The eminent Berlin anthropologist thinks that during the Bronze Age a new people joined the original lake-dwellers by degrees, but not as one great immigration subverting the previous order of things. This opinion seems to be greatly strengthened by collateral circumstances. We have already seen how gradually bronze was introduced among the lake-dwellers. No violent disturbance of the previous conditions of life is anywhere to be detected. The original system of constructing lake-villages is continued exactly the same, and the only changes are such as can be accounted for by the use of better implements. The lake-dwellings of the Bronze Age are built in deeper water, and consequently farther from the shore than those of the Stone Age, and the piles are more slender, often stems split into two or four. The steinbergs appear to have been discontinued, or were only used over a hard and stony shore into which piles could not be easily driven. The sites of the latest villages are on the same ground as, or in close proximity to, those of the earliest ones. Remains of cottages are still the same, viz. bits of plaster, with marks of round timbers, and some hearth-stones. From Lake Bourget there are portions of clay plaster of this character, ornamented with incised lines and the impressions of groups of concentric circles ([Fig. 21], No. 15) or the swastika ([Fig. 195], No. 12). Also from the same place there are bits of clay tubes, the interiors of which are blackened with soot, supposed to have been small chimneys ([Fig. 184], No. 8).
In Eastern Switzerland and the Danubian valley the number of stations greatly decreased during the Bronze Age, while in the Lake of Geneva they rather increased, and in Lake Bourget its eight stations belonged almost exclusively to this period.
The stations at Laibach, the Mondsee, Attersee, and Schussenried came to an end in the Transition period, and to the east of Lake Constance only one, viz. that in the Starnbergersee, continued during the Bronze Age. In the lakes of Constance, Zürich, Neuchâtel, Morat, and Bienne, they were also greatly reduced in numbers; but, on the other hand, they occupied larger areas, and show a greater concentration to selected localities, often the outlets of the lakes.
It was not till 1876 that any sepulchral remains bearing on the question—how the lake-dwellers disposed of their dead—came to light. In this year some workmen engaged in digging the foundation for a house in the vicinity of the site of the lake-dwelling at Auvernier, and some 50 yards from the shore, came upon a large flagstone measuring 5¼ by 4¼ feet, which turned out to be the covering of a stone coffin containing the remains of 15 or 20 skeletons. The grave was constructed in the usual way by setting four large flags on edge, which formed its sides, and over them a fifth was laid as a covering. These upright flags were of granite and gneiss, and the largest measured 6¼ feet long, 6 feet wide, and 11 inches thick. The rectangular space thus enclosed measured 5 feet 3 inches long, 3 feet 8 inches wide, and 5 feet 10 inches deep. Dr. Gross, who superintended the clearing out of its contents, states that the bodies had been placed in a sitting posture round the grave, with the heads to the walls and the feet directed towards the centre. External to this cist, on two of its sides, there was another series of upright flags, which formed two smaller chambers, and in one of them there were also human bones.
The relics associated with this burial consisted of some perforated teeth (boar, bear, and wolf); a small polished bone disc, perforated ([Fig. 196], No. 3); two small stone celts—one with a perforation for suspension in the end opposite the cutting edge. Of bronze objects, found actually in the grave, there were only three, viz. a plain pin 6¼ inches long (No. 1), a small ring (No. 6), and a bead which looked like copper (No. 2).
Six feet to the east of this tomb, and about the same depth, the workmen subsequently came upon the skeleton of a child buried simply in the earth without any stone coffin, and near it were found the following objects:—Two pairs of small oval bracelets (Nos. 4 and 5), a curious pendant like a stud (No. 7), and an amber bead.
Two of the human skulls were sent to Rütimeyer, who pronounced them to be of the Type de Sion, and identical with those he had already examined from several lake-dwellings at Nidau, Meilen, Robenhausen, and Wauwyl.
From these data it would appear that the tomb of Auvernier belonged to the Transition period. (B. 286.)
In 1876 and 1877 several interments were found near the quay at Montreux, some with, and some without, stone cists, and along with them were associated various relics, as bracelets (Nos. 10 and 11), hair-pins (Nos. 12 and 13), some pottery ornamented with geometrical figures (No. 14), flint knives, a small stone crescent, and a horse's tooth much smaller than those of our modern horse. (B. 336.) Again, in 1884, some more tombs were discovered near the same place which yielded objects of the Bronze Age, viz. a bronze pin, six bronze bracelets (Nos. 8 and 9), and two or three urns (Antiqua, 1884, p. 101).