CHARACTER OF THE OBJECTS FOUND IN LAKE VILLAGES. 225 



Age settlements are very rare in the east of Switzerland, and 

 the Iron Age is represented only on the Lakes of Bienne and 

 Neufchatel. In these settlements not only has a new sub- 

 stance made its appearance, but the forms of the implements 

 are different. We have, indeed, copies of the bronze axes 

 made in iron, just as we found before that some of the earlier 

 bronze celts resembled the stone axes in form ; but these are 

 exceptional cases. The swords have larger handles, and are 

 more richly ornamented ; the knives have straight edges ; the 

 sickles are larger ; the pottery is more skilfully made, and is 

 of the kind generally known as Eornan ; coins occur, the per- 

 sonal ornaments are more varied, and glass for the first time 

 makes its appearance. Bronze also is present; but in the 

 first place it is no longer used for weapons, and in the second 

 it is worked in a different manner, being hammered,* while, 

 as already mentioned, all the objects of the Bronze Age are 

 cast. 



A field of battle at Tiefenau, near Berne (see p. 8), is re- 

 markable for the great number of iron weapons and imple- 

 ments which have been found on it. Pieces of chariots, about 

 a hundred swords, fragments of coat of mail, lance-heads, rings, 

 fibulae, ornaments, utensils, pieces of pottery and of glass, 

 accompanied by more than thirty Gaulish and Massaliote 

 coins of a date anterior to our era, enable us to refer this 

 battle-field to the Eoman period. About forty Roman coins 

 have also been found at the small island on the Lake of Bienne. 



After this period we find no more evidences of Lake-habita- 

 tions on a large scale. Here and there, indeed, a few fisher- 

 men may have lingered on the half-destroyed platforms, but 

 the wants and habits of the people had changed, and the age 

 of the Swiss Pile-works was at an end. 



We have, however, traced them through the ages of Stone 

 and Bronze down to the beginning of the Iron period. We 



* See Desor, Les Constructions lacustres du Lac de Neuchatel, p. 27. 



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