Part 49

In reviewing the salient features of the Iron Age we have still more complicated problems to deal with. There are, in reality, no lake-dwellings of the early Iron Age in Central Europe, showing a Transition period, as we have seen to have been the case between the Stone and Bronze Ages; nor, indeed, any which can be said to have a continued sequence to the great system of pile-dwellings which prevailed so extensively in earlier times. No doubt iron shows itself in a few objects characteristic of the Bronze Age, such as a few swords and bracelets encrusted with ornamental bands of this material, but there are no tools or weapons made of iron at all analogous to those which characterise the Bronze Age. No Transition period such as we find in the relics from the graves at Hallstadt, where iron is seen, as it were, competing with bronze. On the contrary, in the Swiss lake-dwellings iron-working appears in a state of great perfection. The few objects found on their sites are mostly of the La Tène type, which we have seen to be entirely different in character, manufacture, and style of ornamentation, from anything known in the previous ages. In some stations we find not only La Tène types, but Roman tiles, pottery, and coins, and even objects of a still later period, such as Gallo-Roman, Allemanisch, and Merovingian remains. Thus, at Starnberg, we have of iron, two spear-heads, a horseshoe, and a remarkable kind of knife (=Fig. 37=, No. 1). In the investigations conducted during the winter of 1864-5 in the Überlingersee, Dr. Lachmann records the following iron objects from the bronze station of Unter-Uhldingen:--one lance-head, five arrow-points, one axe, two chisels, 12 knife-blades, two sickle-like objects, one dagger-knife, one ring, one triangular plate with attached ring, one fibula, one pin, part of a two-edged sword, a short sword with a wooden handle, a fork, a stamp, a pair of pincers, etc.--in all 40 objects. Also at Sipplingen there were three arrow-heads, two sickles, one lance-head, a one-edged sword, and a Roman key. In the Museum at Friedrichshafen are several objects of iron taken from Uhldingen, viz. two knives like pruning-hooks (_hippen_), a hammer-hatchet, a fibula (La Tène) 9 inches long, two harpoons, several arrow-heads, six horseshoes, one dagger, and a girdle-hook. Still more interesting are fragments of fine glass found on both these stations, as well as at the Rauenegg in the Bay of Constance. One bit of this glass, of a grey greenish colour, had been ornamented with gold enamel. According to the opinion of Mr. Hofrath Klemm, of Dresden, this glass belongs to the sixth or seventh century. (B. 378.)

In Lake Zürich on the station of Grosser Hafner were found an iron spear-head like those from La Tène, Roman tiles, and pottery of the kind known as terra sigillata, and coins of the time of Augustus, Tiberias, and Vespasian, etc., thus bringing the station down to the end of the first century of the Christian era. From Nidau and Sutz there are some curious iron spear-heads, and from Chevroux a three-pronged harpoon identical with analogous objects from La Tène (=Fig. 13=, No. 15). Moeringen has yielded an iron horse-bit, an iron sword (La Tène), a curious iron fork, etc. On the south side of St. Peter's Island, in the Lake of Bienne, Colonel Schwab found among some piles objects of the stone, bronze, and Gallo-Roman periods, together with 40 Roman coins. From the same place there is in the Berne Museum an iron hatchet with a wooden handle of the La Tène type (=Fig. 197=). On several stations in Lake Neuchâtel similar objects have occasionally turned up. In Lake Morat iron objects and Roman remains were found at Greing, Faoug, Guevaux, and Motier. Also a knife, the blade of which was partly of iron and partly of bronze (=Fig. 14=, No. 1).

Iron objects have also been occasionally found on a few stations in the Lake of Geneva, as at Plongeon and Morges; from the latter of which Dr. Forel records a number of sickles of various forms, some of which were like those of La Tène. In Lake Bourget a knife with a bronze handle and an iron blade (International Congress, Paris, p. 266), and a piece of pottery with the name _Severinus_ stamped on it. (B. 176, p. 24.) In the Museum of Chambery there is a large spear-head of iron encrusted with broad lines of copper or bronze from this lake (=Fig. 198=) which is very similar to one found near the Pont de la Thiele.

