General Remarks on the Lake-Dwellings of North Germany.
Professor Virchow, as early as 1869, published an excellent thesis on the lake-dwellings of North Germany (B. 165), in which he maintained that all of them, with perhaps one or two exceptions, belonged to a much more recent period than those of Switzerland and South Germany. This opinion he founded on the following considerations:—
(1) Though many objects of stone and bronze were found on the former, yet in almost every case they were associated with others of a more recent type, including iron implements, etc.
(2) The food refuse contained most commonly the bones of the ordinary domestic animals, those of wild animals, such as reindeer, wild boar, stag, wild goat, and beaver, being but rarely met with.
(3) Many of the lake-dwellings were synchronous with the Burgwälle, a fact which was conclusively proved by their possessing the characteristic pottery of the latter, as was notably the case in the Persanzig lake-dwelling. Moreover, Virchow showed that some of the Burgwälle had direct communication with adjacent lake-dwellings, as in the Dabersee, Soldinersee, and Kloppsee.
Referring to this subject at a later date (1877), at the eighth Congress of the German Anthropological Society (B. 306), Virchow, while reviewing the further discoveries of lake-dwellings in North Germany, maintained the general correctness of his previous conclusions. These northern Pfahlbauten, according to him, were due to the immigration into the country of the Slavish people, and bear the same relation to the Burgwälle that the pile-dwellings in Italy do to the terremare. "Ich denke," says he, "wir werden uns entschliessen müssen, ganz im Gegensatze zu den süddeutschschweizerischen Pfahlbauten, die Einführung der nördlichen Pfahlbauten an die Einwanderung des Slavo-lettischen Stammes anzuknüpfen."
Virchow's opinion is not, however, universally accepted, as many of the local archæologists maintain that there are several lake-dwellings which have yielded relics that can only be explained on the supposition that they were founded during the earlier prehistoric ages. The chief examples relied on in support of their contention are those at Wismar, Spandau, Czeszewo, Objezierze, and Aryssee.
After carefully examining the relics from all these stations I must admit that much could be written on both sides of this controversy. Notwithstanding the number of typical objects of the Stone Age from Wismar and Gägelow, Dr. Lisch records that along with them were portions of querns. Now, querns are never found among the remains of the Swiss lake-dwellings, nor am I aware of their existence in any prehistoric remains in northern or western Europe prior to Roman times. The station at Spandau, if it be considered a true Pfahlbau, was undoubtedly of the Bronze Age. Czeszewo and Objezierze have yielded a considerable quantity of Stone Age relics, with scarcely any of the succeeding ages. Only one bronze object is said to have been found on the former, and from the latter there is in the Museum of Posen a bronze torque ([Fig. 98], No. 9), which was found at a little distance from the lake-dwelling. As regards the Aryssee and its neighbouring lakes of Czarni and Tulewo, with their respective lake-dwellings, all of which are of the Packwerk type, Professor Heydeck relies largely on the presence of pottery with string and finger ornamentation, as a proof of their antiquity, in addition to the ordinary stone celts, horn clubs, etc.; but yet along with them were found iron lance-heads and a blue glass bead (Czarnisee). Similarly in the Packwerk in the Kownatkensee, polished stone celts, pottery with finger marks and Schnurornament, and portion of a reindeer horn, were found associated with a bone skate, and the osseous remains of the domestic animals, as the horse, pig, ox, etc. In attempting, therefore, to estimate the chronological range of these lake-dwellings from an examination of their contents, which (being unnoticed in the early annals of the country) is the only available means, the mixed character of these relics presents a considerable difficulty—a difficulty which, as we shall afterwards see, is equally applicable to the Scottish and Irish crannogs. But, whatever doubts may be cast on their antiquity and early origin, there can be none as to the comparatively late occupancy of many of them. A bone skate and a comb made of square bits bound together by cross pieces, and showing that the teeth were cut by a saw after the pieces were put together, precisely as may be seen in the combs from the Scottish crannogs and the terp-mounds of Holland, were found by Virchow in the Dabersee Pfahlbau. Iron hatchets (Dabersee, Persanzigsee, and Alt Friesack), horseshoes, and other iron implements (Soldinersee), pottery of Slavish type (Bonin, Kloppsee, Persanzig, etc.), leather (Bonin), and even armour and bricks of the thirteenth century (Lübtowsee), leave no doubt as to their almost mediæval character.
Reindeer horns were found at Butzow, Soldinersee, and Kownatkensee; but these objects do not necessarily indicate great antiquity, as this animal, though not referred to in the early annals of North Germany, is stated to have been an inhabitant of the country in the time of Cæsar.
The undoubted contemporaneity of many of these lake-dwellings with the Burgwälle opens up a field of research of considerable importance to European archæology; but their exact chronological relationship still remains an obscure problem, owing chiefly to the mystery which surrounds the latter.
