352 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS 



of savage animals. At a later period, the epoch of bronze, these stations, 

 as will be seen, served probably for simple magazines or places of assemblage.* 

 The idea of comparing the antiquities of our lakes with those found in so 

 great number in the islands of Denmark would naturally present itself to the 

 minds of our antiquaries. As soon as it Avas recognized that thei'e existed, with 

 reference to their utensils, striking differences between the stations, some yield- 

 ing only arms and objects of silex or bone, others containing utensils and arms 

 of metal, especially of bronze, though sometimes also of iron, it could no longer 

 be supposed that these stations were cotemporaneous ; they could but corre- 

 spond to successive periods of development, having each its distinctive character. 

 Hence, as in the north, three epochs were distinguished : tlic age of stone, tJie 

 age of bronze, and tJie age of iron.j The lake of Neuchatel has the preroga- 

 tive, among all the lakes of Switzerland, of comprising stations of the three 

 ages, thus enabling us to follow, within a circumscribed space, the development 

 of humanity during the remote epochs which preceded historic times. 



I. AGE OF STONE. 



The stations of the age of stone, though not as numerous as in eastern Swit- 

 zerland, are not wanting in the lake of NeuchateL To the station of Concise, 

 which has yielded since 1859 a considerable quantity of utensils of silex and 

 bone, have been added several others, especially those of Neuchatel, Hauterive, 

 Cortaillod, Auvernier, Bevaix, Chez-le-Bart, Corcelles, Estavayer, Chevroux, 

 Cudrelin, and at Lake Morat, Greng. 



These stations have with us a particular stamp, which admits of their being 

 easily recognized. They are, in general, less extensive than those of the age of 

 bronze ;| not so distant from the shore, nor so deep, being at a depth not exceeding 

 two metres beloAV the mean level of the water. But what chiefly distinguishes 

 them is the quality of the piles, which are much larger than those of the stations 

 of bronze, consisting frequently of entire trunks of 25 and 30 centimetres in di- 

 ameter. Instead of forming a projection in the water, they are level with the 

 bottom, so that, notwithstanding their size, some experience is requisite to dis- 

 tinguish them amidst the stones which surround them. These stones them- 

 selves constitute an important character of the epoch ; it is evident, from a mere 

 inspection, that they have been heaped up by the agency of man. This is at- 

 tested as well by their distribution, which is always distinctly circumscribed, 

 while sand or mud prevails around, as by their variety in form and appearance- 

 some being rounded, others angular. The process employed was probably of 



* It sliould be remembered that the ancient occupants of our own soil are not alone in their 

 preference of aquatic habitations. There are populations of the Pacific ocean among whom 

 this usage exists at the present day. The Indians of Venezuela construct their cabins pref- 

 erably on the water, as a refuge from the flies, and we are told by Herodotus that the an- 

 cient people of Thrace had the same custom. "ThePeonians of Lake Prasias, " says the 

 father of history, "could not be subjugated by Megabysus. Their habitations are constructed 

 in the following manner : Upon tall posts sunk in the lake they fix a scaflblding which commu- 

 nicates with the shore by a single bridge. Each has his cabin with a trap-door opening 

 upon the lake, and lest their children should fall into the water through this apertm'e, they 

 tie them by the feet with a cord." See also Hippocrates, Opera Omnia, Ed. Kuhn, I, p. 

 551: " The riparians of Pharos," says the father of medicine, "lived in marshes, where 

 they inhabited houses of wood and of reeds above the water, traversing the river in pi- 

 rogues ; their health suffered much from this kind of hie." 



t This division into three distinct ages has been contested by M. de Hochstetter, wlio' 

 thinks that the difference should not be attributed to separate epochs, but to differences of 

 class. To this pretended cotemporaneity M. Keller (Gth Report, p. 7) properly objects that 

 there is a series of lacustrian constructions in which there exists not the least trace of bronze. 

 With us this is, indeed, most frequently the case. 



t The tcneviere of Auvernier measures 80 metres in diameter ; that of Hauterive is greater 

 and of less regular outline. 



