Part 9

CONCISE.--Mr. Rochat, who first examined the remains of this settlement, describes a semicircular steinberg which occupied part of the station. (B. 34.) The convex part looked south and towards the lake. Its length was 459 feet, and breadth 255 feet, and when the lake was at its lowest (before the Correction des Eaux du Jura) its top was only a few inches below the surface of the water. The relic-bed was superficial, but the piles penetrated deeply into the mud. During the construction of the railway in 1859, which here passed through a small bit of the lake, a dredging machine was used, when antiquities of all kinds were collected in hundreds. These were generally sold on behalf of the workmen, and hence the objects from Concise are widely distributed, some having gone to America. On and around the steinberg the antiquities were of the Stone Age. Here the operation of dredging was carried on for six weeks amidst great archæological excitement, which led to the production of many falsifications. (B. 28, 31, and 39.) Among the vast quantity of industrial remains brought to light, there were objects of very diversified kinds, but all in this part of the station were peculiar to the Stone Age; such as saws, knives, and arrow-points of flint; hundreds of stone hatchets, mostly of serpentine, only two or three being of nephrite; perforated stone sinkers and hammer stones. Of bone and horn, there were chisels, pointers, daggers, harpoons, cups, etc. Among the pottery were circular dishes with perforated knobs, small and large vases, plates, and cups; also some vases with conical bases, with their corresponding clay rings. Clay balls, of the size of two fists and perforated, reminded Mr. Troyon of similar objects from Wangen.[9]

Among the animal remains were three fragments of human skulls and two jaws. Also one tooth of the horse.

During the last few days of these operations the dredging machine was shifted in a north-eastern direction, and here objects of bronze were turned up, such as hatchets, hair-pins, knives, buttons, spirals, beads, rings, etc.

It would thus appear that there were two stations--one of the Stone Age, and the other of the Bronze Age; or that a portion of the former survived during the Bronze Age.

It was in the vicinity of this station that Captain Pillichordy in 1832 dredged up a canoe and two beautiful bronze swords, only one of which is now known to exist in the Museum of Neuchâtel. In September, 1889, Dr. Evans showed me, among many other objects from the Swiss lacustrine dwellings, a sword from Concise, purchased by him in Paris in 1887, which at once struck me as being the other weapon which so mysteriously disappeared in 1832. The handle and the tip of the blade of this sword are here represented (=Fig. 11=, No. 24), and when compared with the drawings of its supposed fellow at Neuchâtel (B. 34, Pl. iii. 35; B. 119, 2nd ed., Pl. cii. 17; B. 31, Pl. xi. 11; and B. 252, Pl. v. 10), their remarkable similarity will be at once seen. That in Dr. Evans's collection has a total length of 26½ inches. The blade is of yellow bronze 21 inches long, and terminates in a somewhat rounded point.

In the months of January and February, 1885, a portion of the station hitherto unexamined became dry, and a great many objects were found, including bronze pins (=Fig. 11=, Nos. 2, 3, 8, 10, and 11), hatchets, bracelets, sickles, knives, pendants (Nos. 9 and 13), tin wheels (No. 4), wooden combs (No. 7), and vases, etc. Among the more remarkable objects described and figured by Mr. Vouga (B. 414d) are:--A necklace made of rolled bands of bronze, forming tubes, and ornamented with hollow lines (No. 1). Some of these tubes are of gold, and interspersed with them are three buttons of bronze and a number of small blue beads. Two bracelets or closed rings, ornamented (No. 6); a ring with a prominence inside; and a curiously-wrought pendeloque (No. 12). These objects are mostly in the possession of private collectors.

ONENS.--Two stations are situated near the village of Onens--one (Stone Age) to the east of the village, and the other (Bronze Age) to the south. The former, now entirely on dry land, has been little explored, being for some time covered with vegetation. "Je crois," says M. de Meuron, "cependant qu'elle a dû être importante d'après son étendue et la quantité de cailloux éclatés que recouvrent le sol. Cette station appartient à moi; mais la végétation y est devenue si belle que je la laisse pour les générations futures." (B. 462, p. 47.)

On the bronze station several remarkable pendeloques in the form of thin discs of bronze were found some years ago, which are now deposited in the Museum at Neuchâtel; and since this discovery it has been partially explored by M. Morel-Fatio, Dr. Brière, and others. M. de Meuron states that he is in possession of a few objects from this station, viz. hatchets, chisels, bracelets, and a magnificent lance-head 10 inches in length. From Onens comes the leaden cake with suspension loops similar to those from Wollishofen (=Fig. 4=, No. 24). Illustrations of some of the bronze discs are given on =Fig. 189=, Nos. 1 to 3.

