Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-03-17
The Ancient Lake Dwellings.

wilderness, uninhabited, except by beasts
, or, in later centuries, by wandering tribes
who were uot more human than the beast
themselves. Further than supposition snt
guessing, written history was silent
} Within few years, however, the import
ant fact has come 10 light that people
, more or less civilized, lived here among
, the valleys of the Alps, and on the borders
OF the lakes, hundredS, possibly thousands
Of years before the Christian era.
Proof of this early occupancy OF the land
by people used to some of the arts and
Industries of life is found in the "lake
dwellings," or pile-houses, remnants OF
which are now being discovered and in
vestigated in the waters Of almost every
Swiss lake. The Winter of 1858 and 1854
was exceedingly dry, and all the Swiss
streams and lakes were lower than they
had ever been known. At Moilen, on
Lake Zurich, some workmen took advan-
tage OF the receded waters 10 excavate
earth from the lake-bed, for the purpose of
filling in additional garden.spots on the
shore. While thus engaged, they were as
tonished by striking their spades into what
proved to be the tops of many wooden
piles, arranged in clusters and in rows.
By closer examination, it was found that
these piles ran in lines almost parallel
with the shore, and stood ON an average
about foot or foot and a half apart.
They were usually split pieces of oak,
beech, or fr-wood, six or eight inches in
diameter, and about eight or Ten feet in
length. The original length ofthese strange
piles could only be guessed at, as they had
rotted of down TO point below the water.
The lower ends had all been sharpened by
fire, except an occasional one, which bore
marks OF having been sharpened by some
edged instrument.
Among the piles, and in the bed of earth
in which they stood, stags' horns aud inn
plements OF bone and stone were found in
great numbers. The principal objects
among these we're stone cells, scrt OF
wedge-shaped stone, that could, as its shape
varied, have been used as a chisel, gouge,
hatchet, or axe.
Hundreds OF specimens of these were
found, varying in length from one to eight
inches and In weight from quarter OF an
ounce to pound and half. These i'm
plements consisted partly of a stone found
abeut the lake and among the Alps, and
partly OF a stone peculiar 10 the East,
and never found in Switzerland, showing
that The people who used them must have
had some sort OF traffic with countries be-
yond the seas.
These cells as they are called, were made,
it is supposed, by first hammering the
stone into shape, and then grinding or rub
bing on sandstone, until an edge was made,
oflen as sharp as knife. Slabs of sand
stone were discovered, showing by their
form that they had been used for some
such purposes, while numbers of the inn-
plements in half-finished state were dug
up continually.
The celts were usually found with stag
horn hats or handles. Hammers, pin
GERS, etc., Of The rudest sort, and made of
stone and bone, were also found, as well as
primitive corn-crushers such as are de-
scribed by Livingstone as being in use in Az
rica at the present day. There were hearth |
stones, and specimens OF split boards, or |
slabs, rude pieces OF pottery, and a few |
spindle-whorls.
Meilen was the first place thoroughly ex- |
no means the most interesting. Al Roben- |
hausen, on Lake Pfafikon, as we'll as at
many other points where the antiquities |
found date as far back as those at Meilen,
discoveries have been made, showing that |
these people, in the remotest ages of antiq- |
uity, must have possessed degree of civ
iliZation far superior to the barbarous races
of to-day.
By systematic excavations at Robenhau-
sen, and at other points, 1t has been pretty
closely determined in what way these lake
dwellers built their homes, the nature of
their industries, the food they ate, and the
clothes they wore. Here, the curious of
to-day can walk over the uncovered floors,
and stand upon the hearthstones of houses
that possibly were old, when Pompeii and
Herculaneum were new.
Here are household implements, and
tools for farming purposes, aud nets, and
woven cloths, and even embroidery, that
were made and used perhaps centuries and
centuries before the fall of Rome. The
la ake-dwellers had settlement at Roben-
hausen which covered at least sixteen
thousand square feet. One hundred thou
sand piles were used in its construction,
and there is an earth-bed about the piles
three feet deep, composed of animal re-
mains and the results of human industry.
Not this only, it has been further ascertain
ed that settlements have been built on the
top Of these, so that three sets of piles, one
above another, in the course of time, have
been driven into the accumulated remains
of ages.
The last or top settlements, were, how
ever, more substantially built than those
underneath, and some OF the implements
Of flint were more dexterously made. |
From the position OF the hearth stones, the
size Of the floors, the clusters of the piles,
and the clay weights for looms and hand
found on the ruins of almost
every hut, it can be pretty definitely deter
mined what the size Of these lake-dwelI-
ngs was.
Those at Robenhausen have beon estima-
ed as being twenty-seven feet long, by
twenty-five feet wide, and constructed in
Zach case for the use of single family. In
most OF the settlements, the huts were
ouilt on platforms resting on the tops Of
he piles.
Oswald Heer-and no one Is more enti-
led to speak-says; 1--WE may say, with /.
perfect certainty, they are more than two
housand years old and with considera-
Die amount OF probability, that they reach
'ack from one thousand TO two thousand
'ears before Christ" Mr.. Morlot goes y
urther still, andplaces the age OF the old
st of these lake-towns at from six to sew