ABSTRACT OF THE FIFTH REPORT OF DR KELLER 



ON 



LAOUSTRIAN SETTLEMENTS. 



FROM THE BULLETIN OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENEVA. 



In January, 1854, certain works, undertaken on the slioros of tlie Lake 

 of Zurich, at Obermeilen, brought to view, with the mud and ooze from the 

 bottom of the water, an assemblage of ancient remains, together Avith piles. 

 Dr. Keller, president of the Archseological Society of Zurich, published in the 

 spring of 1854 a first report respecting this discovery. It was a brief but lucid 

 description, accompanied with numerous figures, and the conclusion was even 

 then arrived at that there had existed in ancient times, at the point in question, 

 habitations built upon pile-work. Discoveries of the same kind were rapidly 

 multiplied in Switzerland, few savants possessing, in an equal degree with Dr. 

 Keller, the art of guiding and encouraging others in the labors of research. Hi3 

 con-espondence forms a connected course of instruction, strikingly recommended 

 by the unaffected liberality which pervades it, and which naturally evokes a 

 reciprocal spirit of frank communication in regard to all noAv facts and observa- 

 tions. To this concurrence of efforts, directed to different points, which, taken 

 separately, would have been of little avail, we owe the rapid development of 

 Swiss archtcology ; and it is this also which has enabled Dr. Keller to publish 

 a second report on lacustrian habitations in 1858, a third in 1860, a fourth in 

 1861, and now the fifth, with which Ave are at this moment occupied. These 

 several reports are all distinguished by an affluence of well-ascertained facts, 

 and of accurate figures, as Avell as by the absence of those idle discussions 

 and fantastic reflections Avhich are still but too rife in matters of archaiology. 

 Nor is it a circumstance unworthy of notice that even our neighbors of Italy 

 and Germany have contributed to SAvell this fifth report by valuable communi- 

 cations presented under their own names ; for Dr. Keller is of that class of 

 saA-ants who conscientiously render to each AvhatoA^er is his due, and Avillingly 

 withdraAv themselves from notice in order to give greater prominence to the 

 merits of another. 



Unfortunately Dr. Keller only ptiblishes in German, Avhence his reports, 

 though noAV and then containing an article Avritten in French, such as the ex- 

 cellent paper of M. L. Rochat on the lacustrian habitations of the neighbor- 

 hood of Yverdon, are too little kuoAvn in certain countries. There should be a 

 French publication recapitulating the labors of the savant of Zurich, but a 

 natural repugnance is felt to undertaking such a work while progress and dis- 

 covery are Btill in full career. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to a 

 simple revicAv of the fifth report, Avhich is before us. 



This report commences Avith a notice of ten pages on the Tcrramara de 

 r Emilia, by M. P. Strobe, professor of natural history in the University of 

 Parma, and M. L. Pigorini, a young archaeologist of the city of that name. 

 The German translation is from the pen of M. Strobel, who speaks and writes 

 German perfectly well. Three plates, comprising eighty-nine figures, accom- 



