382 



PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS 



wi;li a stem or foot, but too slender to support them in an upright position. The 

 measurement in some cases amounts to 40 centimetres. Most of them are of 



argillaceous earth mixed with quartzose grains 

 and small pebbles, like the rings for supportino- 

 fMt tl'G vases, but still ornamented with designs very 

 ''T^ rude, and only on one side. They were, at all 

 events, objects of little value either for composi- 

 tion or form ; and since it is impossible to assign 

 to them any use, it has been asked whether they 

 might not represent a species of talisman or relig- 

 ious symbol which was suspended within or per- 

 haps at the doors of dwellings, which would ex- 

 .,. _. plain why they are pierced with a hole intended 



^^^^^^ ' evidently for the passage of a strap. 



The first lacustrian cres- 

 cents were discovered by M. 

 Schwab at the station of Ni- 

 dau ; but as this station com- 

 prises the relics of the three 

 ages, while the true palafittes 

 of the age of bronze had fur- 

 nished nothing of the kind, 

 M. Troy on [Habit, lacustres, 

 page IS.")) concluded that 

 they must have appertained 

 to the first age of iron rather 

 than to that of bronze. Since 

 that time we have ascertain- 

 ed their presence in the two 

 palafittes of Cortaillod and 



Auvernier ; there is no doubt, therefore, that they ascend to the age of bronze. 

 They have been found also at Ebersberg, in the canton of Zurich, though here, 

 instead of being of baked earth, as with us, they are occasionally of stone. Such, 

 among others, is the fine specimen which we borrow from the work of M. Keller, 

 and which our learned friend has adopted as the frontispiece of his third report.* 

 It is of reddish sandstone (Fig. 67.) M. Quiquerez announces a fragment of 

 one in stone among the diibri's of Vorbourg, near Felemont. 



Commercial relations. — If commerce there was none, or one very much ro- 

 stricteil, during the age of stone, it is bcrond doubt, on the other hand, that, 

 from the commencement of the age of bronze, there must have existed A^ery ex- 

 tensive commercial relations, which are attested by divers objects of foreign 

 origin ; among others, by the graphite which served as a coating to the vases, 

 by the beads of amber and objects of glass which have been furnished by the 

 palafittes of Cortaillod and Auvernier. 



But the most conclusive proof in favor of an international commerce is sup- 

 plied by the tin, which enters, to the amount of nearly a tenth, into the com- 

 position of the bronze. Now, as this metal 

 is completely a stranger to our countries, (to 

 the Alps as well as the Jura,) it must neces- 

 sarily have been brought from abroad, and, as? 

 its consumption was considerable, judgin.r from' 

 the quantity of objects collected within a few 

 years, there was in this the material for an 

 Fj<juie G8. important trafiic. We have no positive data Fig^me (51). 

 as to what products the natives might offer in return for the metal which was im- 



* Mittheilungcn dcr antiquarischen Gcsellsclwft, 3d and 4th Report. 



maS''^^^^^^~^^'^^i 



Figure 67a. 



