Reviews—Desor on Lake-habitations. 27 
The white coral, found at Concise, and the bit of amber from 
Meilen, may have, in reality, belonged, he thinks, to the Age of 
Bronze. 
Turning now to this later period, Professor Desor remarks that 
the lake-villages are generally situated at a greater distance from 
the shore, and, consequently, in deeper water. ‘The piles are thinner, 
and are often of split wood; they project above the mud to a height 
of from one to two feet. The pottery of this age, though prepared 
in the same manner as that of the preceding period, is less coarse, 
and the forms are more elegant. The most characteristic objects of 
the lake-villages of the Bronze Age are, however, personal orna- 
ments; such as earrings, amulets, bracelets, hair-pins, &c. These 
are often in a beautiful state of preservation, and were appa- 
rently quite new when dropped into the water. Professor Desor 
is disposed, from this circumstance, to think that the pile-buildings 
were magazines, rather than dwellings. Whether this was the case 
or not, it is certain that some, at least, of the dwellings in the Bronze 
Age were situated on dry land. One of these has been found at 
Ebersberg, in the canton of Ziirich. In addition to the evidence of 
an extensive commerce, afforded by the bronze itself, Professor Desor 
refers, as a proof of the high civilization existing at that period, to 
the amber beads, which must have come from the Baltic, to a bead 
of blue glass, found at Auvernier, and to the general elegance of the 
above-mentioned personal ornaments. 
The only lake-village of the Iron Period yet known, is that of the 
Tene. The piles resemble those of the Bronze Age stations ; but 
the objects found among them are entirely different. Iron swords, 
differing in form, as well as in material, from those of the preced- 
ing period,—pottery resembling that which we call Roman, but re- 
ferred by Professor Desor rather to the Etruscans, and coins, for the 
first time make their appearance. The ornaments are less numerous, 
and of a different character. There are no rings, no earrings, and 
but a single hair-pin, which is of bronze, and may after all belong to 
that period. Moreover, the objects of bronze are hammered, and not 
cast, as is invariably the case with those which truly belong to the 
Bronze Age. The coins belong to the true Gaulish type: they have 
a man’s head on the one side, and a horned horse on the other. 
Neither the coins, however, nor the other objects found at the Tene, 
show the slightest trace of Roman workmanship. 
In conclusion, Professor Desor has a chapter on the antiquity of 
these lake-remains, which he refers, as we think, correctly, to a 
period anterior to the rise of Roman power. He mentions, with 
just praise, Professor Nilsson’s able work on the Bronze Age, 
agreeing with him in the opinion, that traces of the Pheenicians 
are to be found as far north as the shores of Norway. Professor 
Desor, however, rightly concludes that the facts do not, as yet, war- 
rant any more decided inference, and that they clearly indicate that 
the Pheenician commerce in the North belongs rather to the Age of 
Iron than to that of Bronze. 
