OCTOBER 27, 1899.] 
The number and kind of these imple- 
ments, their methods of burial or deposit, 
with the associated objects, enabled the 
archeologist to assign to them a chrono- 
logical sequence ; first in epochs of culture, 
and second in improvement made within 
these groups. 
These epochs of culture divided them- 
selves according to the material employed 
for cutting implements, into the ages of 
stone, bronze and iron. This was the first 
step in the establishment of the new science 
of Prehistoric Anthropology. The Royal 
Danish Museum of Antiquities was estab- 
lished in 1816, now occupying the Princes- 
sen Palace at Copenhagen. It was to be 
the home of the archeological collections 
of the Kingdom, and here Mr. Thomson 
with the aid of Professors Forschhammer 
and Steenstrup, classified, arranged and 
displayed the objects found, and here the 
new science was born. 
Lake Dwellings. 
In 1853 and 1854 the waters of the Swiss 
Lakes were from natural causes reduced to 
a low stage, and Dr. Ferdinand Keller em- 
ployed the opportunity to investigate cer- 
tain peculiarities which, reported to him by 
the fishermen and builders on the water’s 
edge, had excited his curiosity. One of 
these was that certain localities, with a 
sloping shore apparently well suited for 
drawing the seine, were rendered useless 
for this kind of fishing because of obstruc- 
tions believed to be decayed stumps of a sub- 
merged forest covering the bottom, catching 
the lead-line which had to be lifted, the 
lifting of which allowed the fish to escape. 
It appeared that excavations had been 
made during a period of comparatively low 
water, in the year 1829, as for a building, 
wherein the piles and other objects of great 
antiquity, believed to have been Roman, 
had been found. Being thus satisfactorily 
accounted for, their discoverers gave them 
SCIENCE. 
587 
no further heed, and the objects were not 
brought to the attention nor submitted to 
the inspection of any antiquarian. Dr. 
Keller’s first surprise was at the number of 
these stumps, the similarity of their ap- 
pearance, and the regularity with which 
they had grown. His surprise was in- 
creased when, on lifting one out from its 
bed, it was found not to be a stump, but a 
sharpened and pointed pile-bearing evidence 
of human workmanship, which had been 
driven into the ground. A cursory exami- 
nation showed this to be the condition of 
all. This was evidence ofa previous human 
occupation ; and as the late discovery in 
Denmark began to have its effect upon the 
mind of Keller, it became apparent that 
these were the evidences of a human occu- 
pation of the Swiss Lakes at some prehis- 
toric period. This ripened into a certainty 
when it was discovered that like conditions 
existed in other places, not only in Lake 
Zurich, but in divers other of the lakes. 
Reports of these from both Switzerland and 
Denmark, spread over western Europe and 
naturally excited the interest and curiosity 
of many thinking men, especially those of 
France and England. The objects them- 
selves were passed about, and descriptions 
of them with illustrations were brought 
under the eyes of the people of these 
countries, who turned their attention to 
similar known objects of their own countries 
theretofore unrecognized. Like the dis- 
coveries in Denmark and Switzerland, the 
great interest centered in the similarity of 
the respective implements in the various 
classes found in these widely-separated 
countries. If I recur to this question of 
the similarity of implements found in dif- 
ferent countries, it is because of its im- 
portance. It formed the foundation of the 
science. It was by reason of this similarity 
that the Scandinavian discoverers and 
early students were able to determine the 
prehistoric ages. By comparison of imple- 
