NEOLITHIC, BRONZE, AND IRON AGES. 373 



rant of the potter's wheel, the lake-dwellers were yet not unskilled 

 in the manipulation of clay. Of stone implements there is like- 

 wise a great abundance, but flints are not nearly so numerous 

 as in the Neolithic " finds " of Western Europe. For their celts 

 and chisels they selected many different kinds of stone, a pre- 

 ference being of course given to those which combined toughness 

 with hardness. That they did not employ flint more commonly 

 is explained by the circumstance that this variety of stone is 

 met with only very sparingly in Switzerland. Implements of 

 horn, bone, and wood, were also in common use. But the con- 

 trast between Neolithic and Palaeolithic times is still further 

 emphasised by the fact that the lake-dwellers were accompanied 

 by domesticated animals — by sheep, goat, ox, horse, pig, and 

 dog, and some of these were accommodated in stalls adjoining 

 the huts occupied by their owners. In the heaps of refuse 

 which accumulated on the bottom of the lakes underneath and 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the platforms, are found 

 many remains of wild mammals, birds, fishes, and reptiles, from 

 which we learn that the lake-dwellers snared and hunted such 

 animals as fox, marten, polecat, wolf, wild-cat, beaver, elk, urus, 

 bison, stag, roedeer, and boar. Amongst the birds are the golden 

 eagle, falcons, owls, starling, crows, pigeon, grouse, stork, heron, 

 crane, coot, gulls, swan, goose, ducks, etc., the water-birds, as 

 might have been expected, predominating. The amphibians and 

 fish were all of common indigenous species, such as frogs, perch, 

 bleak, pike, etc. Not a trace of any of the characteristic Pleis- 

 tocene mammalia appears, even the reindeer seems to have 

 been unknown, although it occurs in postglacial and Neolithic 

 accumulations in Britain. 



Professor Heer has shown that some of the plants culti- 

 vated by the lake-dwellers are not indigenous, but must have 

 been introduced. Such are the Egyptian wheat (Triticum 

 turgidum) and the six-rowed barley (Hordewm hexastichori). 

 Along with these there is found a South European weed (Silene 

 cretica), which was doubtless introduced accidentally at the same 

 time. This, taken in connection with the fact that the swine, 



