DRESS. 199 



having apparently taken place in an open fire. The material 

 is also very rude, and generally contains numerous grains of 

 quartz. The form is frequently cylindrical, but several of the 

 jars are rounded at the base, and without feet. A curious 

 character is the frequent presence of a row of depressions 

 which do not completely penetrate the thickness of the vessel ; 

 but the commonest decorations are simple lines or furrows, 

 made sometimes by a sharp instrument, sometimes by the 

 finger-nail (see fig. 166), and occasionally produced by pressing 

 a cord on the soft clay. Curved lines are rare ; no represen- 

 tation of any animal has yet been met with ; and the vase 

 found at Wangen, a restored figure of which has been given 

 both by Dr. Keller and by M. Troyon, is almost the only 

 instance in which any attempt has been made to represent a 

 plant. In this case the design is even ruder than might be 

 inferred from the above-mentioned figures.* In some of the 

 Bronze Age villages rings of pottery are found, which were 

 evidently intended to serve as supports for these earthenware 

 tumblers, but none of them have yet been met with in any of 

 the Stone Age villages. Possibly the earthenware during the 

 Stone Age rested on the soft earth, and tables were only intro- 

 duced in the Bronze Age, when by means of metallic imple- 

 ments it became so much easier to cut wood, and particularly 

 to make boards. Many of the vessels had small projections, 

 which were pierced in such a manner that strings might be 

 passed through them, and which may, therefore, have served 

 for suspension. Some of the vessels, also, are pierced by small 

 holes at different levels; it has been suggested that these may 

 have been used in the preparation of curds, the small holes 

 being intended to permit the escape of the milk. The orna- 

 ments on the pottery belonging to this age are of a very rude 

 and simple character. Sometimes a row of knobs runs round 



* In Lee's second edition of Keller's Lake Dwellings, pi. xv., a figure 

 is given of the actual fragments. 



