376 



PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTKIAN CONSTRUCTIONS 



serving, probably, as amiilett?. Clasps, on tbe other hand, which are so abun- 

 dant in pnbscquent epochs, are as yet unknown at our stations of bronze. 



Pins for the hair are very numerous. The lake of Neuchatel has itself fur- 

 nished many hundreds, and among them all we have not yet met with two 

 which were exactly alike, and could therefore be referred to the same mould. 

 Most of them are adorned with designs more or less complex, few being wholly 

 destitute of ornamentation. In the number several types may be distinguished 

 which are characterized by the form of the head, as may be judged of by a com- 

 parison of the annexed figures. Some have a round head (Figs. 52 and 53) and 

 are sometimes of considerable size. We possess one 34 centimetres in length, 

 while M. Troyon mentions specimens of 49 and even 57 centimetres. The head 

 is usually open-worked with circular holes, into which were fitted studs of the 

 metal in relief, perhaps also small plates of some other metal. In this case the 

 pin traverses the head and is often detached from it. At other times the head 

 is massive and without ornament, after the model of the pins of bone in the age 

 of stone. Pins with a flat button are not less abundant, this button being some- 

 times very small, (Fig. 54,) sometimes of considerable size, (Fig. 55^ it is 

 in some a more enlargement of the stem, (Fig. 5G,) and is occasionally repeated, 

 so as to furnish pins with two and three buttons, (Fig. 57.) With these pins 

 for the hair we would not confound certain very simple stylets, whose flattened 

 extremity is merely convoluted, (Fig. 58.)* It is probable that these objects 

 served for some special use. We are induced to think so from the fact that we 

 have found them at different times combined with small rings of bronze similar 

 to those of which notice will be taken further on, and which we have reasons 

 for regarding as the money of the epoch. 



The bracdcts testify a cultivated taste ; we find them of every model, from 

 the simple; bracelet, composed of a bronze stem with a serai-cylindrical button at 

 each end, (Fig. 59,) to the lai-ge bracelet covered with elegant designs, (Fig. GO ;) 



Figure 59. i"it;uru (liJ. 



the latter are more rarely found, and the finest of them were taken from an uni 

 obtained from the pile-work of Cortaillod. These were six in number, all unin- 

 jured, and the designs as perfect as if they had just issued from the workshop 

 of the engraver. M. Otz possesses no less than eight of them in perfect preser- 

 vation, derived from this same palafitte of Cortaillod, which appears to have en- 

 joyed a speciality of this ornament ; among them we find one embellished with 

 designs in the form of concentric circles.! Others are composed of several 

 twisted strands of bronze, artistically connected, (Fig. 61 ;) others still of 

 large and massy cylinders, bent, so as to touch by their extremities, and 



* Better to evince the elepance of forms and beanty of the metal, we caused a number of 

 hair-pins, derived from different stations of Lake Neuchatel, to be polished, and exhibited 

 them at the exposition horlogcrc of Cliaux-de-Fond, ]8fi;5, under the title of iacustrian jew- 

 elry. An opi)ortunity was thus afforded to those who take an interest in the sulycct of form- 

 ing, by a comparison of the variety of models and perfection of designs, an idea of the care 

 which the ladies of this epoch brought to their toilets. 



t Judging from the slight depth of the engraving, these articles would seem to have been all 

 cast. The last explorations have disclosed specimens of double rings, which were, perhaps, 

 fastenings for the belt. Wo possess two specimens from the palafitte of Cortaillod (Fig. C:;ia. ) 