But in all these instances the occurrence of iron is so exceptional that only probable deductions can be founded on them. Most of the iron objects have undoubtedly the same origin as those of La Tène. The rare bronze objects with encrusted iron bands, such as a few bracelets (Moeringen, Auvernier, Cortaillod, and Corcelettes), and one or two swords (Moeringen), need not cause surprise when we remember the extent to which commercial intercourse seems to have been carried on by the lake-dwellers with eastern nations; and that both iron and bronze were in use in Greece at least 1,200 years before the Christian era, while in Egypt and Central Asia these metals were known some 1,500 years earlier. Between those objects in which iron is used as an ornament (all of which are of the same style as the bronze objects), and the La Tène weapons, there is a wide gap which is not bridged over by any relics found in the lake-dwellings. In short, the evolutionary stage between the smelting of bronze and the forging of iron is here represented by a corresponding _hiatus_ between the styles of art of the two periods more striking than that which distinguishes the neolithic from palæolithic industrial remains.

So far as I have looked into these matters I can only conclude that, with the introduction of iron into general use in Switzerland, we have a new people who conquered and subjugated the lake-dwellers and gave the death-blow to their system of lake-villages. Henceforth these villages fell into decay, and in the general destruction which ensued these La Tène implements might have been introduced by the invaders. In Roman times there remained only the ruins of a few stations. One thing is clearly established, that the conquerors of the lake-dwellers had a full knowledge of the working of iron in all its phases. The important point here is not the date of the discovery of this metal, but that of its application to the manufacture of all weapons and cutting implements. It is not likely that an art so complicated and requiring so much metallurgical and technical skill as that of the smelting and forging of iron had a sudden origin; and consequently we must look for its birthplace and evolutionary stages elsewhere. The remarkable collection of weapons, implements, and ornaments found at La Tène, to which I specially directed attention in a previous lecture, gives us a striking picture of the metallurgical skill to which their owners had attained prior to any influences from Roman art. So important are these antiquities considered by archæologists that the name La Tène has now become a generic expression, and represents a special group which, both in form and style of ornamentation, cannot be confounded with any other, either Greek, Roman, Etruscan or Phoenician. Who were these new comers into Switzerland who so suddenly intruded themselves on the peaceful lake-dwellers? To this question there is no response from the skulls and other portions of human skeletons found at La Tène. Out of ten skulls submitted to Professor Virchow he found that five were brachycephalic and two dolichocephalic, while the other three had intermediate cranial indices. We must therefore fall back on the character of the antiquities; and for this purpose I place before you some typical examples of this remarkable group (=Fig. 199=) culled from various sources for the purpose of showing their complete identity with those from the oppidum La Tène. Having satisfied ourselves on this point I proceed to glance rapidly over the geographical area in which such objects are found, with the view of showing to what people they belonged.

In the course of making the high-road from Berne to the bridge of Tiefenau in 1849-50 the workmen came upon a large quantity of weapons and implements of iron which, though very much rusted and decayed, can be clearly identified as belonging to the La Tène group. These objects, now preserved in the Museum at Berne, consist of the _débris_ of arms, coats of mail, chariots, bridle-bits, bones of horses, pottery fine and coarse, some thirty pieces of money (_massaliotes et celtiques_), glass beads, iron and bronze buttons, sickles, knives, hatchets, etc. These objects, which were all mixed together in a miscellaneous manner, some two or three feet below the surface, had no appearance of ordinary burial, and are therefore considered to be the huddled up _débris_ of a battle-field. The objects, so far as they can be made out, are described and figured by Baron de Bonstetten in his "Supplément au Recueil d'Antiquités Suisses, 1860," and "Notice sur les Armes et Chariots de Guerre découverts à Tiefenau, 1851."

