Crossing over to the great Bavarian plateau which commands the sources of the Danube, there are on the northern flanks of the Alpine chain of mountains a series of lakes, many of which have been shown to contain remains of lake-dwellings. Those which have been sufficiently investigated to claim a notice here are the following:—Würmsee, Mondsee, Fuschlsee, Attersee, and Neusiedlersee.
LAKE OF STARNBERG (WÜRMSEE).
The Lake of Starnberg lies about 18 miles to the south of Munich, close to the spurs of the great Alpine chain of mountains. The coast is an undulating upland, interspersed with woods, villas, pleasure-grounds, and pretty villages—a passing glimpse of which, together with a constant view of the snow-clad mountains in the distance, renders a trip on this lake one of the most enjoyable attractions to Munich. At its northern end, where its surplus water is carried off by the Würm, it is only about a mile in breadth, but as we sail southwards it expands considerably, and ultimately attains a breadth of three or four miles, with a total length of 12 miles. About four miles up on its western side there is a low but prettily wooded island, called Rosen Insel since 1850, because it was then purchased by the King of Bavaria. Here a royal residence was built on the ruins of an old ecclesiastical establishment, and when its foundations were being dug various sepulchral remains of a mixed character were met with—prehistoric, Roman, and mediæval. Tradition says that the island was originally the site of a heathen temple and a sacred burying-place, which was subsequently appropriated by the Christians and used for similar purposes.
When Professor Desor visited the locality in 1864 in search of lake-dwelling remains, he found on the western margin of this island numerous piles, associated with some antiquities of the lacustrine kind so largely found in the Swiss lakes, from which he concluded that this was the site of a pile-village, and suggested that the whole island might be of an artificial nature. During the following year some further excavations were made, but no important results ensued beyond corroborating the opinion of Desor.
Fig. 36.—Starnberg. All 1⁄2 real size.
In 1874, however, advantage was taken of the low state of the water, and extensive excavations were made under the superintendence of Mr. v. Schab, the Government law-officer at Starnberg. Numerous shafts were dug on the margin of the island, and in all cases a relic-bed was encountered containing antiquities, apparently of very different ages. Not only was there abundance of the usual relics of the Stone Age, but also some of bronze, iron, glass, amber, etc. The collection of objects then made is thus summarised in Mr. v. Schab's report (B. 291):—Of staghorn 187, bronze 158, stone 69, bone 48, wood 7, iron 6, glass 3, and amber 1. The collection is deposited in the Ethnological Museum of Munich, from which I have had the privilege of taking most of the accompanying illustrations ([Figs. 36] and [37]). There appear to be more objects in the case in the Museum from the Starnberg lake-dwelling than Von Schab describes, as, for example, the bronze socketed celt ([Fig. 36], No. 9), but on the other hand it is well known that some have fallen into private hands.
