EGELSEE, NEAR FRAUENFIELD.
Niederwyl.—The settlement of Niederwyl was situated in a small basin covering only about 60 acres, which, though now entirely overgrown with peat, must have been formerly a lake, as its ancient name Egelsee implies. Immediately to the south there is an open valley, from which it is separated by a narrow ridge of land, through which its proprietors made a deep excavation for its better drainage, thereby facilitating the removal of the peat. While the peasants were thus occupied, they came upon a portion of the basin near its centre, where the peat began to thin out; and as they advanced, it turned out that there was something like a mound entirely submerged in the peat, and composed of clay, wooden beams, stones, charcoal, and all sorts of rubbish. On the centre of this mound the depth of peat was only 2 or 3 feet, while all around it amounted to 8 or 10 feet. This curious elevation was simply passed over by the workmen after removing its covering of peat; and so it remained exposed, till one day the Reverend Mr. Pupikofer happened to pass along the moor, when he recognised its archæological importance. This was in 1862, and immediately the Historical Society of Thurgau arranged to have the matter investigated; and Mr. Jacob Messikommer, whose experience of the lake-dwelling at Robenhausen had made him an authority on such matters, was asked to conduct the necessary researches. Upon making sections through the exposed part of this mound, he found an artificial sub-structure of faggot-sticks, laid transversely, and mixed with upright piles which penetrated to the original lake-bottom. It was fortunate, however, that the whole of the mound had not been bared of peat, and Messikommer wisely selected an undisturbed portion for his subsequent excavations. The following quotation from his report will convey a better idea of these structures than any abstract I could make:—
"When I began the excavation with a few workmen on the 18th of June, I was surprised to find, under a pavement of clay and gravel, from 2 to 4 inches thick, and from the top of which 3 feet of peat had been removed, a structure of faggot-sticks, regularly laid and perfectly solid; and as the wood was exceedingly soft, we had to use every care in uncovering as large a portion of it as we could. We first bared a space, which was in perfect condition, 20 feet long, 6 feet wide at the ends, and 10 feet wide in the middle. The upper platform was of split timber or boards of oak, laid down with great care, and it rested on round timber, or faggot-sticks, from 3 to 4 inches in diameter, which were surrounded with piles. The back part of the space was covered with charcoal, and was somewhat charred; there were also found tolerably large stones (hearth-stones) in their original position. A most striking fact was that the lowest part of the side wall was still standing; it consisted of a kind of shutter pushed in between the upright piles surrounding the space. On this I had other portions uncovered, and everywhere met with the same construction, only differing in having the platform or floor made of faggot-sticks instead of boards. Here and there the floor had sunk considerably, often one or one inch and a half in six inches.
"This place was then left to be examined by the members of the associations of Thurgau and Zürich, and excavations were made in another place to examine the sub-structure. The result proved no less interesting; for 1 foot deep, under the first platform, we came upon a second; a foot deeper we found a third; then a fourth, and so on; so that the arrangement is similar to that of Wauwyl. The huts were placed on masses of wood, consisting of five or six platforms, one above the other, the spaces between which were filled in with brushwood and branches of trees, chiefly alder, rushes, gravel, and clay. We were surprised to meet with bones, cones of earthenware, and a great wooden mallet between the platforms; we also found woven cloth under the fifth platform, and charcoal close to the bed of the lake. From this I conclude that the platforms were not made at the same time, but at intervals, one after the other; or that they had been repaired, a portion at a time, as we found single charred stems under fresh wood." (B. 119, 2nd ed., p. 77.)
In another section Messikommer observed a slight variation in the fascine structures above described, which he thus explains: "What I have called the lattice or trellis work consisted of thin stems of trees, which were not laid close together, but at intervals of from one to two inches apart; the uppermost stems rested on others lying under them at right angles, and these again on others parallel with those on the upper layer. The spaces between the timbers were filled in with charcoal and burnt clay."
Each structure seemed to have been adapted for one cottage, as between them there were narrow spaces which had got filled up with débris, and contained relics such as broken stone hatchets, carbonised cloth and fruits, etc.