During the excavations for the "Correction des Eaux du Jura," some remarkable discoveries were made, especially while deepening and rectifying the lower Thielle between Nidau and Meyenried. Immediately below the village of Port the _débris_ of a pile-village was encountered, to which I have already alluded. Above this village the dredgers came in contact with a row of piles which Dr. v. Fellenberg concluded to have been the supports of a bridge. These piles were from 8 to 12 inches thick, and near them were collected over 100 weapons of the La Tène types, including swords, spears, etc. Another locality was a little below Brügg, where traces of two bridges were encountered, one of the Gallo-Roman period and the other supposed to be of later date. Near the former a large collection of antiquities was made, including objects, not only of the La Tène type, but also others of Etruscan and Roman origin. Amongst the La Tène objects collected during these operations are swords and sheaths (one of the latter being of bronze), spear-heads, axes, sickles, etc., which are identical with those figured from La Tène. One of the spear-heads is ornamented with incised lines producing two designs, one on the right side of each surface, as shown in _Fig. 199_, No. 7.

In France similar antiquities have been collected on the Helvetico-Romano battle-fields, such as Alise St. Renne (Alesia of Cæsar), and Mont Beuvray (Bibracte), as well as in some graves in northern France, particularly in the valleys of the Marne and the Aube. Some of these graves were evidently the final resting place of Gaulish chiefs, and contained in addition to the body a complete suite of military equipments. For comparison I have given here some illustrations of these discoveries. No. 1 represents the famous bronze helmet known as the Casque de Berru, described by Bertrand, which is particularly interesting on account of the ornamental designs which it displays.[146] No. 2 is a similar helmet ornamented with a kind of fretwork, and along with it in the same grave were a great many objects, weapons, ornaments, the bronze mountings of horses' harness, and the _débris_ of a chariot.[147] A few of these are here illustrated, viz. an iron spear (No. 8), a sword and its sheath both of iron (No. 16), two bronze fibulæ (Nos. 10 and 11), a gold bracelet (No. 13), a bronze horse-bit (No. 12), and some specimens of mountings for a chariot (Nos. 14 and 15), and harness (No. 9).

Characteristic finds of this period have also been found in Savoy, the Alpine Passes, and North Italy. In the Museums of Bologna, Este, Milan, Turin, etc., are deposited the contents of numerous warrior-graves, which show unmistakable examples of the characteristic swords and scabbards and other objects of La Tène civilisation. Its central home, however, appears to have been the middle and upper Rhine districts, Baden, Bavaria, and eastwards to Bohemia and Laibach. Northwards sporadic examples are found as far as the Baltic.

One of the most important finds of this character in Europe was discovered, investigated, and described some ten years ago.[148] Near the village Stradonic in Bohemia there is a truncated eminence known under the name "der Berg Hradischt," which, owing to the precipitous nature of its slopes, is only accessible on one side. By nature this rocky eminence is admirably adapted for a military camping place, and that it was occupied in such a capacity in prehistoric times is evident from the mass of industrial remains of all ages found at various depths on its summit. Among these, however, by far the largest number were of the La Tène type, including a large quantity of money precisely similar to that found on La Tène. Gold pieces were particularly numerous, some 200 being found in one place. Others were of silver and potin, some imitating the coins of Philip of Macedon, and others bearing impressions of the fantastic horse with the long tail and horn (=Fig. 92=, Nos. 5 to 8). Roman coins were also present, but very sparingly. Among industrial and ornamental remains were fragments of glass bracelets of a yellow, blue, or red colour (Nos. 3 and 4), pincers, torques, grotesque figures of animal heads, iron axes, bridle-bits, etc. Upwards of 100 dice pieces of bone (Nos. 17 and 18). The characteristic fibulæ were of iron and bronze, the former, however, predominating. I have here placed side by side two bronze fibulæ precisely alike except in dimensions, one (No. 5) being from La Tène and the other (No. 6) from Hradischt. The former is after Vouga (B. 428, Pl. xvi. 17), who describes it as of the Hallstadt type, and probably of an older date than the ordinary La Tène objects. The presence of two objects so similar in style and ornamentation in such distant localities not only proves that they are forms of fibulæ then prevalent, but also becomes a striking confirmation of the contemporaneity of oppidum La Tène and the occupation of the camp on Hradischt. That they were the same people who occupied both places there can be little doubt.

