The other objects most commonly found were weights made of baked earth, and perhaps used for the weaving-loom, much worn in the place where the cord passed through on which they were hung; fusaiolas, or spindle-whorls, very varied both in shape and size, likewise made of baked earth; large mill-stones with a polished surface. Next, we have poniards or spear-heads, hatchets, and hair-pins, all made of bronze. The marniera of San Ambrogio has furnished a mould indicating that bronze was melted and cast in this district.
An attentive study of the bones of animals contained in the terramares has led to the following information being obtained as to the fauna of Upper Italy during the bronze epoch.
With respect to the mammals which lived in a wild state, the existence has been ascertained of a species of stag of much greater size than the present variety, and about equal to that of the lacustrine settlements of Switzerland (fig. 154); also of a wild-boar, much more powerful than that of Sardinia or even of Algeria, the roe, the bear, the rat, and the porcupine. In different spots have been found stags' horns and bones, and also sloe-stones which have retained the impression of the teeth of some small rodent. The bear, the wild-boar, the stag and the roe, have, at the present day, disappeared from the country. The porcupine, too, has migrated into regions further south, which leads to the supposition that the temperature of the provinces of Parma and Modena is a little lowered since the date of the bronze epoch.
Fig. 154.—The Chase during the Bronze Epoch.
It is to be remarked that in these settlements, contrary to what has been noticed in Switzerland, in the lacustrine habitations belonging to the Stone Age, the remains of wild animals are met with much more rarely than those of domestic animals; this must be consequent on a superior and more advanced stage of civilisation having existed in Italy. Among the domestic species found we may mention the dog, two breeds of which, of different sizes, must have existed; the pig of the peat-bogs, the same variety as that of which the bones were discovered in Switzerland; the horse, the remains of which, although rare, testify to the existence of two breeds, one large and bulky, the other of slighter and more elegant proportions; the ass, of which there are but few bones, could not, therefore, have been very common; the ox, the remains of which are on the contrary very abundant, like the dog and the horse, is represented by two distinct breeds, the more powerful of which appears to have descended from the Bos primigenius or Urus; lastly, the sheep and the goat, the remains of which can scarcely be clearly distinguished on account of their great anatomical resemblance.
When we compare the present fauna with that of which we have just given the details, we may perceive several important modifications. Thus the pig of the peat-bogs, one breed of oxen, and a breed of sheep (the smallest) have become entirely extinct; and the common sheep, the goat, the horse, and the ass have assumed much more important dimensions. With regard to the wild species of mammals, we have already said that some have become less in size, and others have disappeared. Hence results one proof of a fact which is beyond dispute, although often called in question, namely, that the intelligent action of man working by means of domestication on wild natures, will ultimately succeed in ameliorating, reclaiming, and perfecting them.
The skulls and the long bones found in the terramares are almost always broken for the purpose of extracting the brain and the marrow, a very ancient usage which had endured to this comparatively late epoch. But instead of being split longitudinally, as was the case in preceding epochs, they are generally broken across at one end. The terramares and the kitchen-middens have this peculiarity in common—that all the dogs' skulls found in them have been intentionally broken; a fact which proves that in Italy, as in Denmark, this faithful guest or servant of man was occasionally, in default of some better food, and doubtless with much regret, used as an article of subsistence.