MARSH DWELLING IN THE TOWN OF BORDEAUX.
In 1867 Mr. Delfortrie (B. 136) published a notice of prehistoric antiquities of the Neolithic Age found in the course of excavations for the improvement of the town of Bordeaux, which point to the existence of some kind of marsh dwelling in the very centre of the town. Attention was first directed to the matter by the quantity of bones thrown up from the lower part of the excavations, among which Delfortrie detected some worked ones, and associated with them were various stone and flint implements.
In regard to the osseous remains, he observes that the lower jaws of ruminants, which were relatively in great abundance, had their incisor teeth purposely removed, but the molars were retained. On the other hand, the upper jaws were entirely absent or broken, like all other marrow bones.
At three different points forming an almost equilateral triangle of 200 mètres the side, he procured sections of these street cuttings, in all of which the succession of strata and relics indicated similar conditions. At one point he gives the following details of a section:—
| Mètres. | ||
| A. | Earth and subsoil } | |
| B. | Terramare of Gallo-Roman period } | 4· |
| C. | Marine bed with shells | ·10 |
| D. | Sandy peat | ·50 |
| E. | Bed of ashes with oyster shells, worked bones, etc. | ·50 |
| F. | Lacustrine sand | ·45 |
| G. | Black peat with sand and gravel | 1·55 |
| 7·10 | ||
The bones represented the following animals:—Great ox, smaller ox, stag, pig, wild boar, horse (a small kind), goat, sheep, and dog. Mr. Delfortrie thinks the bones of the horse show that the animal was not domesticated. No piles were discovered except in the Gallo-Roman period. The following shells were found in the marine bed C.:—Ostrea edulis, Pecten maximus, Mytilus edulis, Venus decussata, Cardium edule, Mactrea solida, Turbo neritoides, and Trochus cinerarius.
The relics were found chiefly in bed E., among the ashes, a few being from the sandy peat above it. These consist of pointers, needles, polishers, spatulæ, arrow-points, and an implement of bone called a whistle; flint saws, a polished celt also of flint, three small polished stone celts of serpentine or quartzite, and about a dozen flint knives.
The opinion of the narrator is that there was here a marsh dwelling of the nature of the Kökkenmödings of Denmark which in point of time preceded the Swiss lake-dwellings, but was posterior to the Reindeer Period of Central France.
In my opinion, the character and finish of the relics furnish no grounds for supposing that this habitation was prior to the early Swiss lake-dwellings; nor are we warranted, from such limited explorations as could be made in the streets of a town, to exclude the more probable idea that this was an ordinary palafitte, notwithstanding that piles were not observed.
Second Lecture.
SETTLEMENTS IN EASTERN SWITZERLAND, THE DANUBIAN VALLEY, AND CARNIOLA.
The remains of lake-dwellings which I have hitherto described were, with one or two exceptions, situated on the borders of large lakes, and the industrial remains recovered from them were found more or less buried in the lake sediment. But these are not the invariable circumstances in which such antiquities are met with, as has already been noticed in the case of Wauwyl; but their differentiating points I did not then discuss, reserving them for this special occasion.
Every careful observer of natural phenomena must have noticed how, under certain well-defined conditions, the superficial areas of lakes are becoming gradually encroached upon, not only by the accumulation of débris carried into them by streams and rain-wash, but by the growth of peat on their margins. This latter process occurs more frequently in the smaller lakes—so much so that some of them have now almost entirely disappeared owing to the complete filling up of their basins. Though the growth of peat is slow, and almost imperceptible to individual observers, whose lifetime is generally too short to mark its progressive character, it has proved a most formidable antagonist to lake settlements by destroying their lacustrine character, and thus compelling their inhabitants to abandon them altogether. The peat has, in some instances, actually engulfed entire villages, with the accumulated débris of their industrial equipments, thus hermetically sealing up everything in one of the best antidotes to natural decay. Cities and mighty empires have risen, flourished, and disappeared, without transmitting to future ages a single record of their existence, like flowers born to blush unseen. Such, indeed, might have been the fate of many of these pile-villages, notwithstanding the favourable conditions in which their ruins have been sealed up, had it not been for the mere accident of peat cutting, which has disclosed so many of their buried treasures. These remarks are peculiarly applicable to the celebrated settlement at Robenhausen, with which I begin to-day's lecture.