With the exception of the domestic fowl and the tame cat, the domestic animals reared by the lake-dwellers were similar to those now extant. Nor is there much change as regards the wild animals and birds then prevalent. The animals that now frequent the higher Alps, such as the marmot, chamois, and wild goat, are very scarce in the lake-dwellings, showing that already nature had consigned them to the zone of their present habitation. Altogether, with the more improved weapons of the Bronze Age, there ensued, according to Rütimeyer, a marked diminution in the relative proportion of the ordinary wild animals of the chase, and a corresponding increase in those of the domestic breeds. The great wild oxen, the urus and bison, disappeared from the neighbourhood altogether.
Such progressive strides in agricultural pursuits are, however, not discernible in the vegetable remains, notwithstanding the minute investigations of Professor Heer. (B. 123.) From the very commencement the lake-dwelling colonists cultivated flax, two or three varieties of barley and wheat, millet and peas. The only addition that appears to have been made in the Bronze Age were the oat (Avena sativa), and the dwarf field bean (Faba vulgaris) of a strikingly small size. On the other hand we have to note the absence of winter wheat, rye, hemp, and most of the culinary and garden vegetables. Fruits and berries were largely used as food, but there is no evidence to show that they were cultivated. Among these the following have been identified:—apples, pears, plums, sloes, one or two species of cherry, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, hazel and beech nuts, water-chestnuts, poppies, etc. Grape-stones from Wangen were hesitatingly included in Professor Heer's list of fruits from the lake-dwellings; but, as already mentioned, this doubt is now diminished by the finding of grape-stones at Steckborn, another station of the Stone Age. Stones of the grape were early recognised among the débris of the palafittes of Lake Garda, and quite recently Mr. A. Goiran has identified those of the olive (Oleo europæa) and peach.[142]
Bread was made only of wheat and millet, that of the latter generally containing some grains of wheat and linseed. Cakes made of the seeds of the poppy were also found at Robenhausen.
Various portions of the osseous remains of man, comprising the skull and other portions of the skeleton, have been found in several stations, as Meilen, Wollishofen, Grosser Hafner, Schaffis, Sutz, Locras, Vinelz, Nidau, Wauwyl, Bevaix, Insel Weerd, etc. All these remains have been more or less critically examined and reported on by Virchow (B. 305 and 433), Studer (B. 419 and 432), and Kollmann (B. 420), but notwithstanding a number of minute measurements and learned disquisitions, contradictory opinions are held by these scientists as to the race or races of men that inhabited the lake-dwellings. Dr. Studer advocates the theory of Troyon, that with the introduction of bronze there was also a new race of people, and this opinion he bases on the fact that at Sutz and Vinelz two kinds of human skulls were found, viz. brachycephalic and dolichocephalic, whereas in the pure Stone Age stations only brachycephalic skulls were met with. Segments of the upper parts of human skulls supposed to have been used as drinking cups were found at Gerlafingen (B. 392, p. 107), Sutz, Schaffis, and Locras, and from the latter there was also a skull having a circular portion of it cut out, as if trepanning had been performed. (B. 336, p. 31.)
Although it is now pretty well established that in these prehistoric times trepanning was practised as far back as the Stone Age,[143] it does not appear that this skull from Locras (B. 336, Pl. v. 28) had been operated on during the lifetime of the individual. Roundlets, cut out of skulls, are supposed to have been used as charms, and they are frequently met with in the graves of the period. From the lake-dwellings two of these objects have been recorded; one from Concise ([Fig. 185], No. 20)[144] has two small perforations for suspension, and another, with one hole, is figured by Dr. Gross. (B. 392, Pl. xxiii. 65.) On the Trajan column a Dacian village is represented having human skulls set on poles before the walls. (B. 164.) The finding of skulls of a different race in the lake-dwellings might therefore be accounted for on the supposition that they were trophies of their enemies and not those of the occupiers of the lake-dwellings. Anatomical deductions from the few long bones of skeletons that have come to light indicate, so far as the evidence goes, that the Bronze Age men were of small stature—a conclusion which is also supported by the small size of the handles of the swords and other weapons of the period.
Professor Virchow in a long review of the craniology of the Swiss lake-dwellers comes to the following conclusions (B. 433, p. 300):—
(1) In the stations of the pure Stone Age, brachycephalic skulls only are known to a certainty to have existed.
(2) In the Transition period, both brachycephalic and dolichocephalic are known.
(3) In the full Bronze period the skulls are more inclined to the dolichocephalic type.
(4) The people of La Tène were of a highly mixed character, among whom, however, brachycephalic types predominated.