630 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
ably that the art of the loom, as well as that of the spindle and nee- 
dle, was understood and successfully practiced in what has been 
poetically called by an eloquent French writer “The night of time.” 
The term “prehistoric” has, of course, only a relative meaning. 
Roughly speaking, history begins at the period in human develop- 
ment when the use of metal for tools and ornaments supersedes that 
of stone. I believe I am right in stating that antiquities of the Age 
of Stone are classed as belonging to prehistoric time. 
It is generally agreed that most of the lake dwellings of Switzer- 
land, which were discovered and eagerly investigated during the last 
century, belong to the neolithic, or later stone period. It was amongst 
the remains of one of the earliest of these villages, discovered in the 
bed of the lake at Robenhausen, that bundles of raw flax fiber, fine 
and coarse linen threads, twisted string of various sizes, and thick 
ropes, as well as netted and knitted fabrics and fragments of loom- 
woven linen cloth, sometimes rudely embellished with needlework, 
were found. There were also spindle whorls and loom weights of 
stone and earthenware, one or two fragments of wooden wheels, 
which might have formed parts of thread-twisting machines, as well 
as rude frames which were possibly the remains of simple looms. 
It is remarkable that these relics of primitive weaving were found 
in the lowest of three villages, which, during successive ages, had 
been built on piles on a common site near the margin of the lake. 
The linen shreds bear evidence of having been partially burned, and 
they were found very deeply buried in the clay which forms the bed 
of the lake. It has been supposed that this early village was de- 
stroyed by fire, and that to this accident we owe the preservation of 
the precious relics. All traces of actual textile fabrics are absent 
frem the later villages, although loom weights and spindle whorls 
are found in them all. 
This theory of accident may be true or not, but however the par- 
tially burned specimens of flaxen materials became embedded and 
preserved, they demonstrate that the people of the stone age in 
| Europe cultivated flax and hemp, prepared and spun the fibers into 
continuous thread, doubled and twisted it into various thicknesses 
for different uses, and netted, knitted, or wove it into fabrics of a sort 
which required a good deal of ingenious contrivance for their pro- 
duction. 
Keller’s work on the lake dwellers of Switzerland is illustrated with 
a large number of lithographic drawings. I have had a few of these 
photographed, as they show the construction of the textiles more 
clearly than photographs of the actual discolored fragments of cloth 
and thread would do. 
[Photographs of illustrations from Keller’s “ Lake Dwellings of 
Switzerland,” Longman, 1892, were here thrown on the screen. | 
