BALDEGGERSEE. (B. 253 and 336.)
In the year 1871 the proprietors of the land around this lake reduced its level by drainage some 2½ to 3 feet, in consequence of which indications of lake-dwellings became visible in the vicinity of the outlet. The piles were irregularly placed along the shore, and spread over a wide range. In one place the area attained a breadth of 400 or 500 feet, and again it contracted and the piles only appeared in groups. In making excavations, the tops of piles became more numerous, and at a depth of 7 feet, beds of charcoal, containing nutshells and bits of pottery, were encountered.
Professor Amrein, who conducted the investigations, could distinguish two kinds of piles, some older than others. Horizontal beams were seldom met with. There was no regular relic-bed, as worked implements were found at all depths, from 1 to 8 feet. Some beautiful specimens of bone pointers and serpentine chisels ([Fig. 16], Nos. 4 and 5) were turned up from a depth of 8 to 10 feet. Beds of clay were occasionally met with, and the piles appeared to have been arranged so as to enclose square huts. In one of the trenches some stone celts were lying on a bed of clay at a depth of 6 or 7 feet. One of these was of a grass-green colour with a transparent edge, and so hard that it could scratch glass. In an adjacent digging, at a depth of 4 feet, a large flat stone, 2 by 1½ feet, was found resting on the tops of six or seven piles, which penetrated through the bed of clay to the shell marl. The space between these supporting piles was filled with clay, and around the stone itself there were scattered bits of charcoal, fragments of pottery, hazel-nuts, etc.
Professor Amrein concludes his report by stating his opinion that this settlement was at its commencement a palatitte, and that subsequently fascine structures were constructed over its ruins.
The relics collected are partly in the Archæological Museum and partly in a small curiosity booth in the Gletscher Garten at Lucerne. Among those in the museum are beautifully-formed daggers and chisels of bone and horn (No. 6); four large harpoons (No. 7) and a scoop of horn; two horn hammers (perforated), and three small cups of the same material (No. 12); horn handles, etc.; rubbers, polishers, and celts of stone in large numbers; two flat pebbles (perforated); and some fragments of stone hammer-axes, one showing an effort to re-bore it (No. 3); several bits of rock crystal and flints worked into saws, scrapers, and arrow-points; fragments of pottery with knobs, and others ornamented with groups of triangular lines, dots, etc., the forms of which are extremely elegant (Nos. 9, 10, 11).