Fig. 196.—Objects from Tombs of the Lake-Dwellers of the Bronze Age.
No. 14 = 1⁄5, and the rest = 1⁄2 real size.
Dr. F. A. Forel (B. 286, p. 48) describes "cimetières de l'époque lacustre" in the vicinity of Morges and St. Prex. In the former group some skeletons were found in stone cists, one of which had two bracelets still adhering to the bones. "Ces bracelets," says Dr. Forel, "qui sont actuellement au musée cantonal de Lausanne, et à la bibliothèque de Morges, appartiennent incontestablement par leur beau travail et leur ornamentation riche et très-caractéristique à la belle époque du Bronze, à l'époque de la grande cité de Morges." In the cemetery near St. Prex were found some thirty skeletons deposited in free earth, and associated with them were some bronze ornaments (une vingtaine de bracelets, épingles à cheveux, anneaux, etc.), which, according to Dr. Forel, incontestably belonged to the bel Age du Bronze. Moreover, in the very same place, and almost alternating regularly with the free burials, there were urns containing ashes and charcoal. One of these urns (still preserved at the date of Dr. Forel's description, 1876), which measured 6¼ inches in diameter and 5 inches in height, presented all the characters of the pottery of the lake-dwellings of the Bronze Age.
It is interesting to note here the association of the two modes of burial in the same cemetery. That both systems were prevalent in Switzerland, at least as far back as the Transition period, has recently been shown by Mr. Heierli in his description of "Eine Gruppe prähistorischer Gräber," and "Vorrömische Gräben im Kanton Zürich." As the result of these investigations he proves that burnt bodies were deposited under mounds, associated with clay vessels which were ornamented with dots, lines, and string marks, precisely similar to those on the vessels found at Vinelz.
As a further contribution to the subject, we have the prehistoric graves at Chamblandes, near Pully, which, according to the late Morel-Fatio, who describes them (B. 377),[145] belonged to the lake-dwellers of the Stone Age. It appears that a cultivator, while digging the foundations of a house, came upon a series of ancient graves, at a depth of six or seven feet, formed of four flags set on edge, with a fifth as a covering. Along with each skeleton were found 40 flakes of the tusks of the wild boar, pierced at each extremity. In one a marine shell, also pierced by two holes, was noted. In the following year further discoveries of similar graves were made in the same place, and this time their contents were more carefully examined. The sides were formed of four flags set on edge with an additional one as a covering. On the average these cists measured a mètre in length, and half this in breadth and depth, but one or two of smaller dimensions were noted. When a single skeleton was found it always lay with the feet towards the east. One, however, contained four skeletons, and in this case the heads were in the four corners. About the position of the breast some 40 doubly-perforated boar's teeth were found, which must have been attached to the garments. Besides these there were some perforated shells and two portions of colouring matter, one yellow and the other red. Another tomb contained a complete skeleton, and on the neck lay five doubly-perforated marine shells, while near the head were four pieces of yellow and red colouring matter, and two amulets of human skulls. Dispersed in this grave were beads which looked like amber, but, according to some, were coral. One grave contained a spherical hammer-stone, slightly flattened; another had a perforated and beautifully made axe of serpentine, 6½ inches long; and a third, that of a child (27 inches by 13), had three small, flat, and circular pebbles, like unperforated spindle-whorls, placed in the form of a triangle, and at one of the corners of the grave were some charcoal and fragments of burnt bones.
According to Mr. Morel-Fatio everything found in these graves had their exact analogues in the early lake-dwellings such as Chevroux. Not far off, at Pierra-Portay and Châtelard sur Lutry, other burials of the Stone Age were discovered, which also, in his opinion, belonged to the Lake-dwellers (Lacustres).
IV.—IRON AGE.
In reviewing the salient features of the Iron Age we have still more complicated problems to deal with. There are, in reality, no lake-dwellings of the early Iron Age in Central Europe, showing a Transition period, as we have seen to have been the case between the Stone and Bronze Ages; nor, indeed, any which can be said to have a continued sequence to the great system of pile-dwellings which prevailed so extensively in earlier times. No doubt iron shows itself in a few objects characteristic of the Bronze Age, such as a few swords and bracelets encrusted with ornamental bands of this material, but there are no tools or weapons made of iron at all analogous to those which characterise the Bronze Age. No Transition period such as we find in the relics from the graves at Hallstadt, where iron is seen, as it were, competing with bronze. On the contrary, in the Swiss lake-dwellings iron-working appears in a state of great perfection. The few objects found on their sites are mostly of the La Tène type, which we have seen to be entirely different in character, manufacture, and style of ornamentation, from anything known in the previous ages. In some stations we find not only La Tène types, but Roman tiles, pottery, and coins, and even objects of a still later period, such as Gallo-Roman, Allemanisch, and Merovingian remains. Thus, at Starnberg, we have of iron, two spear-heads, a horseshoe, and a remarkable kind of knife ([Fig. 37], No. 1). In the investigations conducted during the winter of 1864-5 in the Überlingersee, Dr. Lachmann records the following iron objects from the bronze station of Unter-Uhldingen:—one lance-head, five arrow-points, one axe, two chisels, 12 knife-blades, two sickle-like objects, one dagger-knife, one ring, one triangular plate with attached ring, one fibula, one pin, part of a two-edged sword, a short sword with a wooden handle, a fork, a stamp, a pair of pincers, etc.—in all 40 objects. Also at Sipplingen there were three arrow-heads, two sickles, one lance-head, a one-edged sword, and a Roman key. In the Museum at Friedrichshafen are several objects of iron taken from Uhldingen, viz. two knives like pruning-hooks (hippen), a hammer-hatchet, a fibula (La Tène) 9 inches long, two harpoons, several arrow-heads, six horseshoes, one dagger, and a girdle-hook. Still more interesting are fragments of fine glass found on both these stations, as well as at the Rauenegg in the Bay of Constance. One bit of this glass, of a grey greenish colour, had been ornamented with gold enamel. According to the opinion of Mr. Hofrath Klemm, of Dresden, this glass belongs to the sixth or seventh century. (B. 378.)
In Lake Zürich on the station of Grosser Hafner were found an iron spear-head like those from La Tène, Roman tiles, and pottery of the kind known as terra sigillata, and coins of the time of Augustus, Tiberias, and Vespasian, etc., thus bringing the station down to the end of the first century of the Christian era. From Nidau and Sutz there are some curious iron spear-heads, and from Chevroux a three-pronged harpoon identical with analogous objects from La Tène ([Fig. 13], No. 15). Moeringen has yielded an iron horse-bit, an iron sword (La Tène), a curious iron fork, etc. On the south side of St. Peter's Island, in the Lake of Bienne, Colonel Schwab found among some piles objects of the stone, bronze, and Gallo-Roman periods, together with 40 Roman coins. From the same place there is in the Berne Museum an iron hatchet with a wooden handle of the La Tène type ([Fig. 197]). On several stations in Lake Neuchâtel similar objects have occasionally turned up. In Lake Morat iron objects and Roman remains were found at Greing, Faoug, Guevaux, and Motier. Also a knife, the blade of which was partly of iron and partly of bronze ([Fig. 14], No. 1).