LACUSTRIAN SETTLEMENTS. 373 



pany this notice, whicli resembles those given by Dr. Keller in its avoidance 

 of all useless phraseology. 



In the duchy of Parma there occur, in the level tracts bordering upon rivers, 

 deposits of a peculiar nature, which have been for some time employed, imder 

 the name of terramara, in the culture of lands. They arc accumulations of a 

 marshy nature, interspersed with beds of river ooze, of charcoal and cinders, 

 through the whole of which ai"e thickly strewn the crushed bones of animals, 

 pieces of wood, fragments of pottery, and divers objects in hone, in stone, and 

 in bronze. It is apparent that man once inhabited these places, liable as they 

 were to occasional submersion. At one point there was found, in good preser- 

 vation, a floor built upon piles, which had been planted in a marshy soil be- 

 neath shallow water, which, by the accumulation of solid material, had since 

 become dry land. 



The bronze articles occuring in the terramara are hatchets, reaping-hooks, 

 lance-heads, poniard-blades, hair-pins, a small bronze comb, chisels, and awls, 

 the whole bemg of the kind met with in Switzerland and the north, and re- 

 garded as characteristic of the age of bronze. The pottery is coarse, composed 

 of clay mingled with sand, rudely shaped by hand, without the use of the wheel, 

 as is still practiced in villages of the Appenine in preparing utensils intended 

 to resist the action of fire. The vases present a peculiarity, not as yet else- 

 where observed, in being often furnished with small handles, drawn out into 

 variously shaped horns and knobs, and sometimes ornamented Avith stripes. 

 Spindle whirls, plain or striped, are of frequent occurrence. Among the objects 

 of bone may be mentioned two combs, embellished with carvings in the manner 

 of the bronze age, and among those of wood the remnant of a wicker basket. 

 The remains of animal bones have been carefully studied by Professor Strobel, 

 who, after having compared them with those of the lacustrian settlements of 

 Switzerland, described by Professor Rutimeyer, of Bale, has had the satisfaction 

 of seeing even the most questionable of his decisions confirmed by the last- 

 named savant. The species thus far recognized by M. Strobel are : remains 

 of the bear, the wild boar, the roe-buck, and the stag ; and, of domestic animals, 

 the dog, the horse, the ox, the hog, the goat, and the sheep, all of them races 

 occurring in the lakes of Switzerland. To this list should be added some re- 

 mains of birds, and, among others, of the domestic fowl, Avith those of terrestrial 

 and fluviatile moUusks, still found alive in the country. The vegetable king- 

 dom has contributed various kinds of wood, wheat, (triticum turgidiim,) beans, 

 hazel-nuts, pears, apples, service-berries, acorns, and the capsules Avhich enclose 

 the seeds of flax. It would appear from the collective circumstances that the ter- 

 ramara represents what may be called the kitchen-middens (kjxkken-inosdding) 

 of the age of bronze, formed in co-operation with the alluvium of rivers. 



Lacustrian settlement at Peschiera, on Lake Garda, in Italy. — M. de Silber, 

 Austrian officer of engineers at Verona, reports that, in dredging at theentrance 

 of the port of Peschiera, remains of pile-work were found, entirely buried in the 

 mud at the bottom of the water, while the mud itself contained numerous ob- 

 jects in bronze, of which Dr. Keller gives three plates of figures. These con- 

 sist of poniard-blades, hair-pins of various shapes, hooks, or small fish spears, 

 a knife, and some small remnants of clothing, all bearing much resemblance to 

 those taken from the lakes of Switzerland. Among these objects from Peschiera 

 are some of copper, which leads Dr. Keller to dissent from the generally re- 

 ceived idea that the age of bronze, properly so called, had its origin in Asia, 

 since Europe would then have had no ago of copper, forming the necessary 

 stage between the age of stone and that of bronze. Ur. Keller presents, in sup- 

 port of his opinion, a plate comprising the figures of twenty-eight objects of red 

 copper, chiefly hatchets and coins, found in Hungary and Transylvania, and 

 he adduces the testimony of a friend of his, who resided long in Hungary, and 