The repeated incursions of the Gauls into North Italy, prior to its conquest by the Romans, so often referred to in classical writers, have been strikingly confirmed by recent archæological researches. In the cemeteries of Benacci, Villanova, and Marzabotto, in the vicinity of Bologna, the Gallic element has been for some time recognised by many of the most competent archæologists. During the excavations at Benacci three series of graves were observed, at different depths, the contents of which clearly prove that they were the cemeteries of different races. The first, or uppermost, were burials of the Roman period. Underneath them was a group of twelve graves which, from the long iron swords and characteristic fibulæ found along with the bodies, are now universally accepted as Celtic or Gaulish. Below these, again, was a third group which in every respect corresponded with the Etruscan cemetery of Villanova.[149] Helbig assigns the date of the Celtic graves at Marzabotto to the end of the fifth or beginning of the fourth century B.C. (B. 335, p. 35.)

In 1878 Castelfranco investigated a cemetery at Soldo, in the Brianza district, in which, among other things, he found the following relics:--A bronze fibula and an iron knife, precisely similar to those here figured from the Starnberg lake-dwelling (=Fig. 36=, No. 22, and =Fig. 37=, No. 1); an iron shears like those from La Tène: a Celtic silver coin; a vase with the word VITILIOS scratched on it in rude _graffiti_, which Fabretti ascribes to a Celtic source ("La direi celtica per la desinenza, come pure per la forma del T"). See B. 343, pp. 6 to 28, and Pl. i.

More recently (1886) the same author described several groups of cemeteries scattered over Lombardy, particularly on the left side of the Po, in which he found characteristic examples of the La Tène civilisation--swords, spears, knives, fibulæ, saws, shears, nodulated rings, etc.[150]

During the earlier discoveries of objects of this peculiar phase of art there was considerable diversity of opinion as to the people and period to which they should be referred. The Tiefenau "find" was assigned by Mr. Albert Jahn to the old Helvetians ("Canton Bern"), while Baron de Bonstetten referred it to the German races who invaded Helvetia in the fourth century. M. Veschère de Reffye, in describing the discoveries at the ancient fortress of Alesia, assigned the weapons found in the trenches, which turned out to be of the same character as those of La Tène, to the Helvetians.[151] Acting on this suggestion, Desor expressed the opinion that the La Tène iron weapons and other implements were introduced into Switzerland by the Helvetians, who hailed from Germany, and entered the country as conquerors. Dr. Keller, apparently prejudiced by his preconceived notion that the lake-dwellings of the Stone and Bronze Ages were due to the Celts, had a difficulty in believing that the advanced civilisation of La Tène was a direct evolutionary product of the Bronze Age; but yet he would not agree with the opinion that these civilisations indicated different races.

But perhaps the most important contribution to the subject was by Mr. Franks,[152] who demonstrated by an analysis of the style of ornamentation, together with an array of historical references bearing on the customs of the ancient Celtic races, that to them alone must be assigned the remarkable remains now in question. The few additional notices of later discoveries here introduced only strengthen this opinion. In my investigations of the British lake-dwellings, almost the only instance in which analogous remains have come to light is the "find" at Lisnacroghera; but the prevalence of such antiquities in Britain from about the second century B.C. till the introduction of Christianity, when the spiral and trumpet-shaped ornamentation became modified, and to a considerable extent superseded, by the addition of interlacements, has been so fully established by Mr. Franks that on this point nothing remains to be said.

