CHAP. VIIL] NEOLITHIC CIVILISATION IN EUROPE. 291 



plete our ideas as to the Neolithic civilisation of 

 Britain. 



In the year 1829 1 an excavation for the sake of 

 deepening the harbour at Ober Meilen, on the lake of 

 Zurich, revealed the existence of piles and other antiqui- 

 ties, which, however, excited as little interest at the 

 time as the discoveries in Kent's Hole, which were being 

 made by Mr. MacEnery about the same date. Their 

 importance was recognised in the year 1854. From 

 that time down to the present day researches have been 

 carried on in many of the lakes of Switzerland, Italy, 

 and Austria, which have resulted in proving that a 

 large population dwelt in houses built on platforms, at 

 a short distance from the shore, in the Neolithic, Bronze, 

 and Iron Ages, and in Switzerland as late as the first 

 century after Christ. 2 In most cases the habitations 

 had been burnt, and the platforms, with what remained 

 of the huts and of the household stuff, had dropped 

 down to the bottom of the lake, and, together with the 

 refuse and the various articles lost from time to time, 

 constituted a relic bed, which places before us the 

 manners and customs of the inhabitants in most extra- 

 ordinary detail. In some cases this had happened 

 repeatedly, each conflagration being marked by its layer 

 of ashes and charred piles. 



The artificial platforms for the huts were built 

 sometimes on piles interlaced with timbers, and some- 

 times on bundles of brushwood, or fascines, occasionally 

 weighted with clay or stone, and were connected with 

 the land by a narrow causeway. They were intended 



1 Keller, Lake-dwellings, transl. by J. E. Lee, 8vo, 2cl. edit. p. 11. 



2 A coin of Claudius was found with other coins in the pile-dwelling 

 of Marin. Keller, Lake-dwellings, transl. by J. E. Lee, 2d. edit. p. 427. 



