18 ANCIENT SWISS LAKE-DWELLINGS. CHAP. u. 



In rude and unsettled times, such insular sites afforded 

 safe retreats, all communication with the main land being cut 

 off, except by boats, or by such wooden bridges as could be 

 easily removed. 



The Swiss lake-dwellings seem first to have attracted 

 attention during the dry winter of 1853-4, when the lakes 

 and rivers sank lower than had ever been previously known, 

 and when the inhabitants of Meilen, on the Lake of Zurich, 

 resolved to raise the level of some ground and turn it into 

 land, by throwing mud upon it obtained by dredging in the 

 adjoining shallow water. During these dredging operations 

 they discovered a number of wooden piles deeply driven into 

 the bed of the lake, and among them a great many hammers, 

 axes, celts, and other instruments. All these belonged to the 

 stone period with two exceptions, namely, an armlet of thin 

 brass wire, and a small bronze hatchet. 



Fragments of rude pottery fashioned by the hand were 

 abundant, also masses of charred wood, supposed to have 

 formed parts of the platform on which the wooden cabins 

 were built. Of this burnt timber, on this and other sites, 

 subsequently explored, there was such an abundance as to 

 lead to the conclusion that most of the settlements must 

 have perished by fire. Herodotus has recorded that the 

 Paeonians, above alluded to, preserved their independence 

 during the Persian invasion, and defied the attacks of Xerxes 

 by aid of the peculiar position of their dwellings. ' But their 

 safety,' observes Mr. Wylie, * ' was probably owing to their 

 living in the middle of the lake, lv p*s<ry ry A/^VJJ, whereas the 

 ancient Swiss settlers were compelled by the rapidly increas 

 ing depth of the water near the margins of their lakes to 

 construct their habitations at a short distance from the shore, 

 within easy bowshot of the land, and therefore not out of 



* "W. M. "Wylie, M.A., Archaeology, vol. xxxvii., 1859, a valuable paper on the 

 Swiss and Irish lake-habitations. 



