PILE-WORK ANTIQUITIES OF OLMUTZ. 



TRANSLATED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION FROM THE VIENNA "WANDERER,' 



JANUARY, 1865. 



In the course of last summer there were fouiid, as is generally known, in the 

 precincts of the city of Olmutz a variety of articles aud implements of bone, 

 stone and bronze, mingled with animal aud human relics, under conditions which 

 had till then not been observed elsewhere than in Switzerland and Denmark. 

 The discovery was at once made public and excited great aud general interest 

 throughout Germany. Although, from the first, it was impossible to doubt that 

 these remains belonged not to the middle ages, but to a preceding era, it could 

 not but be felt that an opportunity was thus afforded of throwing great light 

 upon the subject of these and similar antiquities by a detailed comparison of the dis- 

 coveries made on the banks of the March with the remains of the stone and bronze 

 ages of Switzerland. And to whom could this inquiry be referred with so much 

 justice as to the highest authorities in this field of science, the widely known ex- 

 plorers of the historical antiquities of the country just named — a Keller, a Riiti- 

 meyer, a Vogt, and others 1 From Zurich and Basle was first difi'used a light 

 over the primeval Celtish epoch of middle Europe, with the modes of life and 

 industrial pursuits of its oldest postdiluvian inhabitants. In Zurich and Basle 

 alone were to be found the materials for a comparison and identification of the 

 various objects of primitive art as well as the animal remains of those remarka- 

 ble colonies of the earlier human races. Hence, in Switzerland only could the 

 importance of the Olmutz discoveries be rightly decided. To the proposal for 

 a thorough and careful comparison of these with the bog and pile antic[uities of 

 Switzerland the readiest assent was yielded by the savants of the latter coun- 

 try, and the most liberal and zealous assistance Avas rendered for that purpose, 

 above all, by Dr. Ferdinand Keller, president of the Antiquarian Society of 

 Zurich, the first discoverer of the pile constructions, and by Professors Oswald 

 Heer, of Zurich, L. Riitimeyer, of Basle, Karl Vogt, of Genf, and E. Desor, of 

 Neuenberg. To these, therefore, are due the warmest thanks of all the friends 

 of archaiology and natural science. 



It will of course be readily conceived that but a small proportion of the ob- 

 jects as yet discovered could be submitted to the inspection of the above-named 

 savants, while much remains to be brought to light by future explorations ; but 

 thus much may even now with certainty be said : the pre-historical antiquities 

 of Olmutz correspond for the most part in the most exact manner with the indus- 

 trial and animal remains of the pile-settlements of Switzerland. To show this, 

 we may be allowed to communicate a few facts derived from the statements of 

 the Swiss authorities. 



A portion of the Olmutz collection pertains to the age of stone. Dr. Keller 

 recognized, first, a stone knife ; second, a hatchet of bone, precisely like those 

 Avhich occur in the Swiss sites, and which must have been prepared from the 

 bones of some large animal, perhaps the ure-ox ; a fragment of deer's horn, sev- 

 ered with a stone hatchet from the trunk ; fourth, a metacarpus of the Equus 

 caballus, polished on the anterior side and perfectly similar in this respect to 

 Several specimens from Moosscedorf, which antiquarians agree in considering as 

 a kind of skates. (Statement of Professor Riitimeyer, of Basle.) 



