Pottery.—The ceramic art is poorly represented here; only fragments of a coarse quality, and ornamented with finger or string marks, are recorded. (B. 462, Pl. ix. 4.) Two clay cylinders are in the Museum at Bern, like those from Wollishofen ([Fig. 5], Nos. 5 and 10), together with some perforated clay weights.
In the neighbourhood of this station there are some ruins of Roman buildings, a fact which is suggestive as an explanation of a quern or millstone made after the Roman fashion, which is reckoned as a relic from this lake-dwelling. From systematic investigations carried on here in 1884, Dr. v. Fellenberg concluded that the station belonged to the transition period, like Vinelz. (B. 462, p. 34.)
Lattringen.—Dr. Gross describes two stations here, both of which, from the prevailing character of the antiquities, appear to have belonged to the Stone Age, although previous to his investigations some bronze objects were said to have been fished up from one of them by Colonel Schwab.
The first, or lower station, covered a space of some 5 acres, and its remains are situated opposite the little port of the village of Lattringen. It was connected with the shore by four bridges, the largest of which was 65 yards long and 14 feet wide. The relics collected by Dr. Gross are of the Stone Age, and among them are staghorn haftings and a fine harpoon with 11 barbs and a perforation at its obtuse extremity. According to Fellenberg, this station belonged to the middle Stone Age period, as it has yielded no copper implements, nor perforated hammer-axes, but on the other hand most excellent nephrite implements. (B. 462, p. 35.) The collection of objects from this station in the Cantonal Museum at Bern contains among other things:—Daggers; chisels, harpoons, and pointers of bone and horn; some perforated horn hammers and horn holders for stone axes (only two of which have the end split); a number of flint arrow-points, all flat based. A few stone beads and bits of rock crystal. One small dagger-blade with four rivet-holes is of bronze or copper.
Previous to Dr. Gross's report, the following objects have been recorded as coming from this station:—Mealing-stones, fragments of coarse pottery, a bronze dagger, a shovel-shaped bronze axe, and a spiral ring, also of bronze. (B. 15, p. 95.) The upper station is 500 or 600 feet from the former, just opposite the erratic block known as the Sumpfstein. It contained a small steinberg, and yielded fine lance-heads of flint, a stone axe of serpentine sharpened at both ends and perforated with an oval hole, and one or two horn objects. (See [Fig. 186], Nos. 7 and 11.)
Moeringen.—Judging from the number and variety of antiquities collected from Moeringen, it must be ranked as the most important station in Lake Bienne. The settlement occupied a sheltered bay called the "Moeringen Ecken," and covered a rectangular area about 550 feet long and 350 wide. The relic-bed was covered with eight or ten inches of sand and mud. When discovered, and during the earlier years of its investigation, piles were seen protruding more or less out of the mud, and among them could be readily distinguished the ends of several canoes. Investigations have been made here almost every favourable season since its discovery by Mr. Müller in 1854, but in the winter of 1872-3 Government took the matter into their own hands, and conducted systematic explorations under the care of Messrs. Fellenberg and Jenner. It then became apparent that there were two stations in this bay—one belonging to the Stone Age, and another to the Bronze Age—between which a well-defined distinction could be made, especially in respect of the piles. The former occupied a position nearer the shore, and the stumps of its piles were hardly visible; while the latter was in deeper water, and its piles, less decayed than the former, projected 1½ to 2 feet above the lake sediment. Both had bridges extending to the shore, as was indicated in each case by the remains of a double row of piles. But while the bridge of the Stone Age settlement was 5 to 8 feet wide, that of the Bronze Age was 10 to 12 feet wide, and moreover it was much longer, being over 200 yards in length. Dr. v. Fellenberg calculates, from counting the piles in one or two selected places, that for the entire bronze settlement somewhere about 10,000 piles must have been used.
The exploration of the settlement at Moeringen undertaken by Government was continued in 1874, by which time the level of the lake had fallen to such a degree that most of the bronze station was laid dry, and many additional relics were added to the already large collections from this station. Among the more interesting may be mentioned some burnt boards and posts with square holes, supposed to indicate the position and remains of huts or workshops. (B. 271.)
The earlier investigators, Col. Schwab and Mr. Müller, collected from this station a number of objects, now deposited in the Schwab Museum, among which are the following:—An iron sword of the La Tène type, and a curious iron fork. Of bronze, there are knives, hair-pins, and a variety of pendants. Some beads of glass and amber. Novel specimens of earthenware; charred apples, grains of wheat, and beans; ropes and cords made of flax and bast; etc.
The smaller station, according to Fellenberg, belonged to the middle Stone Age period. A number of stone beads, some of white quartz, were found in a contracted space, which are supposed to have formed a necklace. (B. 462, p. 36.)
The two best collections from Moeringen are in the Cantonal Museum and in the Federal Government rooms (Gross collection), both at Bern.