The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1890-05-03

Remains OF the Inhabitants of villages Of
the stone and Iron Ages.

The recent discovery of tombs OF the
lake jewellers has awakened renewed
interest in the people OF prehistoric
Switzerland Tourists will hardly be
content any more 90 pass through
Switzerland without visiting one or
more of the museums where the coli
lections made from the cxcayatcd lake
dwellings are exhibited.
Perhaps the most extensive exhibition
Of these relics is the one at the Helm
House." in Zurich. There one sees
what are in fact the greatest antiquities
of the whole world. There are hum
dreds and thousands of specimens OF
stone. wood. cloth. weapons and orna-
mcnts. of people whose towns were
old thousand years before gray old
excayatcd Pompeii was eyer thought
OF.
To Professor Ferdinand Keller before
all others tho world Is indebted for p
knowledge of what ii probably was be-
fore the time OF history. All the later
years of his life were devoted to the in
vestigation OF the lake jewellers
villages, and no man was so compctent
rs he 10 rcjuvenatc those dead old
skulls and relics lifting thousand
years from the forgotten past into the
middle of the nineteenth century
Keller has translated the hieroglyph.
les of the dead ages. He has explained
how the antiquarians have divided all
the prehistoric past inso the ages OF
stone. of bronze, and of iron; how the
lake dwellings of Switzerland were first
discovered nj Meilcn. on the lake of
Zurich. in 1929. and more fully re-
yeaIed in 1851; and how the world
at large shut its eyes. almost, To the
great contribution made TO history. He
has told. too. how the patient. hard
working investigators. OF whom he IS
chief, have uncovered and dug out
enough Of these buried towns TO prove
that our "best families" don't need TO
break of their ancestral line with
William the Conquerer, or with any
other William. Those of us who think
we might be proud OF our far-on pro-
genitors may yet be gratilicd TO see
some shrewd Yankee following our
line clear back TO Orgetorix. the
Youngest offspring Of our Celtic grand
fathers OF the lake dwellcrs.
II our American tourist will take q
little more time. jump on the cars. and
ride out 20 Robenhansen. on the lake OF
Pfaflikon, he will there witness with his
own eyes the turf beds and the lake
giving up the secrets of the age OF
stone. Robcnhausen il town of the
stone-agc period. 1t WAS perhaps
twelve hundred feet square. standing
on n platform built on hundred
thousand piles driven into the bottom
of the shallow lake. about three hum
dred yards from the shore. Like all
the other Swiss lake towns IL was con.
ncctcd with the land by long bridge.
also built on piles OF course the
visitor now will sec little except
chopped-olf piles sticking in the peat,
and among them the debris of the viii
lagos that have gone to ruin. Roben
hansen had been partly burned down
and built up again on the same site, but
ut intervals of ages. probably, apart.
SO that the peat bed shows on being
opened three sets of piles. one above
the other. The only way Of judging Of
the probable agc of these lake dwell
ings Is by estimating the centuries re-
quircd for peat beds TO form. Reck.
oncd in this manner. the age Of the first
town built at the bottom of Roben.
hansen must be prodigious.
In these lake villages once lived G
people rs much civilized. possibly. as
are the Mexicans of to-day They
titled the soil. they dwelt in houses
they woye fine linen, they had articles
of luxury and traded more or less with
other countries. OF them there are nc
written ANNALS. History stops stock
still with Switzerland only sixty year,
farther back than the birth OF Christ
The nearest reference there Is in history
to these Swiss lake jewellers Is where
Caesar tells how quarter of million
armed Hclvetians. under Divico. burned
down their homes and marched into
Gaul. Caesar himself after grea
battling. defeated them. aud drove
them back into their own country.
There is now much reason 10 believe
that these Hclvetians were the last OF
the lake jewellers. IL is known that
most Of the lake villages were de-
stroyed by fire. and II is altogether
probable that when Cesar compelled
the people 10 return they established
new homes on the shore. instead of re.
building their lake dwellings, which
they had left in search of a SUMMER
cline and more grateful soil than
were found amid the APPS. II. AZ
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