Part 8 (1/2)
_Danish Peat Bogs._--The peat bogs of Denmark, so faithfully investigated by Professor Steenstrup, mark three periods of deposition.
The most ancient is called the _Scotch-Fir_; the second, immediately above, the _Oak_, and the uppermost, the _Beech_. The peat is from ten to forty feet in thickness, and to form a layer from ten to twenty feet thick would require, according to Steenstrup, _at least_ four thousand years, and perhaps even from three to four times that period.[68] These three epochs denote three periods of time. The lowest belongs to the neolithic, the middle to the bronze, and the last to the iron epoch. In the lowest, or _Fir_ period, have been found worked flints and bones.
Human bones have been found, which correspond with the bones taken from the tumuli of this epoch.
_The Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland._--Dr. Ferdinand Keller and his a.s.sociates have made known to the world the wonderful remains of villages situated in the lakes of Switzerland and other countries. The villages of Switzerland do not all belong to the same period, and they represent the neolithic, bronze, and iron epochs; but there was no hard line of demarcation between these three periods. These habitations are so numerous that more than two hundred settlements hare been discovered in Switzerland alone. Among the lakes furnis.h.i.+ng these remains may be counted the Lake of Neuchatel (forty-six settlements); Lake Constance (thirty-two settlements); Lake of Geneva (twenty-four settlements); Lake of Bienne (twenty-one settlements); Lake of Morat (sixteen settlements); Lake of Zurich (three settlements); Lake of Pfaeffikon (six settlements); Lake of Sempach (six settlements); Lake of Moosseedorf (two settlements); Lake of Inkwyl (one settlement); Lake of Nussbaumen (one settlement); Lake Greiffensee (one settlement); Lake of Zug (six settlements); Lake of Baldegg (five settlements), and others.
The habitations belonging to the neolithic are Lake Constance thirty, Neuchatel twelve, Geneva two settlements; one each at Morat, Bienne, Zurick, Pfaeffikon, Inkwyl, Moosseedorf, Nussbaumen, the settlement of Concise, the bridge Thiele, the peat-bog of Wauwyl, and others.
These dwellings were built near the sh.o.r.e, on piles of various kinds of wood, sharpened by tools and fire, and driven into the mud at the shallow bottom of the lake. In some of the settlements the piles were fastened by heaping stones around them. The piles were sometimes placed together, at others apart. The heads were brought to a level and then the platform beams were fastened upon them. This basis served for the foundation of the rude rectangular huts they erected. These piles are not now seen above the water, yet they are visible above the bottom of the lake. The number of piles in some of these settlements is as high as one hundred thousand, and the area occupied, not less than seventy thousand square yards. It has been estimated that the population of the Lake-villages during the neolithic was over thirty thousand.
The object of these dwellings was to protect the inhabitants from wild animals, the attacks of enemies, and for the ready obtaining of food by fis.h.i.+ng. They were not only occupied by the inhabitants, but also by their herds and the stores of fodder.[69]
_Robenhausen._--It is not necessary to go into an account of a number of these settlements to represent the neolithic epoch, for the settlement at Robenhausen (Lake Pfaeffikon) takes the first rank in giving the domestic arrangements of the ancient inhabitants. This settlement covered a s.p.a.ce of nearly three acres, and one hundred thousand piles were used in the whole structure. Its form was an irregular quadrangle.
It was about two thousand paces from the ancient western sh.o.r.e of the lake, and about three thousand from the sh.o.r.e in the opposite direction.
With the last-named side there was a communication by means of a bridge, the piles of which are still visible. On this side were the gardens and pastures. The dwellers of this settlement were unfortunate, as their habitation was twice burned up, and each time, they rallied and rebuilt their huts. They remained a long time as would seem from the depth of the peat and the vast amount of relics found.
At a depth of eleven feet were found the earliest or most ancient relics; at ten and one-half feet, the remains of the first conflagration--charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at seven and one-half feet, flooring, relics of the second settlement, and excrement of cows, sheep, and goats; at six and one half feet, remains of second conflagration--charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at three and one-half feet, broken stones, flooring, and relics of the third settlement; at two and one half feet, stone celts, pottery, but no traces of fire. Above this was two feet of peat and one-half foot of mould.
Without going into detail, the objects found in these various beds are as follows: Made out of wood, are knives, ladles, plates, clubs of ash, in which is fixed a socket of stag's horn containing a stone celt, a boat made of a single trunk, twelve feet long, two and one-half feet wide, and five inches deep, flails for thres.h.i.+ng out grain, bows notched at both ends, fis.h.i.+ng implements, floats for the support of nets, suspension hooks, tubs, chisels, sandals, yokes made for carrying vessels, and a peculiar ornament. These implements were all made out of yew, maple, ash, fir, and the root of the hazel bush. Out of stag's horn--arrow-heads, daggers, piercing and sc.r.a.ping tools, implements for knitting and for agriculture. The implements of stone were polished, and of the usual form. The objects of clay were fragments of pottery, in the shape of urns, plates, and cups, in great abundance. There were also found spoons, and a perforated cone, supposed to have been used as a weight for the loom. Several crucibles or melting pots have been found, which were used for melting copper. The third building of this village was on the borderland between the stone and bronze ages.
