"At the bottom of some broken earthenware vessels there still remained grains of wheat and barley and hazel-nuts. Doubtless all the food, whether animal or vegetable, was kept in large or small vessels of earthenware."
Subsequently, on two occasions, Messikommer was asked by archæological societies to give a practical exposition of this interesting Packwerkbau for the edification of their members—once in 1872, when the meeting of the Swiss Natural History Society was held at Frauenfield; and again in 1877, when the German Anthropological Association met at Constance. (B. 406c.)
On all these occasions Messikommer paid particular attention to the size and kind of cottages the lake-dwellers possessed. In 1862, from the stumps of piles protruding through a portion of undisturbed flooring, he estimated the size of the habitable area for each cottage at 24 feet long by 18 feet broad. On these floorings were seen the remains of food and industry, just as fresh as if the people had recently left the place. ("Die Mühle mit Gerste und Weizen daneben, als wäre sie erst gestern noch bewohnt gewesen.") He believes that each cottage possessed not only its own domestic utensils but also its weaving and corn-grinding machines, etc.
The area occupied by the entire settlement was 20,000 square feet, and the nearest shore, when the basin was a lake, would be 30 or 40 yards distant.
The industrial remains collected from time to time at Niederwyl consist of:—Wheat, barley, flax, cakes of bread, wooden implements, clay weights ([Fig. 26], No. 3), stone hatchets (Nos. 7 and 8), flint saws (No. 1) and scrapers; some well-made dishes (Nos. 4, 5 and 6), one a remarkable jug (No. 6) with handle; another, of black earthenware, had been mended with asphalt. A strip of birch-bark (now in the Museum at Zürich) had been neatly sewn (No. 10). In the same Museum there is a stone (perforated) axe-hammer head which vies in elegance of workmanship with any from Scandinavia (No. 9).
Recently Messikommer has come to the conclusion that the Packwerkbau at Niederwyl existed during the early Bronze Age, as he found a piece of oak wood having cuts which could not have been made by a stone implement. From various considerations of the more recent facts brought to light in the course of his frequent excavations here and at Robenhausen he enunciates the opinion that wherever split oak beams or piles are found we may with certainty conclude that the settlement belongs to the early metal age. ("Man darf mit Bestimmtheit annehmen, dass alle jene Niederlassungen, in welchen gespaltenes Eichenholz in grösserer Menge zum Vorschein kommt, auch das Metall in einfacher [Kupfer] oder zusammengesetzter Form [Bronze] gekannt haben.") (B. 454c, p. 2.)
Fig. 26.—Niederwyl. Nos. 5 to 7 = 1⁄6, 10 = 2⁄3, and the rest = 1⁄3 real size.
Second Station.—Adjacent to the Egelsee basin, and separated from it only by about a dozen paces, is another small peat-basin known as the Riedsee, in which were recently found the remains of a true pile-dwelling. Here for some time fragments of pottery, stone hatchets, horns and bones of various animals, were met with in the peat; but in August, 1884, Messikommer discovered the actual piles associated with the usual objects of a Stone Age dwelling. The area of this Pfahlbau was small, measuring only 13 yards by 10. Its site lay near the margin of the peat, and the antiquities were met with 1 foot under the surface. Among these were a small earthenware dish or cover ornamented with four prominences and a few rows of punctured dots (No. 2), several wooden dishes in all stages of manufacture, entire handles of stone hatchets, worked horn, etc. A crucible similar to those from Robenhausen was also found near the same place.