CHAP. II. ANCIENT SWISS LAKE-DWELLINGS. 17 



cording to the estimate of Steenstrup and other good authori- 

 ties, have amounted to at least 4000 years; and there is nothing 

 in the observed rate of the growth of peat opposed to the 

 conclusion that the number of centuries may not have been four 

 times as great, even though the signs of man's existence have 

 not yet been traced down to the lowest or amorphous stratum. 

 As to the "shell-mounds," they correspond in date to the 

 older poi'tion of the peaty record, or to the earliest part of the 

 age of stone as known in Denmark. 



Ancient Swiss Lake-Dwellings, built on Piles. 



In the shallow parts of many Swiss lakes, where there is 

 a depth of no more than from five to fifteen feet of water, 

 ancient wooden piles are observed at the bottom, sometimes 

 worn down to the surface of the mud, sometimes projecting 

 slightly above it. These have evidently once supported 

 villages, nearly all of them of unknown date, but the most 

 ancient of which certainly belonged to the age of stone, for 

 hundreds of implements resembling those of the Danish 

 shell-mounds and peat-mosses have been dredged up from 

 the mud into which the piles were driven. 



The earliest historical account of such habitations is tliat 

 given by Herodotus of a Thracian tribe, who dwelt, in the 

 year 520 B.C., in Prasias, a small mountain-lake of Psonia, 

 now part of Modern Eoumelia.* 



Their habitations were constructed on platforms raised 

 above the lake, and resting on piles. They were connected 

 with the shore by a narrow causeway of similar foi-mation. 

 Such platforms must have been of considerable extent, for 

 the Pa^onians lived there with their fomilies and horses. 

 Their food consisted largely of the fish which the lake 

 produced in abundance. 



* Herodotus, lib. v. cap. 16. — Re-discovered by M. Deville, Nat. Hist. Rev., 

 Oct. 1802, vol. ii. p. 486. 



