SINKERS. 61 



/ 



It belongs to the large scries of objects derived from the important Nidau- 

 Steinberg settlement in the Lake of Bienne. " Many objects of stone, bone, and 

 pottery which have been obtained there, and which mark the commencement of 

 the civilization of man in our districts, show that it was a settlement in the 

 earliest period ; but its existence was prolonged up to the time when bronze was 

 commonly employed for implements ; nay, it even outlasted this period, and 

 reached that when iron came into use." :;: The clay cones are thus described : 

 " The things which commonly go by these names sink-stones (sic) or weights- 

 are about four and a half inches high, of a conical form, and are about four or 

 four and a half in diameter at the base ; they were made without any care and 

 of common clay. The fact that they are perforated towards the point of the cone 

 and that they were found at a fishing-station, seems to argue for the correctness 

 of the common designation ; but subsequent investigations have proved that 

 many at least of these clay cones were simply weights used in weaving."f This 

 theory was first advanced by Mr. Paur, a ribbon-manufacturer of Zurich, who 

 constructed a weaving-apparatus by which he made the various kinds of linen 

 cloth found in the lake-settlements. "And, as a further proof, he showed from 

 indubitable evidence that the clay cones are to be considered as constituent parts 

 of the looms of the lake-dwellings. If further proof were wanting, it may be 

 given in the fact that in several rooms lately excavated by Mr. Messikoinmer at 

 Robenhausen, at least half a dozen of these clay cones were found in each, so 

 that weaving must have been carried on there to a great extent."J 



This sounds very plausible, but it does not carry conviction with it. Mr. 

 Paur's reconstructed loom, which, by the way, bears a striking resemblance to 

 one in the Archaeological Museum at Copenhagen, || is by no means an absolutely 

 simple contrivance, but rather complicated when compared with the simple 

 looms of modern Indians of the West, who produce textile fabrics certainly as 

 good as those of the Swiss lake-men. The Pima Indians on the Gila River, for 

 instance, make very creditable and really ornamental tissues, employing a loom 

 that consists only of a few sticks, which they carry about in a small bundle.^ 

 The loom of the ancient Mexicans,** was far less complicated than that constructed 

 by Mr. Paur, and yet the inhabitants wove cotton cloth which excited the 

 admiration of the Spanish conquerors. A number of such primitive Indian 



* Keller : Lake Dwellings ; Vol. I, p. 139. 

 f Ibid. ; Vol. I, p. 151. 

 Jlbid. ; Vol. I, p. 514. 

 Ibid. ; Vol. I, p. 516, Fig. 40. 



|| This medieval loom, obtained from one of the Faroe Islands, is figured iu Worsaac's " Nordiske Oldsugcr 

 i dot Kongelige Museum i Kjobenhavn;" Copenhagen, 1859; p. 159, Fig. 558. 



f Emory : Notes of a Military Keconnoissance, etc. ; Washington, 1848 ; p. 85. 

 ** Represented in the Mendoza Codex. 



