350 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAX COXSTRUCTIONS 



another, and especially to the piles imhedded in the ooze. Yet the arras and 

 pottery are not dispersed at hazard ; they are limited to a particular stratum, 

 having a thickness of two feet, which has received the name of "archfeological 

 stratum," [Cultur-Schirht.) JMoreover, they are accumulated around the piles, 

 where they are found in large quantity, while they diminish and disappear in 

 proportion as they retire from it. "There was a connexion then between the 

 piles and the antique objects. 



It was this connexion which our friend, M. Ferdinand Keller, guided by his 

 pi'acticed eye, was enabled to detect, and which, once caught sight of, has become 

 the torch to conduct us to the discovery of a whole unknown world. 



In effect, such an association of arms and utensils indicated beyond a doubt 

 traces of man. The piles, upright in the midst of these objects, had been placed 

 there by design, evidently to support some construction. But as their founda- 

 tion is below the mean water level, they must necessarily have been planted in 

 the water. There had existed, therefore, habitations or storehouses built inten- 

 tionally on the water at the place indicated by the piles. The number of 

 scattered utensils, corresponding to the thickness of the bed which contains 

 them, bore witness, in turn, to a prolonged sojourn. Consequently, there had 

 been an epoch during which the inhabitants of our country constructed places 

 of refuge on the water, if, indeed, they did not dwell there. It was the period 

 of lacustrian construct ions. 



The history of the sciences does not afford many examples of so brilliant an 

 acquisition by human sagacity ; it recalls that which, in another province, we 

 owe to the genius of Cuvier. Long before this great naturalist the bones of 

 mammals had been collected in the plaster-quarries of Montmartre; but no 

 one had perceived the relations of these remains to one another, and to the 

 medium in which they are concealed. They were looked upon as vestiges of 

 the deluge. Cuvier studies these ancient and petrified skeletons, and recognizes 

 in their association and manner of deposition the traces of a whole creation 

 anterior to man. To the French naturalist ?ome fossil bones had thus sufficed 

 for the reconstruction of a phase of the history of the earth : some fragments of 

 pottery, buried under the gravel of the lake of Zurich, sufficed to our own 

 learned antiquary for the revelation of a forgotten cycle of humanity beyond the 

 bounds of history. The hint being once given by the first publication of M. 

 Keller,* \\\ the Memoirs of the Archaeological Society of Zurich, the zeal and 

 activity of our Swiss antiquaries might safely be relied upon to elaborate this 

 new vein, which, indeed, did not long delay to furnish us with scientific treasures. 



They began by seeking for piles in the other lakes of Switzerland. The 

 fishermen could almost everywhere point them out, and these piles became, in 

 turn, valuable guides in conducting to unexpected discoveries. At Meilen, with 

 the exception of a single object in metal, only utensils of bone and stone had 

 'been bi'ought to light. Elsewhere, and more especially in the lakes of eastern 

 Switzerland, beside stations recalling those of Lake Zurich, were discovered 

 other stations which, instead of objects in silex and bone, yielded numbers of 

 utensils i-n bronze. These articles bore witness to a much more advanced civili- 

 zation. The lacustrian period, therefore, embraced several distinct phases. It 

 became an interesting problem to investigate, and fix, if possible, the peculiar 

 character of these different phases or epochs. This work was everywhere pressed 

 forward ; discoveries rapidly multiplied, and gave rise to numerous publications 

 devoted to the description of new stations, and the antiquities which they con- 

 tained. Nor was the necessity of co-ordinating the facts obtained slow in making 



*Die keltischen Pfahlbauten in den Sckweizerseen. — Communications to tlie Antiquarian 

 Society, Zuvicli, 1854. 