The remains of animals found here and at Moosseedorf and Wauwyl, all of the neolithic, belong to the brown bear, badger, marten, pine-marten, polecat, wolf, fox, wild-cat, beaver, elk, urus, bison, stag, roe-deer, wild-boar, marsh-boar; the domestic animals were the boar, horse, ox, goat, sheep, and dog. The remains of the domestic hog are absent from all the pile works of this period, save the one at Wauwyl.
Among cereals (Robenhausen) were found several varieties of wheat and barley; fruits and berries--service-tree, dog-rose, elder, bilberry, and wayfaring tree; the nuts--hazel, beech, and water-chestnut; the oil-producing plants--opium, or garden poppy, and dogwood; the fibrous plants--flax; plants used for dying--weld; forest trees and shrubs--silver fir, juniper, yew, ash, and oak; water and marsh plants--lake scirpus, pondweeds, common hornwort, marsh bedstraw, buckbean, yellow waterlily, ivy-leaved crowfoot, and marsh pennywort.
Besides these there have been found many specimens of plaited and woven cloth; also ropes, cords, and a portion of a linseed cake.[70]
In the different settlements the same axes and knives abound, and are of small size. The arrow-heads and saws are an improvement on those of the preceding epoch. Among domestic implements, spindle-whorls of rude earthenware were abundant in some of the villages, and corn-crushers are occasionally met with from two to three inches in diameter. About five hundred implements of stone have been found at Wauwyl, consisting of axes, small flint arrow-heads, flint-flakes, corn-crushers, rude stones used as hammers, whetstones, and sling-stones.
As these Lake-Dwellings not only belong to the last of the neolithic, but extend beyond, they naturally have a place in the close of this period. M. Troyon says the dwellings of this period came suddenly to an ”end by the irruption of a people provided with bronze implements. The lake-dwellings were burned by these new-comers, and the primitive inhabitants were slaughtered or driven back into remote places. This catastrophe affects chiefly the settlements of East Switzerland, which entirely disappeared, and also a number of those on the sh.o.r.e of the western lakes. Some few settlements, however--namely, those of the so-called transition period--are said not to have been destroyed by the new people till after the inhabitants had begun to make use of bronze implements.”[71]
Dr. Keller takes exception to these views. He says there is no sudden leap from one cla.s.s of civilization to another, and that the metals came gradually into use. The lake-dwellings were not burned down by the irruption of a foreign people; for at Niederwyl, and several settlements of the Unter-See, no traces of fire have been observed. The fact that but a very few human skeletons have been found in the whole settlements, contradicts the supposition of a battle having taken place between the aborigines and the supposed conquerors, and of the destruction of the former by the latter.[72]
Lake-dwellings belonging to this age and the bronze, have been found in Bavaria, Northern Italy, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Herodotus says that the Paeonians lived this way in Lake Prasias (Thrace), and Lubbock says that the fishermen of Lake Prasias still inhabit wooden huts built over the water. The town of Tcherkask in Russia, is constructed over the river Don, and Venice itself is but a lacustrine city.[73]
Several attempts have been made to estimate the time which has elapsed since the neolithic period. The estimates of M. Morlot are based on the discoveries made in a hillock formed by the river Tiniere at its entrance into the lake of Geneva. This cone contained three distinct layers of vegetable earth placed at different depths between the deposits of alluvium. The first was at a depth of three and one-half feet from the top, and was from four to six inches thick, and in it were found relics of the Roman period; the second was five and one-fourth feet lower, and six inches thick, in which were fragments of bronze; the third was at a depth of eighteen feet from the top, and varied in thickness from six to seven inches, and contained fragments of the stone age. History proves that the layer containing the Roman relics is from thirteen to eighteen centuries old. Since that epoch the cone has increased three and one-half feet, and if the increase was the same in previous ages, then the bed containing the bronze is from twenty-nine hundred to forty-two hundred years old, and the lowest layer, belonging to the stone age, is from four thousand seven hundred to ten thousand years old.
The calculation by M. Gillieron was made from the discoveries near the bridge of Thiele. About one thousand two hundred and thirty feet from the present sh.o.r.e is the old abbey of Saint Jean, built in the year 1100. There is a doc.u.ment which seems to show that the abbey was built on the edge of the lake. Then, in seven hundred and fifty years the lake retired one thousand two hundred and thirty feet. The distance of the present sh.o.r.e from the settlement of the bridge of Thiele is eleven thousand and seventy-two feet, and consequently the settlement is not less than six thousand seven hundred and fifty years old.
M. Figuier a.s.signs to the lake-dwellings an antiquity of from six to seven thousand years before the Christian era.[74]
CHAPTER XI.
MAN OF THE NEOLITHIC.
From the human bones found in peat-bogs and tumuli, man is represented as having a narrow but round skull, with a projecting ridge above the eyebrows, showing he was round-headed, his eyebrows overhanging, small of stature though stout, and having a great resemblance to the Laplanders. In many respects the race was much superior to that of the preceding epoch. Man advanced rapidly in the arts, and made great progress in civilization. He had pa.s.sed out of the barbarous, and might be called a semi-barbarian.
_Habitations._--Man's habitation varied according to the locality. In the extreme south of France he continued for a considerable length of time to occupy the caves and rock-shelters; in Switzerland, the pile-buildings, and in Denmark he undoubtedly had rude huts placed close together and in proximity to the sh.e.l.l-heaps.