LECTURE XII, 355 



bones were fashioned into arrow -headsj needles^ hooks ; how 

 the teeth were perforated to serve as ornaments. It is of par- 

 ticular interest for us to know that the pile-builders were not 

 only cattle-breeders, and had domesticated several races, but 

 became also in process of time agriculturists. The chase was, 

 no doubt, at first, the principal means of obtaining food, but 

 gradually vegetable food supplanted a purely animal diet. I 

 shall quote the remarks of Professor Hear, in every respect a 

 competent judge, on the agriculture of our pile-builders, as 

 pubhshed in Keller's report, and also Riitimeyer's investiga- 

 tions concerning the domestic animals. 



" Wheat is most common, having been found at Meilen, 

 Moosseedorf, and Wangen ; in the latter place many whole ears 

 were found, as well as heaps of grain. The grains are free 

 from husk, and of the same form and size as our present 

 wheat. Ears of the six-rowed barley (Ilordeum hexasticJwnJ , 

 differing from common barley (Hordeum viilgare, W.J by the 

 number of rows and smaller size of the grains, were numerous. 

 According to Alph. de Candolle, the six-rowed barley was the 

 species most cultivated in antiquity (by the Egyptians, Grreeks, 

 and Romans). In the ears of Wangen, the longest and best 

 preserved ear has ten to eleven grains in a row. The grains are 

 smaller, shorter, and nearer to each other than that now gi'own. 

 They are (without the husk) two-and-a-half lines long, and 

 scarcely one-and-a-half line broad, whilst that now grown has 

 grains of a length of three lines, and has almost the same 

 breadth. 



" The cereals were probably kept in large clay vessels, of 

 which many fragments are found. These buildings were pro- 

 bably destroyed by fire, so that the cereals became carbonised, 

 which conduced to their preservation in the wet mud. All the 

 cereals of that remote period are in a carbonised state, and, 

 when cleaned from the mud, present a shining black colour. 

 We thus perceive that the above cereals have been cultivated 

 in our country much earlier than has been generally supposed. 

 It is, moreover, known how the cereals were prepared for 

 alimentation. As these peoples had no mills, they used round 

 smoothed stones, between which the corn was crushed, hence 



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