"We cannot imagine," continues Messikommer, "that this settlement was destroyed by fire, for although we occasionally met with burnt beams, not a single trace of conflagration was to be seen in the upright piles, which projected as much as 2½ feet above the floor—nay, even in most of them the bark was still in good preservation.
"The products of the potters art were in general very coarse, and yet we found a few fragments which had been ornamented, and also parts of the rims of vessels made with washed or purified clay, and without quartz grains. Fragments of vessels also were found neatly polished, blackened, and with handles of a convenient form. No smaller implements were met with, such as pins, little chisels, etc. It is very singular that so few bones were found; the cow, stag, and the pig were the only animals the remains of which were discovered here.
"At the bottom of some broken earthenware vessels there still remained grains of wheat and barley and hazel-nuts. Doubtless all the food, whether animal or vegetable, was kept in large or small vessels of earthenware."
Subsequently, on two occasions, Messikommer was asked by archæological societies to give a practical exposition of this interesting Packwerkbau for the edification of their members—once in 1872, when the meeting of the Swiss Natural History Society was held at Frauenfield; and again in 1877, when the German Anthropological Association met at Constance. (B. 406c.)
On all these occasions Messikommer paid particular attention to the size and kind of cottages the lake-dwellers possessed. In 1862, from the stumps of piles protruding through a portion of undisturbed flooring, he estimated the size of the habitable area for each cottage at 24 feet long by 18 feet broad. On these floorings were seen the remains of food and industry, just as fresh as if the people had recently left the place. ("Die Mühle mit Gerste und Weizen daneben, als wäre sie erst gestern noch bewohnt gewesen.") He believes that each cottage possessed not only its own domestic utensils but also its weaving and corn-grinding machines, etc.
The area occupied by the entire settlement was 20,000 square feet, and the nearest shore, when the basin was a lake, would be 30 or 40 yards distant.
The industrial remains collected from time to time at Niederwyl consist of:—Wheat, barley, flax, cakes of bread, wooden implements, clay weights ([Fig. 26], No. 3), stone hatchets (Nos. 7 and 8), flint saws (No. 1) and scrapers; some well-made dishes (Nos. 4, 5 and 6), one a remarkable jug (No. 6) with handle; another, of black earthenware, had been mended with asphalt. A strip of birch-bark (now in the Museum at Zürich) had been neatly sewn (No. 10). In the same Museum there is a stone (perforated) axe-hammer head which vies in elegance of workmanship with any from Scandinavia (No. 9).
Recently Messikommer has come to the conclusion that the Packwerkbau at Niederwyl existed during the early Bronze Age, as he found a piece of oak wood having cuts which could not have been made by a stone implement. From various considerations of the more recent facts brought to light in the course of his frequent excavations here and at Robenhausen he enunciates the opinion that wherever split oak beams or piles are found we may with certainty conclude that the settlement belongs to the early metal age. ("Man darf mit Bestimmtheit annehmen, dass alle jene Niederlassungen, in welchen gespaltenes Eichenholz in grösserer Menge zum Vorschein kommt, auch das Metall in einfacher [Kupfer] oder zusammengesetzter Form [Bronze] gekannt haben.") (B. 454c, p. 2.)
Fig. 26.—Niederwyl. Nos. 5 to 7 = 1⁄6, 10 = 2⁄3, and the rest = 1⁄3 real size.
Second Station.—Adjacent to the Egelsee basin, and separated from it only by about a dozen paces, is another small peat-basin known as the Riedsee, in which were recently found the remains of a true pile-dwelling. Here for some time fragments of pottery, stone hatchets, horns and bones of various animals, were met with in the peat; but in August, 1884, Messikommer discovered the actual piles associated with the usual objects of a Stone Age dwelling. The area of this Pfahlbau was small, measuring only 13 yards by 10. Its site lay near the margin of the peat, and the antiquities were met with 1 foot under the surface. Among these were a small earthenware dish or cover ornamented with four prominences and a few rows of punctured dots (No. 2), several wooden dishes in all stages of manufacture, entire handles of stone hatchets, worked horn, etc. A crucible similar to those from Robenhausen was also found near the same place.
Among the osseous remains are portions of a skull of the urus with both horn-cores attached. The other animals represented are the bison, stag, ox, pig, goat, etc. (B. 420d.)