6. Osseous Remains.—To these relics is further to be added a large quantity of the osseous remains of men and domestic animals. Of the circumstances in which the earlier finds of this description were made we have not very definite information. Keller, writing in 1866 (B. 126, p. 295), speaks of a basketful of human bones representing some eight individuals; and Desor about the same time found a human skull, which he figures in his work on the palafittes. (B. 95.) M. Vouga, however, gives precise and most interesting information regarding the conditions in which he encountered the osseous remains of human beings, as well as those of the horse, ox, pig, and dog.
We have already seen how M. Vouga came upon the débris of a series of wooden houses constructed on the banks of an ancient river. Referring to these establishments he thus writes:—
"Devant le premier établissement je trouvai un crâne entier de femme. Devant le second, je trouvai pareillement les ossements de trois ou quatre personnes et trois crânes, dont un portait les traces de coups d'épée sur le sommet; un second était remarquable par sa déformité et l'extension de la partie postérieure. Devant le quatrième, deux mâchoires inférieures et les ossements dune trentaine de personnes, avec un très grand nombre d'os de chevaux, de bœufs, et de porcs. Devant le troisième, un crâne de chien grand et entier. Devant le cinquième, trois squelettes entiers dont un portait une corde au cou(?).
"Outres ces crânes et ces ossements dont je puis indiquer la provenance, il a été trouvé un grand nombre d'autres squelettes, d'ossements divers, de crânes de chevaux appartenant à une petite race.
"Je ne pourrais pas garantir l'âge de tous les squelettes, puisque, comme je l'ai dit en commençant, deux doivent être bourguignons, ayant retrouvé l'emplacement de la tombe avec un poignard de cette époque, et que six autres se sont trouvés à mi-hauteur, non loin d'un chénau en bois, et que la couche romaine paraissait s'incliner vers ce côté-là," (B. 428, p. 31.)
Concluding Remarks on La Tène.—In face of the above facts, the opinion of the earlier investigators that La Tène was an ordinary palafitte of the Iron Age, analogous to the lake-villages of the preceding ages, can no longer be entertained. Its geographical position, commanding the great highway between Constance and Geneva, and the vast preponderance of warlike weapons among its relics, clearly point to its having been a military station or outlook. Nor does it require much penetration to learn from its present ruins something of its final fate. The quantity of human bones representing some 30 or 40 individuals, some with gashes on the tops of their skulls; the number of abandoned swords, still in their scabbards; the incongruous medley of relics found by Vouga at the bottom of the ancient river-bed—all indicate that its capture by an enemy was sudden and the struggle fierce. The discovery of Roman remains, such as coins, tiles, pottery, bricks (one with the mark of the 21st legion, "Rapax"),[47] on and around La Tène, leave little doubt that its conquerors were the Romans.
Literature.—B. 22, 31, 72, 95, 119, 126, 419, 420a', 420b', 420c, 428, 434a, 446, 449a", and 463c. Also Virchow on the human remains in vols. xv. and xvi., Zeit. für Ethn. Verhand.
LAKE PALADRU.
From time immemorial a legend prevailed among the inhabitants around Lake Paladru that a city had been buried in its waters—a catastrophe brought about by the maledictions of the monks of the neighbouring Carthusian establishment of Sylve Bénite. On the 24th September, 1864, M. Vallier, of Grenoble, and some friends arranged a boating excursion for the purpose of examining the lake as to the reported existence of piles in it, with the view of accounting for the currency of the above legend, and found no less than six different sites where piles were to be seen projecting more or less from the mud. These were supposed to be the remains of lacustrine villages of which the following particulars were ascertained:—
1. Station des Grands Roseaux.—This station was situated near the head of the lake, and about two hundred yards from shore; depth of water from one to two feet; piles sometimes three feet apart, and sometimes much less; over 150 were counted.