DIFFERENT LAKE-VILLAGES.

167

not yet sufficient to justify any conclusion. Still the nature and execution of the ornaments-the manufacture of pottery, the presence of the potter's wheel, the greater variety of requirements, evidenced by the greater variety of implements, the indications of more advanced husbandry, the diminution of wild animals and the increase of tame

ones-all indicate a higher civilisation for the inhabitants of

Morges and Nidau, than for those of Moosseedorf and Wauwyl.

Col. Schwab has found at the Steinberg more than twenty

Considered by Prof. Rütimeyer to

have been at first wild, but domesticated

at Nidau and in the later Pfahlbauten.

crescents, made of earthenware, and with the convex side flattened, to serve as a foot. They are compressed at the sides, sometimes plain, sometimes ornamented, from eight to twelve inches from one horn to the other, and from six to eight inches in height. They are considered by Dr. Keller to be religious emblems, and are taken as evidence of moonworship. He refers to Pliny, xvi. 95: "Est autem id (viscum) rarum admodum inventu et repertum magnâ religione petitur et ante omnia sextâ lunâ, quæ principia mensium annorumque his facit, et sæculi post tricesimum annum, quia jam virium abunde habeat nec sit sui dimidia; omnia sanuntem appellantes suo vocabulo." This passage he translates as follows: "The mistletoe is, however, very rare, but when it is found it is gathered with great religious ceremony, especially on the sixth day of the moon, at which epoch begin their months, years, and divisions of thirty years, because it has then sufficient force, and yet is not in the middle of its course; calling it Heal-all in their language." This name has generally been referred to the mistletoe. But the Swiss archæologists consider that this is a mistake, and that it properly refers to the moon.

The Pileworks of Switzerland appear to have become gradually less numerous. During the Stone age they were spread over the whole country. Confined, so far as we at present know, during the Bronze era to the Lakes of Western Switzerland; during that of Iron they have as yet been found only on the Lakes of Bienne and Neufchatel. In these settlements not only has a new substance made its appearance, but the forms of the implements are different. We have, indeed, copies of the bronze axes made in iron, just as we found before that some of the earlier bronze celts resembled the stone axes in form, but these are exceptional

cases.

The swords have larger handles, and are more richly

See The Celt, Roman and Saxon, p. 48.

OF THE LAKE-VILLAGES.

169

ornamented; the knives have straight edges; the sickles are larger; the pottery is more skilfully made and is of the kind generally known as Roman: the personal ornaments are also more varied, and glass for the first time makes its appearance.

A field of battle at Tiefenau, near Berne, is remarkable for the great number of iron weapons and implements which have been found on it. Pieces of chariots, about a hundred swords, fragments of coat of mail, lance-heads, rings, fibulæ, ornaments, utensils, pieces of pottery and of glass, accompanied by more than thirty Gaulish and Massaliote coins of a date anterior to our era, enable us to refer this battle-field to the Roman period. About forty Roman coins have also been found at the small island on the Lake of Bienne.

After this period we find no more evidences of Lake-habitations on a large scale. Here and there, indeed, a few fishermen may have lingered on the half-destroyed platforms, but the wants and habits of the people had changed, and the age of the Swiss Pileworks was at an end.

We have, however, traced them through the ages of Stone and Bronze down to the beginning of the Iron period. We have seen evidences of a gradual progress in civilisation, and improvement in the arts, an increase in the number of domestic animals, and proofs at last of the existence of an extended commerce. We found the country inhabited only by rude savages, and we leave it the seat of a powerful nation. Changes so important as these are not effected in a day; the progress of the human mind is but slow; and the gradual additions to human knowledge and power, like the rings in trees, enable us to form some idea how distant must be the date of their commencement. So varied, however, are the conditions of the human mind, so much are all nations affected by the influence of others, that when we attempt to express our impressions, so to say, in terms of years, we are baffled by the complexity of the problem.

Some attempts have, indeed, been made to obtain a more definite chronology, and they will be alluded to in a later chapter. Though we must not conceal from ourselves the imperfection of the archæological record, still we need not despair of eventually obtaining some approximate chronology. Our knowledge of primitive antiquity has made an enormous stride in the last ten years, and we may fairly look forward with hope to the future.

The Swiss archæologists are continuing their labors, and they may rest assured that we in England await with interest. the result of their investigations. Few things can be more interesting than the spectacle of an ancient and long-forgotten people thus rising, as it were, to take that place which properly belongs to it in the history of the human race.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DANISH KJÖKKENMÖDDINGS, OR SHELL-MOUNDS.

ENMARK occupies a larger space in the history, than

DE

on the map of Europe; the nation is greater than the country. Though, with the growth of physical power in surrounding populations, she has lost somewhat of her influence in political councils, and has recently been most unjustly deprived of a great part of her ancient possessions: still the Danes of to-day are no unworthy representatives of their ancestors. Many a larger nation might envy them the position they hold in science and in art, and few have contributed more to the progress of human knowledge. Copenhagen may well be proud both of her museums and of her professors. I would especially point to the celebrated Museum of Northern Antiquities, as being most characteristic and unique.

For the formation of such a collection Denmark offers unrivalled opportunities. The whole country appears to have been, at one time, thickly studded with tumuli: where the land has not been brought into cultivation, many of them are often in sight at once, and even in the more fertile and thickly populated parts, the plough is often diverted from its course by one of these ancient burial places. Fortunately, the stones of which they are constructed are so large and so hard, that their destruction and removal is a laborious and expensive undertaking. While, however, land grows more