PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTPJAN COxXSTRUCTMS 



OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 

 BYE.DESOE: 

 WITH DESIGN'S BY PROF. A. FAVRE-GUILLARMOD, 



TRANSLATED, WITH TH£ AUTHOR'S RECENT ADDITIONS, FOR THE SJUTHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



PREFACE 



The following essay does not profess to be a summary of the whole of our 

 knowledge respecting lacustrian constructions, still less to present a picture of 

 the civilization of central Europe during the three ages of stone, of bronze, 

 and of iron, which are represented in our lake. We have neither the au.thority 

 nor the resources necessary for embracing so vast a subject. What we propose 

 is but a simple excursion into a domain which, though not our own, is by no 

 means a foreign one. When, twelve years ago, the discoveries of prehistoric 

 antiquities at the bottom of the lake of Zurich first awakened the interest and 

 curiosity of all the friends of science in Switzerland, we were tempted, after 

 the example of MM. Schwab, Troyon, Morlot, and Rochat, to seek what the 

 lakes at the foot of Jura might contain. We were not long in being satisfied 

 that these lakes, and especially that of Neuchatel, were richly endowed ; and 

 the idea occurred to us of applying to lacustrian researches the methods em- 

 ployed in geology, hoping that by taking into account certain accessory circum- 

 stances, to which archaeologists do not always accord the importance which they 

 merit — such as the distribution of objects, their frequency, their association, 

 their state of preservation at difierent stations — we might perhaps obtain a pic- 

 ture, if not more complete, at least more exact, of the conditions of the exist- 

 ence of our primitive populations. 



Setting out from this point of view, we directed our inquiries chiefly to the 

 stations which present a definite stamp, and which, like the characteristic re- 

 positories in paleontology, may be regarded as authentic for the age of stone, 

 the age of bronze, or the age of iron. On the other hand, we have attached but 

 a secondary importance to the stations which comprise the remains of several 

 ages, even when very rich, like the station of Nidau at the lake of Bienue, that 

 of Font at the lake of Neuchatel, and that of Montillier at the lake of Morat. 

 The antiquities which these stations disclose will always possess a real interest 

 as^objects of curiosity, or as serving as the complement of specimens collected 

 elsewhere ; but we should hesitate in conceding to them a conclusive value 

 when the determination of the character of an epoch is in question. 



Our first researches were given to the public in an article in the Ahnanack 

 de la Socicie cV Utilite Publique de Neuchatel in 1859 ; a second edition, con- 

 siderably enlarged, appeared in the Bibliotherpce Universclle of 1862. Mean- 

 •. hile discoveries multiplied from day to day, the age of iron in particular 

 > irnishing a large contingent of rare and new objects, and we were thereby 

 induced to publish a new edition, which appeared in the Musee Neuchdtelois 

 of 1864, accompanied with several plates. 