CORCELETTES.--Two groups of piles were observed by the early explorers, one to the east and the other to the west of the village of Corcelettes, and a number of antiquities both of the Bronze and Iron Ages were collected. The station, however, was never systematically examined till the lowering of the waters in 1876, when it was found to be one of the most prolific and interesting in Lake Neuchâtel. The portion since then investigated is described by Dr. Gross as lying immediately before the village, and 2 kilomètres from Grandson. It extended about 200 mètres in length and 100 in breadth. The relic-bed was thinly covered with sand, and varied much in thickness, from a maximum of 3 feet in the centre, to the margin where it thinned out. The bronze relics collected here are thus estimated by Dr. Gross at the twelfth meeting of the German Anthropological Society:--[10] 60 hatchets, 4 hammers, 30 sickles, 60 to 70 knives, 10 swords (three of which are complete), 150 entire armillæ and many fragments, 20 lance-heads, 12 discs (phalères), 300 to 400 hair-pins, 3 vessels, 11 moulds (one of bronze and 10 of sandstone), besides a quantity of smaller objects, as buttons, pendants, rings, etc. Together with beads of glass and amber, small tin wheel-shaped objects, there were some 300 entire vessels of pottery, some ornamented with tin strips, crescents, etc.

The bronze hatchets were mostly of the usual type, i.e. with four wings and a side loop; four were socketed, but not one of the flat type.

Daggers were apparently rare at Corcelettes, as only one example was found, with rivet-marks and slightly ornamented on one side.

The knives were generally small, but one measured 10½ inches in length, and a few had solid handles beautifully ornamented. Razors were numerous; one was made of a broken bracelet, another was double-bladed and showed a break which had been neatly mended with bronze wire. Horse-bits were of bronze and horn. The bronze hollow armlets are beautifully ornamented, and in the interior of some of them were observed bits of wax, supposed to be the remains of a central core of this material which had been used in the operation of casting.

It is singular that among the many ornaments from this station there is not a fibula, except a portion of one which is claimed as an importation from Scandinavia (=Fig. 189=, No. 19).

Of wood there were:--A round oak table; a small box, 8 by 2½ inches; and a portion of an oar.

Of the three bronze dishes, one has a handle attached by rivets; and of the other two (which are in the Museum at Lausanne), one is of northern origin (=Fig. 189=, No. 20).

Corcelettes, like most of the other Swiss lake-dwellings, was destroyed by fire, in proof of which Dr. Gross points to a mass of bronze objects, in a half-molten condition, consisting of three hatchets, four bracelets, a lance-head, and a sickle. (Figured in B. 392, Pl. xxii. 12.)

One of the largest collections from Corcelettes is in the Museum at Lausanne, of which I have made the following jottings:--

_Pottery._--The bottom of a vase marked with the tips of the potters fingers; some dishes ornamented with herring-bone patterns (=Fig. 11=, No. 22), and others with circular grooves, each having a small perforation like one at Constance (No. 21); small toy cups, three of which are bilocular; clay rings, with dishes to fit them; two figures of animals; bits of clay-walling with marks of round timbers.

_Wood._--Fragments of basket-work, two shaped handles of wood for sickles, fragments of wooden dishes (one with handle).

_Bronze._--Of about 100 large hollow bracelets more or less perfect, some 50 are ornamented with transverse lines; the rest have various designs of lines and circles. A few bracelets are solid, and more or less penannular, with pointed or expanded tips. Four bracelets are of double wires, one of which is spirally grooved and ends in a hook and eye. Of six small socketed hammers, three have side loops, and all are more or less rectangularly shaped. Among 60 hatchets, only six have sockets, and nearly all have side loops, but no terminal catch. Two have the side loop transverse to the cutting edge.

Of 78 knives, nine are socketed, three have solid handles, apparently as part of the blade, and the rest have tangs (three being bent into a loop at the top).

Among some hundreds of pins, only seven or eight have perforated heads.

Of three horse-bits, one is entire (=Fig. 191=, No. 8); and of the others, only the twisted central portion remains (=Fig. 11=, No. 23). Moreover, there are 14 perforated portions of horn, supposed to have been parts of bridles.

Among the special objects from this station is a slender bronze rod terminating at each end with a movable ring, somewhat like the beam of a balance (No. 16). In the Museum at Boudry there is a curious ornamental tube of bronze (No. 20).

In 1888 Dr. Brière communicated a short note to _Antiqua_ (B. 463a), in which he enumerates the following objects as the most interesting among recent finds:--A bracelet of lignite (No. 14), a tin wheel (No. 5), an amulet of bronze like the casing of a pair of spectacles (No. 15), a large bronze knife with a horn handle (No. 19), an amulet of staghorn (No. 17), a bead of amber suspended by a twisted bronze wire (No. 18), and a complete bridle-bit of horn (=Fig. 191=, No. 1).

LES UTTINS (YVERDON).--At the foot of Mount Chamblon, rather more than a mile from the lake, there are some peat deposits, which the peasants have been in the habit of utilising as fuel. Here in two spots, according to Mr. Rochat,[11] the peat-cutters are reported to have met with piles and transverse beams with mortices. The tops of the piles were 6 to 10 feet below the surface. A flint arrow-head, two stone celts of serpentine, and a bronze bracelet, were found in one of these bogs; and hence Messrs. Troyon and Rochat (B. 31, p. 70) consider that there was a palafitte here--a supposition which involves the theory that the lake formerly extended to the locality. Nor is this theory without some evidence in support of it, as the amount of _débris_ brought down by the Thielle is very great. On the supposition that the Roman city of Eburodunum, the ruins of which are now 2,500 feet from the present shore, was built on the lake in the fourth century, Mr. Troyon calculates that the water of the lake would have been as far back as the site of the palafitte about fifteen centuries before the Christian era.

