Numerous specimens of spindle-whorls. They are flat circular cakes of clay, like small wheels, perforated and unornamented.
Organic Remains.—Fruit of the water-chestnut (Trapa natans), kernels of cherries, hazel-nuts, acorns, bramble seeds, etc.
The bones of the stag and wild boar seem to predominate among those of the sheep, ox, roe, badger, etc.; also a large quantity of the broken carapaces of a small fresh-water turtle (Emys lutaria).
Some five or six years later (1871) Mr. Lioy made further excavations near the same place, and came upon a relic-bed 8 inches in thickness and only 16 inches below the surface, which he considered to be the remains of a pile-dwelling of a later age. In this relic-bed he found a bronze celt ([Fig. 66], No. 1) and some flints of a grey-reddish or yellowish colour (different from the blue variety in the earlier dwelling), but no stone implements and no arrow-points. Pottery was not abundant, but it was made of a finer quality and the ornamentation shows a higher style of art. Mr. Lioy also observes that the bones of the domestic animals, such as sheep and oxen, are now in excess of those of wild animals.
As a final report of the abitazioni lacustri of Lake Fimon (B. 295) Mr. Lioy has published a lengthy monograph with numerous plates of illustrations. The work, however, deals more with extraneous and general considerations than specific facts or details bearing on the remains of the palafittes in this lake. I consider the station at Polada, with its remarkable relics, far more typical of the Stone Age lake-dwellings, and I have accordingly selected it as a standard for such remains in the eastern valley of the Po. Moreover, Mr. Lee (B. 119, 2nd ed.) has already presented to English readers an abridgement of Mr. Lioy's work, with no less than nine plates of illustrations; whereas a report of the discoveries at Polada has not yet been published at all. I have, therefore, restricted my illustrations from Lake Fimon to the few objects on [Fig. 66], which include a bronze flat celt, a large clay ring, and a few specimens of pottery.
ARQUÀ-PETRARCA.
In the neighbourhood of Padua remains of lake-dwellings presenting in many respects similar characteristics to those in Lake Fimon, have recently been discovered in the small lake of Arquà-Petrarca situated in the Euganean hills. It was discovered in the autumn of 1885 by Professor Frederico Cordenons, who, with the aid of funds from the Museums of Padua and Este, made excavations during this and the following summer, the result of which he has just published. (B. 464.) It appears that the lake, though now only covering some dozen acres, was formerly of much greater extent and occupied the whole of the present valley. In the slime of this ancient lake-basin, which is now overlaid with a deposit of peat over 3 feet in thickness, the remains of two stations were found, one on the eastern and the other on the western margin of the present lake. These remains, which consist of piles, portions of transverse beams, and a large assortment of the industrial débris of the inhabitants, are entirely confined to the ancient mud deposit, nothing being found in the peat above it. Mr. Cordenons does not give as minute a description of the relic-bed and its surroundings as could be desired; but as only a fourth of the area occupied by the piles has been excavated (1,000 square yards), the present report may be only a first instalment of the researches.
Among the objects collected, the following will give a general idea of its chronological position with respect to analogous remains in the Po valley:—Several perforated stone axes, half of a perforated hammer-axe of green serpentine beautifully polished, a large hammer-stone, a beautiful flint saw four inches long ("un bellissimo coltello-sega"), portion of a finely-worked laurel-leaf-shaped lance-head of flint, a number of arrow-heads, lance-heads, saws, knives, etc., of flint.
Objects of staghorn were not numerous, and only some perforated rings of this material are recorded.