PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTEIAN CONSTRUCTIONS 



with a rim of iron skilfully adapted, and embracing the two edges of the scab- 

 bard. It is furaishcd at top with a special plate, which bears the ring of sus- 

 pension, and whose border serves as a frame for 

 the very remarkable designs which characterize 

 these sheaths. These designs had from the first 

 attracted the attention of M. F. Keller, as being 

 equally foreign to Roman art and to the age of 

 bronze.* Most of them are engraved with the 

 oscillating biu'in, (trtmulirstich,) so that, on close 

 examination, we recognize the reciprocating 

 movement of the instrument by which they ai"e 

 traced. Some of the scabbards are ornamented 

 with figures wrought with the punch ; this is 

 particularly the case with a unique specimen of 

 our owTi collection which represents the charac- 

 teristic emblem of the Gauls, (Fig. 75,) namely, 

 the horned horse, such as occurred also on the 

 coinage of the Tene. There is seen, moreover, 

 on the face opposite to that which bears the 

 clasp of suspension a sort of granulation, which 

 sometimes reminds us of shagreen skin, and at 

 Figure 75. other times of such damaskeened work as modern 



armorers obtain by the use of acids. These ornaments and designs have, in an 

 ethnographic point of view, a much greater importance than the 

 swords themselves, seeing that thus far they are exclusively pe- 

 culiar to the age of iron, while the form of the blade has been 

 preserved during the subsequent epochs. 



Together with swords and lances, we find at the T^ne consider- 

 ;ible numbers o? javelins of iron, of small dimensions, (10 to 12 

 centimetres,) and of much less finished workmanship, without the 

 median ridge, but with a simple socket, (Fig. 76,) in which is 

 -ometimes found the nail which fastened it to the staff. These 

 (javelins are in all respects similar to those of the collection of 

 Alise. From the trials which have been made at Saint-Germain, 

 under the direction of the Emperor Napoleon, it is apparent that 

 these javelins could have no efiaciency but as missiles, which were 

 launched by means of a thong known by the name of amenium.\ 

 These points are, in fact, too light to have pertained to javelins 

 thrown by hand ; while the experiments made by direction of the 

 Emperor prove that a light shaft which the hand could project 

 but twenty metres at most, might attain by the help of the amentum 

 a distance of eighty metres.| On the other hand, these instru- 

 ments are executed with so slight a degree of elaboration as to 

 have rendered the losing a number of them a matter of small con- 



T^. ^r. sidcration. It would hence appear that there were among the 

 1 i^ure / li. ^J_ ^ 



* They are composed of very simple elements, namely, the undulatin ^ line, the circle, 

 and the triangle, recalling at times, by their combinations, the paraphs of our ancient calli- 

 praphists. There is something about them which, according to the learned antiquary of 

 Zurich, would remind one of the ornaments on the arms and utensils of the later Celtic 

 period as these have been delineated by M. Franks. (Kembie, Hora? ferales, p. 122.) 



t See the figure of a warrior launching a javelin with the amentum, published by M. 

 Jlerimee, from a panathenaic amphora in the British Museum. (Revue Archieologique, 

 ls6ii, p. 211.) 



There have been taken at dififerent times from the palafitte of Ttino plates of iron with a 

 median swelling, and having the sides furnished with nails which attached them to a piece 

 of wood. M. Keller regards them, with much reason, as pai'ts of a buckler. (Table XIII, 

 figme 12.) 



t Vercherc de Reffye, ks Amies d'Alisc. ( Kctuc Archieologique.) 



m 



