Bronze.—Of about 100 large hollow bracelets more or less perfect, some 50 are ornamented with transverse lines; the rest have various designs of lines and circles. A few bracelets are solid, and more or less penannular, with pointed or expanded tips. Four bracelets are of double wires, one of which is spirally grooved and ends in a hook and eye. Of six small socketed hammers, three have side loops, and all are more or less rectangularly shaped. Among 60 hatchets, only six have sockets, and nearly all have side loops, but no terminal catch. Two have the side loop transverse to the cutting edge.
Of 78 knives, nine are socketed, three have solid handles, apparently as part of the blade, and the rest have tangs (three being bent into a loop at the top).
Among some hundreds of pins, only seven or eight have perforated heads.
Of three horse-bits, one is entire ([Fig. 191], No. 8); and of the others, only the twisted central portion remains ([Fig. 11], No. 23). Moreover, there are 14 perforated portions of horn, supposed to have been parts of bridles.
Among the special objects from this station is a slender bronze rod terminating at each end with a movable ring, somewhat like the beam of a balance (No. 16). In the Museum at Boudry there is a curious ornamental tube of bronze (No. 20).
In 1888 Dr. Brière communicated a short note to Antiqua (B. 463a), in which he enumerates the following objects as the most interesting among recent finds:—A bracelet of lignite (No. 14), a tin wheel (No. 5), an amulet of bronze like the casing of a pair of spectacles (No. 15), a large bronze knife with a horn handle (No. 19), an amulet of staghorn (No. 17), a bead of amber suspended by a twisted bronze wire (No. 18), and a complete bridle-bit of horn ([Fig. 191], No. 1).
Les Uttins (Yverdon).—At the foot of Mount Chamblon, rather more than a mile from the lake, there are some peat deposits, which the peasants have been in the habit of utilising as fuel. Here in two spots, according to Mr. Rochat,[11] the peat-cutters are reported to have met with piles and transverse beams with mortices. The tops of the piles were 6 to 10 feet below the surface. A flint arrow-head, two stone celts of serpentine, and a bronze bracelet, were found in one of these bogs; and hence Messrs. Troyon and Rochat (B. 31, p. 70) consider that there was a palafitte here—a supposition which involves the theory that the lake formerly extended to the locality. Nor is this theory without some evidence in support of it, as the amount of débris brought down by the Thielle is very great. On the supposition that the Roman city of Eburodunum, the ruins of which are now 2,500 feet from the present shore, was built on the lake in the fourth century, Mr. Troyon calculates that the water of the lake would have been as far back as the site of the palafitte about fifteen centuries before the Christian era.
Clendy, Cheseaux, and Chable à Perron.—Along this part of the shore there were three or four settlements with steinbergs, but the piles are now destroyed, and the few antiquities collected belong apparently to the Stone Age. Chable à Perron covers an area of some 3,500 square yards, but the only antiquities found were serpentine hatchets and their horn fixings, some flints, pointed bones, and fragments of coarse pottery. (R. 336.)
Some interesting notes of the early researches and discoveries made on the various stations in the vicinity of Yverdon are given by Mr. Rochat in Kellers third report on the Pfahlbauten. (B. 34.)
Font.—On this station a cup-marked stone was found, and Troyon records several objects—a curious bronze needle, Roman tiles, and Imperial Roman money—as coming from the same place. Professor Grangier, of Fribourg,[12] found here some Roman medals, together with an iron arrow-head, iron keys, and subsequently an oar.[13] He states that the whole coast, from Font to Estavayer, was occupied with piles, and that he attempted to make a plan of the stations, but gave it up, because the configuration was constantly changing. The original conditions were also entirely altered by the number of piles extracted by the fishermen. He knew one family who for two generations had never used any other firewood but piles extracted from the lake-dwelling stations. One place, about half-way between Font and Estavayer, was well known for its antiquities, and went among the fishermen under the name of "La Pianta." (B. 178, p. 169.) In the Fribourg Museum there is a considerable number of bronze objects from Pianta, some of which are here figured ([Fig. 12], Nos. 1 to 10, and 24). I have also noted three stone moulds (two of wheel pendants), and an ingot of bronze. Some pins and a knife are in the Bern Museum.