From these remarks you see that we are among the class of antiquities (described and illustrated in "Horæ Ferales") to which Mr. Franks has given the name "Late Celtic." The owners of these La Tène weapons in Switzerland were the Helvetians, of Roman celebrity, who, according to Cæsar, were a branch of the great Celtic family who so long dominated over the rest of the Aryan races, and whose civilisation is only now in its death struggle in the outlying districts of Western Europe. Who these Celts were is a question which still puzzles historians, philologists, and archæologists. The term "Late Celtic" is sufficiently clear, and, as we have seen, accurately defines a most remarkable group of antiquities; but it necessarily involves a counterpart, viz. an "Early Celtic" period, in regard to which no archæologist has offered any opinion beyond mere conjecture. Before my rambles among the ruins and relics of the lacustrine villages I had no reason to doubt the correctness of the opinion advanced and promulgated by the late Dr. Keller, viz. that the early lake-dwellers belonged to the Celtic race. I do not think that archæology supports this opinion. If the "Late Celtic" relics correctly represent the Celts of that period they must have been a large-bodied race, wielding great swords with massive grips, totally out of keeping with the small-handed weapons of the Bronze Age as found on the sites of the lake-dwellings. The few indications derived from the data supplied by lake-dwelling research suggest the idea that the evolution of the Celts in Europe coincides with the substitution of iron for bronze in the manufacture of the more important cutting implements and weapons, and that the earlier stages of this transition are to be found considerably to the east of the Rhine districts--as, for example, at Hallstadt.

In hazarding an opinion as to the original founders of the lake-dwellings in Central Europe I would say that they were part of the first neolithic immigrants who entered the country by the regions surrounding the Black Sea and the shore of the Mediterranean, and spread westwards along the Danube and its tributaries till they reached the great central lakes. Here they founded that remarkable system of lake-villages whose ruins and relics are now being disinterred as it were from another or forgotten world. Those following the Drave and the Save entered Styria, where they established their settlements on what was then a great lake at Laibach. From this they crossed the mountains to the Po valley, where they founded not only the pile-villages, but subsequently the terremare. The Danubian wanderers having reached the upper sources of the Danube, crossed the uplands by way of Schussenried, and arrived on the shores of Lake Constance, from which they quickly spread over the low-lying districts of Switzerland. From Lake Neuchâtel, still continuing a westward course, they reached the Rhone valley by way of Morges, where they erected one of their earliest and largest settlements. From the Lake of Geneva they had easy access to the lakes of Annecy and Bourget.

It is worthy of note that almost the only historical notices of the habit of constructing lake-dwellings which have come down to us refer to districts along this supposed route. The following quotation from Herodotus (v. 16) gives a vivid description of a lake-village which flourished some 500 years before Christ. The Lake Prasias here referred to is situated in the south of Roumelia, not far from the mouth of the river Strymon, and the rather remarkable fact which is here recorded shows that its lake-dwellers were so powerful as to successfully defy the resources of a Persian army.

"They, on the other hand, who dwelt about Mount Pangæum and in the country of the Doberes, the Agrianians and the Odomantians, and they likewise who inhabited Lake Prasias, were not conquered by Megabazus. He sought, indeed, to subdue the dwellers upon the lake, but could not effect his purpose. Their manner of living is the following:--Platforms supported upon tall piles stand in the middle of the lake, which are approached from the land by a single narrow bridge. At the first the piles which bear up the platforms were fixed in their places by the whole body of the citizens; but since that time the custom which prevails about fixing them is this: they are brought from a hill called Orbelus, and every man drives in three for each wife that he marries. Now the men have all many wives apiece, and this is the way in which they live. Each has his own hut, wherein he dwells, upon one of the platforms; and each has also a trap door giving access to the lake beneath; and their wont is to tie their baby children by the foot with a string, to save them from rolling into the water. They feed their horses and their other beasts on fish, which abound in the lake to such a degree that a man has only to open his trap-door and to let down a basket by a rope into the water, and then to wait a very short time, when up he draws it quite full of them."

Another reference to lake-dwellings occurs in a passage by Hippocrates ("De Æribus," etc., xxxvii.), and the locality to which the remarks were applied lies to the east of the Black Sea.