THE PALATINATE.
Mr. C. Mehlis (B. 400) states that in the low-lying land near Billigheim, on the left bank of the Rhine, evidences of a pile-dwelling have for many years been observed. In one place piles were found in their original position. They consisted of square-cut oak beams, about six feet long, and placed in the form of a rectangle. Near them were collected in great numbers tiles of a dark-red colour, fragments of pottery peculiar to the period from the tenth to the thirteenth century, and bones of the deer. In addition to these relics, which point to the early Middle Ages, there were others at a greater depth which no less conclusively point to a much earlier period. These are described as implements of stone and flint, such as knives, axes, spear-heads, etc.
Other indications were noticed in the turf-beds at Landstuhl and Durkheim; and below Mayence, Lindenschmit has shown that a pile-dwelling existed in Roman times. Other stations are said to be at Würzburg, Wiesentheid, and Niedissigheim, in which the bones of various oxen and pigs were found associated with piles. (400a, p. 254.)
DEÛLE-À-HOUPLIN.
In 1876 M. Rigaux announced the existence of a pile-dwelling in the marsh of Deûle-à-Houplin, in the Département du Nord, in which were found not only broken bones, flint objects chipped and polished, and pottery, but also some metal objects.[50]
MAESTRICHT (HOLLAND).
In the valley of the Meuse, near Maestricht, Mr. Ubaghs (B. 413) describes a sort of artificial island composed of trunks of trees brushwood, leaves, etc., which came to light in 1883 in the course of railway excavations. This curious structure lies close to the canal from Maestricht to Bois-le-Duc; and it appears that when this canal, many years ago, was being constructed, it is recorded that the workmen had come upon much wood and bones, which were thrown away as of no importance. The portion now exposed by the railway excavations was about 16 feet below the surface and extended parallel to the canal for about 50 yards, with a breadth of 11 yards, and Mr. Ubaghs estimates that 4 or 5 yards more were destroyed by the canal operations. The trunks were from 6 to 13 feet long and, in some instances, 1 foot in diameter. The larger ones were underneath and reposed on a bed of gravel, in which they were partially embedded. Above the beams were decayed branches and leaves, forming a bed of vegetable débris some eight or nine inches in thickness, but no upright piles were anywhere observed. Mr. Ubaghs considers this was in former times an island constructed partly, at least, artificially, like the Irish crannogs or the Pfahlbauten at Schussenried, and that it served as a dwelling-place for hunters, who left the remains of feasts and broken weapons behind them.
Among the objects of archæological value collected were the following:—Portion of a human skull, and various bones of the horse, urus, ox, stag, goat, dog, pig, beaver, and the humerus of a bird. The industrial relics consisted of various kinds of implements and weapons of bone and staghorn, as harpoons, perforated clubs, daggers, etc., of which a few are here represented ([Fig. 94]). As these illustrations are merely copied from Ubaghs' work, and are not drawn to scale, I give the respective lengths of the objects, viz. (1) 15½, (2) 10, (3) 6½, (4) 13½, (5) 4¾, (6) 3, and (7) 3½ inches.
No complete skeleton of any animal was found, because, as Mr. Ubaghs remarks, these hunters only carried certain portions of the dead animals to their abodes. It was also observed that the spongy portions of the bones had been gnawed away, probably by dogs.
To the portion of the human skull (dolichocephalic) there is now more than ordinary interest attached, as it was near the same spot that Professor Crahay discovered the celebrated human jaw known as the "Smeermaas mâchoire," and subsequently described by Sir Charles Lyell in his "Antiquity of Man" as coeval with a mammoth tusk found in the vicinity. The present skull was found 11 to 13 feet below the surface, lying upon the gravel bed on which the wooden structures reposed. From a careful comparison of it with the "Crahay jaw," now in the cabinet of anatomy in the University of Leyden, Mr. Ubaghs found that the two relics were identical as to patina, consistency of bone, and the composition of the material in which they were embedded (traces of which still adhered to them), and he comes to the prosaic conclusion that the two belonged to the Maestricht crannog: "Cette mâchoire, ainsi que les autres ossements de la même provenance, ont appartenu à notre station lacustre près de Maestricht."