Lucerne, have rewarded the explorations of Colonel Schwab with proof of the former existence of some dozen or more settlements upon their banks or water margins. The little lakes of Mauensee and Wauwyl, near the Sempach lake, have likewise contributed something to the list of the north-central lake dwellings. "The Lake of Moosseedorf, distant about two hours' walk from Bern, belongs, as its name imports, to that numerous class of lakes in Switzerland called moor lakes." Here there are remains of a settlement, which a strict application of the stone, bronze, and iron theory of the antiquarians must pronounce to be of very high antiquity. The Lakes of Bienne, No sooner was public attention drawn Neuchâtel, Morat, and Geneva, on the to the antiquities thus suddenly brought west and southwest of the country, are to light on the Zurich lake, than remains rich in their treasures of wreck and ruin. of the same class began to reveal them- Thanks to Colonel Schwab, more than selves in other parts of Switzerland. twenty sites of lake dwellings have been Before the close of the year 1854, relics more or less fully explored on the Lake of pile buildings were found in the Lake of Bienne. Of these the settlement at of Bienne, the Lake of Neuchâtel, the Nidau, at the northern extremity of the Lake of Geneva, and elsewhere. And lake, is remarkable for the wealth of its between this date and the present time relics of bronze. As many as fifty setthe margins of nearly all the lakes in the tlements have been discovered on the northeast, north, and west, of the coun- Lake of Neuchâtel, chiefly, as in the case try, have yielded the like harvest to of the Lake of Bienne, on its eastern the labors of antiquarian research. In border. The Lake of Morat has supplied the extreme northeast, the Uberlinger between fifteen and twenty examples of See, and Unter See, the two great forks the pile dwellings. These lie both on of the Lake of Constance, are 66 'thickly the eastern and western shores of the studded with settlements;" some of lake. Lastly, upwards of twenty spots them, like those of Nussdorf, Maurach, Unteruhldigen, and Sipplingen, on the former water, remarkable at once for "their extent, and the number of the antiquities found in them." To the south of the Unter See, and lying between it and the Lake of Zurich, the Lakes Nussbaum, Pfäffikon, Greiffensee, and others, have all furnished remains of ancient lake dwellings. Robenhausen, "situated are known to have been occupied by the mysterious men of the waters on the Lake of Geneva. The settlement at Morges, to the west of Lausanne, on the north shore of the lake, was one of the first to be determined and examined after the original discovery at Meilen early in 1854; and the antiquities which it has yielded have given it a high place among its peers. Altogether, nearly two hun dred sites of lake buildings have been as- | convenience, or inclination. At Nusscertained to exist in different parts of dorf, where the settlement covers about Switzerland. Of those which have been discovered in other countries, particularly such as lie about Switzerland, we may haye occasion to speak further on in this paper. The scientific industry, and acute but cautious inductions of the Swiss explorers, enable us to go far in explaining how the builders of the lake dwellings went about the work of establishing their water homes; as also what was the ma terial of which those homes were made, and how the makers of them used it in their architecture. For the most part, the situation chosen by the pile builders for a settlement appears to have been the margin of a lake, where the water was neither very deep nor very shallow, and where the bottom was soft enough to admit of the easy planting of their piles. When such a situation was selected, they proceeded to cover a certain area of the lake, sometimes a very large area, with a forest of piles driven two, three, or more feet into the lake-bed, and having their heads raised a yard or two above water. The first row of piles ran parallel with the shore at some distance from it; thence other rows, standing side by side with this, extended outward towards the deeper waters of the lake. In some cases the piles do not seem to have been fixed in rows; but usually a general parallelism was preserved, the piles being driven in lines forming a right angle, or nearly so, with the shore. The piles were not always planted single. Occasionally they are found in pairs. And while in some instances they are crowded thickly together, in others they are considerably wider apart. At Meilen and elsewhere the average distance between the piles was a foot or a foot and a half; but the intervening spaces were not unfrequently larger, as at Robenhausen and Nussdorf, where the average would be two or three feet. At Wangen, on the Unter See, M. Löhle states, the "piles were driven in for the most part one or more feet apart, so that in the space of a square rod there are at least twelve, though sometimes seventeen or twenty may be seen." The number of piles in a settlement was of course determined by various conditions of necessity, three acres, the piles are reckoned at three thousand. Unteruhldigen is sup posed to have had at least ten thousand; Sipplingen, extending over twenty-five acres, forty thousand; Wangen, just mentioned, not fewer than fifty or sixty thousand; Robenhausen, perhaps as many as a hundred thousand. The wood used for the piles was chiefly oak, beech, birch, and fir; but elm, ash, alder, aspen, maple, willow, hazel, and even cherry, it is said, have been found in various localities. Whole stems with their bark on were commonly employed for the piles; but they were often split, so as to furnish timbers of from three to seven or eight inches in diameter. The lower ends of the piles were almost invariably sharpened by fire, and by tooling with the stone hatchet or celt, in order to prepare them for driving. Less frequently they are found to have been wrought with tools of bronze or even of iron. There is reason to believe, that in many cases, as, for instance, at Unteruhldigen and Nidan, horizontal beams were sunk among the vertical piles, or that the piles themselves were fastened together by such beams, with a view to the bracing and strengthening of the substructure. It is not always easy to determine whether the timbers now lying horizontally or obliquely among the rotten pile-heads at the bottoms of the lakes were originally interlocked with the piles by the builders of the lake dwellings, or whether they are portions of the platforms supporting the houses, that have fallen from above, and so are mixed up with what at first sustained them. In some settlements clay seems to have been used to bind the piles and other supports of the houses into a more solid basis; and in other cases large stones have, apparently, been brought in canoes and dropped among the piles for the same purpose. "In fact, one boat or canoe, still loaded with the stones which proved too great a cargo for it, and which consequently sank it to the bottom, is still to be seen at Peter's Island in the Lake of Bienne." The outermost row of piles "appears to have been covered or closed in by a kind of wattle or hurdle work, made of small twigs or branches, probably to lessen the |