OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 407 



prevails between these two series. Anns, utensils, objects of luxury, all are 

 different ; on one side, in the series of iron, the stamp of a people active, ener- 

 getic, looking to practical results ; on the other, the care of details, the love of 

 display, but nothing which announces vigor, sustained action, progress. In- 

 quirers have been thus led to think that the question here related to two different 

 races — the one large and vigorous ; the other small and feeble — which would 

 seem to be further corroborated by the difference of size indicated by the arms 

 and skeletons of the two ages. The tribes of the age of iron would appear to 

 have arrived as conquerors, bearing with them new elements of the highest im- 

 portance, among which were iron, bronze of easy purchase, and coined money. 



But if, with us, there is a contrast between the antiquities of the age of bronze 

 and those of iron, the case is not the same elsewhere. Thus, the tombs of Hall- 

 Btadt, in Austria, seem to indicate an epoch of transition between the age of 

 bronze and that of iron. Numbers of utensils which, with us, are characteristic 

 of the age of bronze, are found here to be replaced by iron, among others the 

 celts or axes with four pinions. Other objects bear designs which remind us of 

 those found in the Etruscan sepulchres. The tombs of Hallstadt would hence 

 seem to form a sort of transition between the age of iron and the age of bronze. 

 It is not without reason, therefore, that M. Morlot discerns here a given point, a 

 chronological horizon, to which recourse may be had for determining the relative 

 age of certain isolated objects found in Germany, France, Switzerland, and even 

 in Italy and the north of Europe. [Materiaux, January, 1866, p. 235.) 



We are thus led to infer that iron was probably introduced from Italy to the 

 northern slope of the Alps by the Tyrol. It was at a later period that the Hel- 

 vetians, after having been completely familiarized with its uses and returning 

 from Germany, carried it into Switzerland.* This invasion would not necessa- 

 rily have involved the annihilation of the tribes of the age of bronze. It is pos- 

 sible, even probable, that these last continued to subsist by the side of the con- 

 querors ; for, as M. Troyon has shown, there are still found in the age of iron, 

 bracelets of too small an opening to have passed over large hands, or too massive 

 to have been closed upon the arm. 



Nothing indicates that the Helvetians had crossed the Alps, but the relations 

 which had existed from the age of bronze, and perhaps of stone, between the 

 two slopes of the chain, did not on that account cease. We find in Switzerland, 

 as well as in France, in Germany, and as far as the north of Europe, associated 

 with arms of iron, objects in bronze of exact workmanship, much superior to all 

 which has been furnished us by the palafittes of the age of bronze. The orna- 

 ments are no longer simply lines arbitrary and stereotyped ; they are imitations 

 of nature, figures of animals artistically engraved. Such, among others, is the 

 bronze of Graechwyl, described by M. Jahut and preserved in the Museum of 

 Antiquities of Berne. It is impossible here to mistake the oriental type, ( Assyr- 

 lian or Etruscan,) which is corroborated by the chemical analysis made by M. 

 R. de Fellenberg, and which indicates a considerable proportion of lead. Now 

 this metal, as has been seen above, is a stranger to the age of bronze fof the 

 palafittes. 



The Helvetians do not appear to have participated in the lacustrian construc- 

 tions. We know, on the contrary, from the testimony of Csesar, that they lived 

 in villages which they burned when they emigrated into the Gauls. If these 

 villages had been constructed on the water, it can scarcely be believed that the 

 Romans would have passed in silence by such a peculiarity. The palafitte of 

 the Teue, near Marin, is but the more interesting as an exception to the rule. 



*According to M. Keller, the introduction of iron took place on the arrival of the Helve- 

 tians, who came not as conquerors, but merely reoccupied their ancient dwelling-places 

 after being chased by the Germans from the countries of the Rhine and the Maine. 



\Etruskische Alterthilmer gefunden in der Schweiz, in the Mitthelhungen der antiq. GesellS' 

 chaft, Zurich, t. VIII. See, adso, Morlot, Etudes Geologico-archcBologiques, p. 314. 



