LUBBOCK ON THE ANCIENT LAKE HABITATIONS OF 8WITZEELAND. 51 



out of place on dry laud. This however indicates a very consider- 

 able antiquity, since the site of the ancient city Eburodunum must 

 have been, at tliat time, entirely covered by the lake, and yet the name, 

 which is of Celtic origin, denotes that there was a town here even 

 before the Eoman period. In order, however, to form an idea of 

 the time at which the dwellings at Chamblon were left dry by the 

 retirement of the lake, we must have in the valley a point of deter- 

 mined age, to serve as a term of comparison, and such a point 

 we find in the ancient city of Eburodunum (Tverdon), which was 

 built on a dune extending from Jorat to the Thiele. Between this 

 dune and the lake, on the site at present occupied by the city of 

 Tverdon no traces of Eoman antiquities have ever been dis- 

 covered, from which it is concluded that it was at that period under 

 water. If then we admit that at the close of the fourth century the 

 lake washed the walls of the Castrum Eburodense, we shall have fifteen 

 centuries as the period requned to eftect this change. The zone thus 

 luicovered in fifteen hundred years is 2500 feet in breadth, and as the 

 piles at Chamblon are at least 5500 feet from the water, it may be in- 

 ferred that three thousand three hundred years must have elapsed 

 since they were left diy. This Lake-dwelling belonged to the Bronze 

 period, and the date thus obtained, agrees pretty well with that obtained 

 from the examination of the Cone de la Tiniere. M. Troyon adds that 

 " rien ne fait soup^onner, pendant I'epoque humaine et anterieurement 

 " a notre ere, des conditions d'accroisement difterentes de celles qiu ont 

 " eu lieu posterieurement aux Eomains; le resultat obtenu est meme un 

 " minimum, vu que la vallee va se retrecissant du cote du lac et que 

 " nous avons admis la presence de celui-ci au pied meme d'Eburodunum 

 " dans le JY^ siecle de I'ere chretienne, tandis qu'il est probable que 

 " la retraite des eaux n'a pas ete insensible depuis le moment ou les 

 " Eomains se sont fixes sur ce point." 



However this may be, and while freely admitting in how many 

 respects this calculation is open to objection, we may stiU observe 

 that the result agrees in some measure "wdth that given by the Cone 

 de la Tiniere. The ancient history of Greece and Eome, as far as it 

 goes, tends to confirm these dates, since we know that at the time of 

 Homer and Hesiod, arms were, in part at least, made of iron, and as 

 we Ivnow that, at a very early period, there was a certain amount of 

 commerce between Helvetia and the shores of the Mediterranean, we 

 can hardly suppose that a metal so immensely important as iron, can 

 have remained unknown in the former country, long after it was gene- 

 rally used throughout the latter. 



Still, though we must not conceal from ourselves the imperfection of 

 the archaeological record, we need not despair of eventually obtaining 

 some more definite chronology. Our knowledge of primitive anti- 

 quity has made an enormous stride in the last ten years, and the future 

 is full of hope. I am glad to hear from M. Troyon that the Swiss 

 archjpologists are continuing their labours. They may feel assured that 

 we in England await with interest the results of their investigations. 



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