396 PALAFITTES, OE LACUSTEIAN CONSTRUCTIONS 



COINS. 



"We were so forttmate, last year, ( 1864,) as to recover from the station of the 

 Teue the first lacustiiau money, (Fig. 90.) This consisted of genuine Gallic 

 coins, bearing on the obverse the effigy of a 

 man in profile, on the reverse the characteristic 

 image of the horned horse, which has some- 

 times been regarded as a bull or he goat, and 

 which was probably only an allegory, a fan- 

 tastic animal, serving perhaps as an ensign, as 



we still exhibit the unicorn and griffon in our ' Figure 90. 



escutcheons. These coins, to the number of 

 five, (one of which has been deposited in the museum of Neuchatel, and another 

 in that of Saint-Germain,) are all of the same type, but with slight variations in 

 the figure of the horse and effigy of the human head, which is diffii-rent on 

 each piece, representing probably five different chiefs. The coins, which bear 

 no legend, are of bronze, simply run in moulds, united with one another by a 

 neck, after the manner in which children cast their leaden playthings. The two 

 seams of the neck, which united the corresponding pieces, are distinguishable in 

 all. This type of Gallic money is to be met with quite frequently, not only in . 

 France, but in Switzerland, as will be apparent on comparing them with the 

 collection of drawings by Dr. Meyer of Zurich.* Very similar ones exist from 

 Tiefenau, near Berne, where they are associated with others bearing the effigy 

 of Diana and Apollo, and the impress of Marseilles. Besides those coins in 

 bronze, there have been taken from the palafitte of the Tene some of gold and 

 silver; among others, a small gold piece which is quite frequent in Switzerland, 

 being a bad imitation of the philippics of Macedon ; on the obverse is exhibited 

 a head of Apollo with a crown of laurel, on the reverse a biga with the head of 

 a bird on the chariot, and some Greek letters referring to the name of Philip. 

 Coins of silver, like those of Tiefenau, have also been announced. The Roman 

 coins of the Tene ai-e an as, a Tiberius, and a Claudius, the last being in excellent 

 preservation ; it is a copper piece of the size of a sous, and jvould indicate that 

 the station had existed till the middle of the first century. 



On the other hand, there have been found neither in the palafitte of the Tene 

 nor at Tiefenau those chains of iron or copper to which, according to Diodorus 

 Siculus, were suspended the swords of the Gauls, t nor yet those plates of gold 

 and silver which decorated their girdles. 



Of pottery there was no deficiency in the age of iron. We have collected at 

 the Tene a quantity of fragments of black or half baked pottery, which does 

 not differ sensibly from that .of the age of bronze. Together with this, which is 

 eminently lacustrian in character, occur vessels made with the wheel, as well as 

 red pottery or that baked in the kiln, such as amphoras, big-bellied vessels with 

 handles, fragments of vases of terra sigillata, and a quantity of Roman tiles 

 which, if they bear the number of no legion, attest no less the presence of Roman 

 stations. According to M. Keller, the art of constructing kilns of brick, like 

 the use of mortar, was unknown to the Helvetians and to the Gauls in general, 

 who must have possessed only cottages of wood covered with shingles or thatch. 

 It was the Romans who introduced the ait on this side the Alps ; so that the 

 presence of tiles and vases of terra sigillata does but corroborate the indication 

 afforded by the coin of Claudius, namely, that certain stations on pile- work have 



* Mitthcilungcn der antiquarischen Gesellschaft, vol. xv. 



t It is possible, however, that the two rings of the collection of M. Schwab, which are 

 represented by M. Troyon, (pi. sv, fig. 3, ) iind were taken fiom the Tene, may be relics of 

 a Gallic chain. 



