Primitive Man

by Louis Figuier

The number of piles which must have been used in some of these constructions is really surprising. M. Löhle has calculated that in the single lacustrine village of Wangen, in the Lake of Constance, at least 40,000 piles have been fixed, and that several generations must have been necessary to terminate the work. The more reasonable interpretation to give to a fact of this kind is that Wangen, which was very thinly populated at first, increased in size gradually as the numbers of inhabitants augmented. The same remark may be doubtless applied to all the important stations.

This was the plan employed in building a single habitation. When a whole village had to be built in the open water, a methodical course of action was adopted. They began by placing a certain number of piles parallel to the shore, and these they at once threw across the bridge which was intended to connect the village with the land, thus rendering the carriage of the materials much less difficult.

When the bridge was finished, and before fixing all the piles, the platform was commenced immediately; this constituted a base of operations, by the help of which the pile work could more easily be finished.

This platform was raised 3 or 4 feet above the surface of the water, so as to obviate any danger arising from the waves during a tempest. It was generally composed of branches and trunks of trees not squared, and bound horizontally to each other, the whole cemented together with clay; sometimes, also, they used thick rough slabs, which were obtained by splitting trunks of trees with wedges. The platform was fixed firmly on the pile-work, and in some cases wooden pegs were used to fasten together the largest pieces of timber, so that the cohesion and incorporation of the floor were rendered more complete. As soon as the esplanade was finished, they then proceeded to the construction of the huts.

The huts must have opened on to the platform by doors. Did they possess windows? Nothing is known as to this point. But in all probability there was an opening at the top of the roof, through which the smoke of the fire made its way. To avoid any fear of conflagration, a stone fire-place was placed in the middle of each dwelling. The daylight must have come in through the hole in the roof in a quantity almost sufficient to cause the absence of windows to be not much felt.

In each habitation, there was, no doubt, a trap-door in direct communication with the lake, such as those which existed in the dwellings of the Pæonians described by Herodotus. Under this trap-door there was a reservoir made of osiers, intended for the preservation of fish.

As the inhabitants of the lacustrine villages only lived upon the water with a view of increasing their security, it would be absurd to suppose that they would construct a large number of bridges between their aquatic settlement and the banks of the lake. There must have been, in general, but one bridge for each of these lake villages.

How were the huts constructed, and what were their shape and dimensions? These questions certainly seem difficult to answer, for, as may be well imagined, no specimen of these ancient dwellings has been preserved to our days. Nevertheless, a few relics, insignificant in appearance, enable us to reply to these inquiries in a way more or less satisfactory.

Everything seems to indicate that the huts were formed of trunks of trees placed upright, one by the side of the other, and bound together horizontally by interwoven branches. A coating of earth covered this wattling.