THE PRE-HISTOKIC RACES OF ITALY. 493 



dwellings which they erected in the lakes of Geriiiauy, Switzerland, 

 and northern Italy. 



From southern (lerniany they spread to western Switzerland, where 

 we find the remains of their settlements in the lakes of Constance, 

 Nenfchatel, Bieune, and (Jeneva. These Swiss settlements began in 

 the stone age, but were in many cases continuously inhabited from the 

 age of stone through the age of bronze, coming down, in a few cases, 

 to the age of iron. We can trace these people advancing gradually in 

 civilization, at first subsisting mainly on the chase of the stag and tlie 

 wild boar, afterwards, as these beasts became scarce, depending more 

 and more ou their domesticated animals, the ox and the sheep, and 

 gradually taming the goat, the pig, and the horse. At tirst we find them 

 without cereals, and evidently ignorant of the rudest agriculture, lay- 

 ing up in earthen pipkins stores of acorns, hazel-uuts, and water-chest- 

 nuts ; and then, after a time, growing barley, wheat, and flax, learning 

 to spin and weave, to tan leather, and even to make boots. They are 

 identitied with the Helvetii, a Celtic people. 



This race gradually extended itself to Italy, crossing the Alpine 

 barrier either through Carniola or by one of the western passes, and 

 occupying by degrees Venetia, Lombardy, and the Emilia, and finally, 

 the whole valley of the Po. 



When they first appear in Italy they were still in the stone age, and 

 had domesticated the ox, but were ignorant of agriculture. Now the 

 bronze age is believed to have begun in Italy not later thau 1900 b. c, 

 and therefore this Umbro Latin Aryan race must have entered Italy 

 considerably more than two thousand years before the commencement 

 of our era. 



On arriving in Italy they built pile dwellings in the North Italiau 

 lakes, similar to the pile dwellings of Switzerland and southern Ger- 

 many, and disclosing much the same stage of civilization. We cannot 

 doubt that they belonged to the same race, and this is confirmed by the 

 close connection between Celtic and Italic speech. 



In Italy, as well as in Switzerland, the pile dwellings began in the 

 age of stone and lasted down into the age of bronze. Many of the 

 small lakes have been converted into peat-bogs, and in digging out the 

 peat the remains of these settlements have been disclosed. 



One of the settlements has been discovered in a peat moor at Mer- 

 curago, near Arona. This moor was formerly a shallow lake, in which 

 a i)ile dwelling was built by some of the earliest settlers of the Umbro- 

 Latm race. They had no knowledge of agriculture, but fed on hazel- 

 nuts and wild cherries. They had rude pottery, and polished flint im- 

 plements. A dug-out (tanoe, a disk of walnut wood, which had evidently 

 formed the wheel of an ox-cart, and one bronze i)in were found, showing 

 that the settlement was not hually abandoned till the age of bronze had 

 commenced. 



Farther north, in the Lake of Varese, there are seven villages built 