Burgwälle or Rundwälle is the general name given to the remains of a remarkable class of prehistoric constructions found scattered over the larger portion of middle and north-western Europe, embracing the southern parts of Russia around the shores of the Black Sea, Roumania, Bulgaria, Transylvania, Hungary, Austria, Bohemia, Poland, North Germany, France, Great Britain, and the southern parts of Scandinavia. Their foundations now only remain and these show that the structures were generally circular or oval, but sometimes square and semicircular. They may be divided into three kinds, according to the materials of which their foundations are constructed, viz.:—earth, stones or stones in vitrified condition (Erd-, Stein-und Schlackenwälle). Their sizes vary from 20 to 100 paces in diameter, and their height from 10 to 30 feet, and they contained one, two, or sometimes three walls. Those made of earth were circular and generally situated in swampy land, or in countries where stones were not readily accessible. The Steinwälle were in hilly districts and varied in form according to the nature of the ground. Sometimes they assumed the irregular outline of a promontory or peninsula in a lake, at other times, especially when placed on an overhanging cliff, they were mere semicircles. Those of vitrified materials are of special interest to Scottish archæologists owing to the number of vitrified forts in Scotland. They are not very numerous on the Continent, Saxony and Bohemia containing the largest number. In the former country eight are known, viz.:—Schafberg by Löbau, Rothstein by Sohland, Stromberg by Weissenberg, Landeskrone by Görlitz, Brandwall by Blumberg, Koschütz near Dresden, Burgberg by Lichtenberg, and Vorberg by Kirchberg. According to Jelinek, Bohemia is rich in Schlackenwälle, those best known being near Katovic, Bukovec, Litoradic, Hradiste von Hostem, Hradiste bei Strakonic, Hradec bei Domanic Burgberg, Vladar, etc. ("Schutz-und Wehrbauten." p. 102). Instances also occur in Silesia, Thuringian Forest, Rhine district, Brittany, and Normandy.
The Burgwälle, like their analogues in the British Isles, have not yet been systematically investigated. From the character of the relics found in those that have been explored in North Germany they are divided into Vorslavisch, Slavisch and Spätslavisch, a distinction which has been suggested by the unique character of Slavish pottery. These Slavish dishes are always without handles, but of well-burnt pottery, and when ornamented the ornamentation is in wavy lines running parallel to the rim forming the characteristic Wellenlinie.
Many of these remains have, of course, now entirely disappeared in the interests of agriculture, but their number still remaining is very great. In Eastern Germany Dr. R. Behla describes and tabulates no fewer than 1,100. They are more numerous in the fertile districts. In Oberlausitz, in one district measuring 9 miles long by 3 to 16 broad, they number 100, and in the neighbourhood of Bautzen within a one mile circle 20 can be counted.[59]
It is probable that the material used in the upper structures of the Burgwälle was wood, which, of course, has now completely decayed, except in some special conditions, as in swampy ground where wooden piles were used in their foundations. This is another point of contact between these buildings and the lake-dwellings which has not been overlooked by archæologists. Virchow describes the Burgwall of Potzlow, and that of Zahsow near Cottbus, as constructed over former Pfahlbauten;[60] and, indeed, the town of Cottbus seems to have been altogether built over piles, as, wherever diggings have been made, piles are met with, and in this way a finely ornamented quern was found.[61] Wooden substructures, in the form of a platform or Packwerkbau, have also been observed and recorded in many places, as at Schlieben, Gross Topola (Posen), the Labenzsee, Westpreussen.[62] Moreover, those in boggy places were approached by means of wooden gangways, the remains of which have been frequently met with in the form of a double row of piles.[63]
ANCIENT MARINE DWELLINGS ON THE COASTS OF
HOLLAND AND WESTERN GERMANY.
Notwithstanding the striking and singular appearance the Swiss lake-dwellings must have presented to foreigners and strangers, it is a remarkable fact that Roman writers are entirely silent about them. Nor can this silence be accounted for on the supposition that the lake-dwellings had entirely come to an end prior to Roman times, as several of them have furnished antiquities whose Roman origin cannot be mistaken. Some archæologists think they recognise in the representation of a Dacian village on the Column of Trajan a true pile-village (B. 164); but this is doubtful, and, even if true, it is but a very meagre evidence of the custom, and leaves the problem of the lake-dwellings as mysterious as ever. Such reticence on the part of classical writers does not, however, extend to the class of ancient remains I am now about to describe.
Pliny very distinctly states that the Chauci (Frisians and other races along the coast of the German Ocean) were in the habit of constructing artificial mounds, on which they built their houses so as to be beyond the influence of the waves and tides. The following passage from his "Natural History"[64] will be read with interest in relation to the recent discoveries that have been made in the localities referred to.
"I have myself personally witnessed the condition of the Chauci, both the Greater and the Lesser, situate in the regions of the far north. In these climates a vast tract of land, invaded twice each day and night by the overflowing waves of the ocean, opens a question that is eternally proposed to us by Nature, whether these regions are to be looked upon as belonging to the land, or whether as forming a portion of the sea?
"Here a wretched race is found, inhabiting either the more elevated spots of land, or else eminences artificially constructed, and of a height to which they know by experience that the highest tides will never reach. Here they pitch their cabins; and when the waves cover the surrounding country far and wide, like so many mariners on board ship are they; when, again, the tide recedes, their condition is that of so many shipwrecked men, and around their cottages they pursue the fishes as they make their escape with the receding tide. It is not their lot, like the adjoining nations, to keep any flocks for sustenance by their milk, nor even to maintain a warfare with wild beasts, every shrub, even, being banished afar. With the sedge and the rushes of the marsh they make cords, and with these they weave the nets employed in the capture of the fish; they fashion the mud, too, with their hands, and drying it by the help of the winds more than of the sun, cook their food by its aid, and so warm their entrails, frozen as they are by the northern blasts; their only drink, too, is rainwater, which they collect in holes dug at the entrance of their abodes; and yet these nations, if this very day they were vanquished by the Roman people, would exclaim against being reduced to slavery! Be it so, then—Fortune is most kind to many, just when she means to punish them."
Notwithstanding the preciseness of Pliny's description and the fact that for several centuries, since the great sea-dykes were erected, the scattered remains of these mounds have been accessible on dry land, they have only quite recently attracted the attention of archæologists. I consider their investigation important, not only for the large amount of industrial remains they contain, but for supplying a missing link in the evidence of continuity in the European habit of constructing pile-dwellings.