398 



PALAFITTES, OR LACUSTRIAN CONSTRUCTIONS 



The bones of the members, especially 

 those of the thigh and hip, of which we 

 possess a certain number, have been the 

 subject of detailed study by our colleague. 

 Dr. Guillaume ; they indicate a race of 

 men whose stature attained I'^.OO, and 

 who were consequently of more than aver- 

 age height. The teeth, which are all pre- 

 served, present a rather singular peculiar- 

 ity, inasmuch as not only the incisors, but 

 even the canines, are greatly worn, as if 

 they too had served for mastication, (Fig. 



92.) The same circumstance has been remai-ked in jaw-bones taken from 



ancient tombs. 



Figure 92. 



COTEMPORANEOUS ANTIQUITIES OF THE PALAFITTES OF THE AGE OF IRON- 



It is almost idle to insist on the existence of establishments on terra firraa cotem- 

 poraneous with the palafittes of the age of iron, when it is once understood that 

 the antiquities of the Tene are of Gallic origin, for history teaches us that the 

 Helvetians inhabited cities which they burned when they emigrated into the Gauls ; 

 but nothing indicates that these cities were lacustrian constructions or settle- 

 ments upon piles. It must be admitted, on the contrary, that the palafitte of the 

 Tene, supposing that it existed at the epoch of the Helvetian emigration^ was 

 the exception, and not the rule, of the epoch of bronze.* 



Unfortunately, we know neither the history nor even site of the twelve Hel- 

 vetian cities. We are consequently reduced to the necessity of seeking in the 

 tombs the tumuli, and the so-called battle-fields, equivalents for the arms and 

 utensils which characterize the palafittes of our lakes at the epoch of iron. The 

 number of the torpbs which are referred to the age of iron or the Gallic epoch is 

 considerable. But on examining their remains more closely, we cannot fail to 

 be convinced that the identification is often determined in a very incomplete 

 manner. From the fiict that a tomb contains a weapon or object of ornament 

 which somewhat approaches those of our palafittes, it does not follow that it is 

 cotemporaneous. As in paleontology, it is not a single object which suffices to 

 establish with certainty the age of a repository ; it is necessary that there should 

 be a conformity in the collective objects. In this respect, we scarcely know, in 

 Switzerland, other antiquities than those of Tiefenau and Wylerfeld, which axe 

 identical with those of the Tene. On the other hand, the tombs too often con- 

 tain objects unknown to our palafittes to make it prudent to refer them at present 

 to the same epoch. The same doubts exist for us in regard to the great tmnuli, 

 (Cairns or Erdberger.) In return, a part of the anns found in the trenches of 

 Alise-Saiute-Reine present, as we have seen above, too striking a resemblance 

 to those of the Tene not to be referred to the same people, notwithstanding the 

 contrary opinion of some eminent archajologists, who choose to see therein the 

 relics of a later epoch.t 



RECAPITULATION, 



The age of iron, as it appears in our palafittes, is chara 

 following features : 1. The appearance of iron and its geuer 



palafittes, is characterized by the 

 iron and its general use for arms. 



* The new station jnst discovered at Untenihldingen, on Lake Constance, and which is 

 formed of some 10,000 piles, contains objects in iron, (knives, lancc-points, clasps, rings,) 

 together with others in bronze and stone. This station will, perhaps, throw new light on 

 the transition of one of these ages to another, and especially that of the age of bronze to the 

 age of iron. 



t J. Quicherat, Exavwi des armcs trouvcs a Alise'Sainte-Reine, 



