On the south shore of Lake Fuschl there is a small island of circular form, and about 50 paces in diameter, which, it seems, is of artificial construction, and strikingly analogous to our Scottish and Irish crannogs. The island, which is a little raised above the level of the water, lies close to the shore, being only separated from it by a narrow ditch or canal, which in the course of time has got filled up with moss and the débris of marsh plants. On digging a hole in its interior there was encountered first a thick layer of moss and heather, and then a mass of decayed wood, chiefly branches of pine and dwarf birch. This mass was kept together by small piles, but around the margin there were stronger piles and a quantity of other beams to be seen. Few antiquities were, however, found on it, and its investigation from this point of view did not seem very encouraging. (B. 257.)
NEUSIEDLERSEE.
Over the vast territory drained by the Danube there are some further lacustrine remains indicative of lake or pile dwellings, but which are probably only a small fraction of what could be revealed with careful and systematic research. In 1872 Jeitteles published a notice of pile structures discovered in the town of Olmütz (B. 221); and more recently at Nimlau, in the same neighbourhood, similar wooden structures were detected in a pond. In this case there were five rows of oak piles associated with cross-beams; each row was five feet apart, and the whole was covered with mud to the extent of nearly two feet.[29]
Fig. 41.—Neusiedlersee and Keutschachersee (10). All 1⁄2 real size.
In 1874 Count Béla Széchenyi (B. 283) made some important discoveries at the south end of the bed of the Neusiedlersee, which can hardly be explained on any other hypothesis than that they were the industrial débris of a lake-dwelling. This is a large lake of brackish water measuring about 72 miles in circumference, but so shallow that in its deepest part it attains only a depth of 10 or 12 feet. It terminates at its south-east side in a swamp called Hanság, ("floating turf"), of greater extent than the lake itself. It appears to be subject to great fluctuations in its extent, so much so that in 1854 its area commenced to decrease till in a few years later its bed became completely dried up. Cultivation of the land occupied by it was then begun, but the water has since returned. It was in 1874, on land reclaimed from this lake in these circumstances, that Count Széchenyi found, scattered over the surface, bits of pottery, stone celts, flint implements, etc. On making systematic investigations of these finds, along with some of his scientific friends, he found that in two spots these relics were met with in greater profusion, and that, corresponding with these productive areas, there was a substratum of blackish mould which became more clearly defined by the rankness of its vegetation. These were supposed to have been the sites of habitation, and accordingly excavations were undertaken to clear up the matter, but they revealed nothing new. Only the same classes of relics were found as on the surface, with the exception of a few bones very much decayed. No piles were observed, and after digging to the depth of about three feet water came into the trenches and so stopped further progress in this direction. About 100 square yards were explored, during which the following relics were collected:—31 perforated stone axes or hammers, of which only two were whole; 96 plain stone axes, of which about two-thirds were well formed, the rest being more or less fragmentary; six stone chisels, and 14 worked stones or polishers, corn-grinders, etc.; a net-sinker and two small beads, together with a few scrapers and flint-flakes; and pottery to the amount of 200 to 300 fragments, among which only three vases were still entire. Illustrations of some of these relics are given on [Fig. 41], Nos. 1 to 9.
The osseous remains were much decayed, but among them the following animals were identified, viz. stag, urus, ox, pig, and horse (represented only by two teeth).
Flints were comparatively rare, but the stone implements were varied both in form and material, being made of such materials as serpentine, diorite, basalt and schist.
The pottery, though rude, appeared to have been partly made on the wheel, but yet had finger-nail marks and other curved impressions as ornamentation. All sorts of handles were used, from mere perforations for strings to the most perfectly made handle. The paste was mixed with coarse materials.