473 
REVIEWS. 
PRE-HISTORIO PILE-HOUSES.* 
W HO lias not heard ere this of the German pfahlbauten, the Irish 
crannoges, and the English hut-circles ? Of late years the antiquary 
and the geologist have joined hands in the labour of investigating primitive 
man, and hence a wide field of study has opened up which was undreamt of 
before. The researches of Dr. Keller and of Professor Desor on the Continent, 
of Sir John Lubbock in England, and of Sir W. Wilde and Mr. G. Henry 
Kinahan in Ireland, have been fertile in valuable results. Indeed, it is not too 
much to say that a more accurate knowledge of the habits of primitive man has 
been acquired during the past five years, than we ever possessed. It is now 
pretty well known that the hut-circles, crannoges, and lake-dwellings of Switzer- 
land were inhabited by races whose habits of life were all but identical. Some 
archaeologists have been induced to believe that all these pre-historic remains 
indicate one and the same chronological period, but there are no logical 
grounds for such a theory. Looking at them from a civilization stand-point, 
there can be little doubt but that the pile-dwellings of all nations represent the 
same stage of advance in intelligence of their constructors ; but there is 
abundant evidence to show that in point of time they represent very different 
epochs. This is only what is to be supposed a priori. Even at the present 
day we find among the aborigines of certain countries, habits and customs 
which correspond closely with the early lake settlers on the one hand, and 
■with the men of the so-called “ Stone-age ” on the other. Dr. Livingstone, in 
his book on the “ Zambesi,” describes some of the races he met with as grind- 
ing their corn in rude quarns of sandstone like those found in the remains of 
the Swiss lake-dwellings. We believe, too, that in some of the islands of the 
Polynesian Archipelago houses constructed of piles and cane-work are to be 
found in the lakes and marshes ; and it has been shown that the Australian 
and other savages split the bones of animals in order to extract the marrow, 
just as the people of the Stone-age in Europe must have done in ages long gone 
by. All these facts, then, go against the supposition that the remnantory 
dwellings which the labours of so many antiquarians have brought to light, 
belonged to one and the same period of time. 
But though we have hardly any clue to the relative ages of the several 
* “ The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland and other Parts of Europe.” By 
Dr. Ferdinand Keller, President of the Antiquarian Association of Zurich. 
Translated by John Edward Lee, F.S.A., F.G.S. London : Longmans & Co. 
1866. 
