The state herald., 1890-04-25
PEOPLE THAT CESAR KNEW.
1emalns Of tho Inhabitants Of villages -
tho Stone and Iron Ages.


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Tho recent discovery Of lombs OF the
lako dwellcrs has awakened u renewed
interest In the people Of prehistoric
Switzerland. Tourists will hardly be
Switzerland without visiting one or
more of tho museums where tho col
lcctions made from the cNcayatcd lake
dwellings are exhibited.
Perhaps the most extensive exhibition
OF these relies is the ono ut tho Helm
House." in Zurich. There one sees
what are in fact the greatest antiquities
OF the whole world There are hun
dreds and thousands of specimens OF
stone, wood, cloth, weapons and orna-
mcnts, Of a people whose towns were
old thousand years before gray old
cxcavatcd Pompeii was ever thought
Of.
10 Professor Ferdinand Keller before
all others the world is indebted for u
knowledge of whit IL probably was be-
fore the time Of history. All tho later
years of his lifc were devoted to tho in
vestigation of the lake dwcllcrs'
villages, and no man was so competent
10 hp w lNJNNtHNtt tHtSC Nt'lu WV
skulls and relics. lifting n thousand
years from the forgotten past into tho
middle Of the nineteenth century.
Keller has translated the hicroglypf.
les of the dead ages. He has explained
how the antiquariums have divided all
the prehistoric past into the ages of
stone, Of bronze. aud Of iron; how the
lake dwellings of Switzerland were first
discovered at Meilen. OIL tho lake Of
Zurich. in 1920. and more fully re-
vcaled in 1S53-5i; and how the world
at large shut It's eyes, almost, to tho
great contribution made TO history. liu
has told, too, how the patient, hard
working investigators, of whom he is
chief, have uncovered and dug ont
enough of these buried towns 10 prove
that our "bcst families" don't need 10
break oil their ancestral line with
William the Couqucrcr, or with any
other William. Those OF lis who think
we might be proud Of our far-oif pro-
genitors may yet he gratiied to see
some shrcwd Yankee following our
line clear back TO OrgcloriN, the
youngest offspring Of our Celtic grand.
fathers of the lake dwcllcrs.
II our American tourist will take n
little more time. jump on the ears. and
| ride out TO Robcuhmsen, on the lake o!
| Pfatiikon. he will there witness with his
own eyes the turf beds aud the lake
| giving mp the secrets OF the age OF
stone. Robcnliauscn is a town OF tho
stone-agc period. II was perhaps
| twelve hundred feet square. standing
| on II platform built on u hundred
thousand piles driven into the bottom
of the shallow lake, about three hun.
dred yards from the shore. Like all
the other Swiss lake towns il was con.
nectcd with the land by long bridge.
also built on piles OF course the
| visitor now will see little except
chopped-oif piles sticking in the peat.
and among them the debris Of the vii.
lagos that have gone 10 ruin. Roben.
hausen 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. ono above
the other. The only way OF Judging OF
the probable age of these lake dwell.
in.s is by estimating the centuries re.
quircd for peat beds to form. RecE.
oncd in this manner the age of the first
town built at the bottom of Robcn'
hauscn must he prodigious.
In these lake villages once lived .
people as much civilized. possibly ~
are the McNicans of to-day. They
titled the soil, they dwelt in houses,
they wovc tine linen they had article
OF luxury. and traded more or less will
other countries. OF them there are nc
written ANIMALS, 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 dwellcrs is whcn
Cesar tells how n quarter Of n milliot
armed ilclyciian-. under Divlco. burnec
down their homes and marched into
Gaul. Caesar himself. after grea
battling. defeated them. and drove
them back into their own country.
There is now much reason TO bclicys
Mai these Hclyclians were the last oi
the lake dwellcrs. 1t Is known thai
most of the lake villages were de-
stroycd by fire. and II is altogether
probable that when Caesar compelled
the people to return they established
new homes on the shore. instead Of re.
building their lake dwellings, which
they had left In search of sinnicf
cline and more grateful soil than
were found amid the Alps. H. W
Byers, ia HdTper's Magazine.