rAlI, I'.KitCA. 1 17 



ilrivi'ii into tlir water on [\iv ed^csot" the lakes. 'I'licy coni- 

 nuinicateil with \\\o hind hy one or more hridixes, and there 

 is no doiiht that iK'I'enee auainsf Aviid animals as well as 

 hnnian enemies was the motive lor this method of ereetin^' 

 habitations. The tlehris of the ln»usehold neces.saril}' fell 

 into the water, toy,ether with tools, weapons and ornaments, 

 and thousands of sm-h artieles have been recovered from the 

 soil of the lakes around these idles, to<^ether with the bones 

 of animals which had served for food. The larger number 

 of these pile-works were erected during the stone age, before 

 the use of metal was known to man ; but in Western 

 Switzerland the remains belong to the bronze age, vast 

 numbers of bronze imi)lenu'nts and ornajnents having been 

 recovered from them. From one settlement alone 500 

 bronze hair-pins, such as peasant women adorn their hair 

 with, were obtained. Troyon has made an estimate of the 

 poi>ulation of tliese lake-dwellings; his figures are 32,000 

 for the stone age^ and 42,000 for the bronze period. The 

 addition to our knowledge of pre-historic man obtained 

 from these Pfahlbauten has been of incalculable value. 



Accident, in like manner, drew attention to the real im- 

 port of certain shell-heaps in Denmark. They had been 

 regarded as raised beaches, the results of upheaval ; but 

 with such an origin the shell-tish must necessarily have been 

 of kinds which would live together. They would be of all 

 sizes, and would be mi.xed with sand and gravel. In the 

 •shell-heai»s — now known as kitchen-middens, from the 

 Danish Ki<')kkenmodding, kitchen-refuse heaps — the shells 

 are nearly all of full-grown individuals, and ot' kinds which 

 do not live together, and no .sand or gravel was found in 

 them. Flint implements and bones of animals, binls and 

 tishes abound in them, and it became evident that these 

 shell-heaps had been sites of villages of neolithic man, and 

 that the shells and other remains had accunudated in con- 

 sequence. Results as interesting as those obtained from the 

 exploration of the lake-dwellings followed, and the museums 

 of Copenhagen are rich with the spoils of the kitchen-mid- 

 dens. Similar shell-heaps have been found in almost all 

 countries. 



