NA TURE 



[July i, 1922 



Recent Investigations of the Lake Dwellings of Switzerland. 



By Prof. Eugene Pittard, University of Geneva. 



AS a result of the persistent drought at the begin- 

 ning of 192 1, the level of the Swiss lakes fell 

 considerably, and hitherto - unsuspected depths were 

 brought to light. This phenomenon was particularly 

 marked in the three lakes of Neuchatel, Bienne, and 

 Moratj in which important areas had already been 

 laid bare by the regulation of the waters of the Jura. 

 Long stretches of beach which, until that time, had 

 not been accessible to the inhabitants of the shore, 

 completely modified the aspect of these lakes. 



During the early months of 1921, in those districts 

 in which the men of the polished stone age had built 

 their dwellings, a large number of piles gradually 



culture of these ancient populations. We have 

 obtained, to some extent, an insight into their mode 

 of life ; we can frame hypotheses as to their race ; but 

 there are still many problems which require elucidation. 

 I will indicate here a few of these problems which 

 relate to the neolithic period. 



1. We do not yet know with certainty to which 

 ethnological group to assign the builders of the lake 

 dwellings and their successors up to the end of the 

 bronze age. It has been held, on the evidence of 

 bones recovered from among the piles, that this type 

 of habitation was invented or introduced by brachy- 

 cephals — until that time unknown in Western Europe. 





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emerged which the present generation had seen only 

 under several feet of water. It was a revocation of 

 vanished ages which appealed to the emotions. It 

 enabled the imagination to reconstruct more readily 

 a picture of those who, thousands of years ago, were 

 the authors of the greatest of social changes when they 

 introduced the cultivation of cereals, the domestication 

 of animals, and the like. From day to day more and 

 more of the substructure of these cities of the lake 

 was uncovered, and from all parts travellers came to 

 look upon this impressive spectacle, which perhaps 

 we shall never see again. 



It will be readily understood that such exceptional 

 conditions encouraged Swiss men of science to under- 

 take fresh investigations on several of the lacustrine 

 sites. 



The numerous finds which have been made since 

 1854 in all the lakes which were at one time inhabited 

 by men of the stone age and the bronze age have 

 enabled us to reconstruct, in great part, the material 



NO. 2748, VOL. I IO] 



Further, that this race held its own on the Swiss lakes 

 until the end of the neolithic age, when doliehocephals 

 begin to appear in the lake-dwelling sites, coming, 

 perhaps, from the north. (Their ethnical affinities 

 also are still to be determined. Will our hypotheses 

 stand ?) 



2. The dispositions of lake-dwelling sites, their town 

 planning, if one may use the phrase, is, in essentials, 

 unknown. Even the extent of the ground they covered 

 in many cases has not been determined exactly. 



What exactly was the topographical plan of each 

 site ? Were the sites, that is, those of the same epoch 

 and situated on the same lake, arranged on a specific 

 plan, identical throughout, or was a free rein given 

 to the fancy of the builders in each case ? In other 

 words, was there a type of lake village, and, if so, 

 what was it ? Was the lacustrine city an organic 

 whole, with the houses grouped on one frontage, or 

 was it composed of a series of small islands, and, in 

 that case, what were the dimensions and dispositions 



