3H*6 PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS 



people of the north only pure bronzes, without the alloy of lead. If the civil- 

 ized people of the Mediterranean added lead to their bronzes, it can scarcely be 

 doubted that the calculating Phenicians would have done as much, and, at least 

 in their commerce with distant and half-civilized tribes, have replaced the more 

 costly tin by the cheaper metal. But this question cannot be decided with cer- 

 tainty until we shall possess analyses of well authenticated ancient Phenician 

 bi'onzes, whose composition we can then compare with that of the brouzes of 

 the north. This desideratum it has not been in my power to realize. In fine, 

 the Phenician origin of the bronzes widely scattered over the European conti- 

 nent is further contradicted by the discovery of numerous foundries, which prove 

 that the smelting of bronze was almost everywhere a domestic industry, the tin 

 of commerce and the copper of the nearest excavations being employed, which 

 would of itself explain the presence in the bronzes of such different accidental 

 dements. 



" On the whole, then, I consider that the first knowledge of bronze may have 

 been conveyed to the populations of the period under review not only by the 

 Phenicians, but by other civilized people dwelling more to the southeast. It 

 became thenceforth a common resource, the type, in some sort, of a whole civil- 

 ized epoch, and was maintained and developed of itself, until, by the discovery 

 and diffusion of iron, the general and exclusive employment of bronze had ceased 

 and an end was thus put to the period of bronze. 



" I here terminate a work commenced five years ago, with the hope that the 

 undertaking may not have been useless, but may contribute in some small de- 

 gree to the advancement of our knowledge of the pre-historic times of our ancestry, 

 as yet so obscure. Should ray opinions not have been exempt from all prepos- 

 session, it is to be hoped that others, Avith greater means at their disposal, will 

 resume the investigation, and, guided by better lights, conduct it to a successful 

 end, by embracing within the scope of their researches the bronzes of the ancient 

 Persians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Jews, and Phenicians." 



III.— AGE OF IRON. 



For a long time there have been collected at many points of the lake of Neu- 

 chatel, articles of iron associated with others of a more ancient origin, as at 

 Gletterens, Bevaix, Cortaillod, and Font.* In reality, however, there is but a 

 single station of pile-work which is referable exclusively to the age of iron — 

 that, namely, of the Tene, near Marin, on lake Neuchatel. It consequently 

 dairas from us a moment's attention. 



The shore of the lake, between the Maison Rouge and the Hospice de Pre- 

 fargier, below a stretch of land called the Heidcniccg or highway of the Pagans, 

 is very flat and composed of a fine and turfy deposit, which extends under the 

 neighboring peat-mosses. The waves of the lake, by wasting and undermining 

 this formation, occasion frequent land-slips, which, viewed from the surface, 

 have the appearance of large abrupt rocks conveying the idea of a jetty. A 

 post which here and there shows itself at the edge of these fallen masses has 

 been erroneously taken by the inhabitants of the coast for a relic of this ancient 

 jetty, and hence the piles, though long known, attracted no attention. This ex- 

 tent of shoal, where the water is of little depth, (60 to 70 centimetres,) has re- 

 ceived the name of Tme.f In sailing over this oozy floor of the Tene, there 



* Objects iu iron are also found at many points of the lake of Bienne, as at the Steinberg 

 of Nidiui, at Sutz, Latrigen, Hageneck, de Neuville, Vigneules. 



t Doubtless from the latin tetiuis, in German diinn. In the patois of certain places, it 

 would seem customary to say, "the -water is <cne," that is of little depth; the local word 

 tencvi6re has probal)ly the same origin. (This class of words, like the Greek Tevayoc, a 

 sliofil or sliiillotc, would seem to be derived from the root Tev of the verb Telvu, Tevu, to ei- 

 tcud and so to become thin. Tr. ) 