CLENDY, CHESEAUX, AND CHABLE À PERRON.--Along this part of the shore there were three or four settlements with steinbergs, but the piles are now destroyed, and the few antiquities collected belong apparently to the Stone Age. Chable à Perron covers an area of some 3,500 square yards, but the only antiquities found were serpentine hatchets and their horn fixings, some flints, pointed bones, and fragments of coarse pottery. (R. 336.)

Some interesting notes of the early researches and discoveries made on the various stations in the vicinity of Yverdon are given by Mr. Rochat in Kellers third report on the Pfahlbauten. (B. 34.)

FONT.--On this station a cup-marked stone was found, and Troyon records several objects--a curious bronze needle, Roman tiles, and Imperial Roman money--as coming from the same place. Professor Grangier, of Fribourg,[12] found here some Roman medals, together with an iron arrow-head, iron keys, and subsequently an oar.[13] He states that the whole coast, from Font to Estavayer, was occupied with piles, and that he attempted to make a plan of the stations, but gave it up, because the configuration was constantly changing. The original conditions were also entirely altered by the number of piles extracted by the fishermen. He knew one family who for two generations had never used any other firewood but piles extracted from the lake-dwelling stations. One place, about half-way between Font and Estavayer, was well known for its antiquities, and went among the fishermen under the name of "La Pianta." (B. 178, p. 169.) In the Fribourg Museum there is a considerable number of bronze objects from Pianta, some of which are here figured (=Fig. 12=, Nos. 1 to 10, and 24). I have also noted three stone moulds (two of wheel pendants), and an ingot of bronze. Some pins and a knife are in the Bern Museum.

Mr. Forrer gives some notes of the station at Font,[14] and figures some nephrite implements from "several hundreds" collected here by Mr. Beck. Along with the usual chisels and hatchets, there are in Mr. Beck's collection arrow-heads, knives, etc.--objects rather rare of this material in the Lake of Neuchâtel. Some of the hatchets are remarkable for their size, one measuring 8½ inches long, and others show great variety of colours.

ESTAVAYER.--Mr. A. Morlot describes the early investigations of the settlements at Estavayer and its neighbouring shore in Keller's third report. (B. 34.) Systematic explorations were conducted by MM. Béat de Vevey and Henri Rey, who collected a large and varied assortment of relics, especially of bronze, many of which are illustrated on Pl. v. Close to Estavayer there were two stations--one of the Stone Age; and another, farther out in the lake, of the Bronze Age. The former was parallel to the shore, about 120 yards long and 60 broad. The relics here found were of the usual Stone Age types--stone and horn hatchets, flint saws, and arrow-points, etc. One finely-finished hammer-axe has an oval perforation, an expanded cutting edge, and a raised bead running along the centre of its anterior surface.

The Bronze Age settlement was some 400 feet distant from the shore, in water six or seven feet deep. Consequently the station is now, during low water, mostly on dry land. The area of the station was estimated at 7,700 square feet. The following is a list of the bronze objects collected by MM. de Vevey and Rey, chiefly by means of pincers:--128 hair-pins (36 with spherical and ornamental heads), 26 knives, 15 bracelets, 5 sickles, 1 socketed hatchet, 1 chisel, 1 fish-hook, 27 rings of different kinds, 2 buttons, 1 dagger-blade, 1 arrow-head (socketed), and 6 flattened wires coiled in the form of a spiral.

In 1869 Dr. Keller (B. 163) gives an account of further discoveries at Estavayer, in which he mentions a small vessel of fine clay, having a funnel-like opening and a spout below (=Fig. 12=, No. 21); a hair-pin 5½ inches long, with the stem of bronze, and head of staghorn, intercepted in the middle with a disc of silver; a bronze spear-head, with a spur on the stem, supposed to have been used as a spear for fishing; a bronze bracelet; and two tynes of staghorn--one perforated as for a bridle-bit, and the other ornamented with concentric circles. Professor Grangier, writing in 1878 (B. 313), describes the _tenevière_ of Estavayer as a peninsula, and gives an amusing description of the searchers for antiquities.

About a couple of kilometres to the north-east of Estavayer, and near the village of La Corbière, there was a large settlement which also belonged partly to the Stone Age and partly to the Bronze Age. The first is a steinberg, and bears the name La Creuse or La Crasaz. (B. 414c.) On it, in addition to the ordinary Stone Age objects, were found a Roman waterjug and a fibula of the La Tène type (=Fig. 12=, No. 26). The part that has yielded bronze implements is farther out in the lake, and from it Colonel Schwab and others collected a considerable number of objects, among which were:--A bar of tin 6 inches long, a small bronze saw, a socketed arrow-head, a thin armlet of bronze wire, a bronze nail, a discoidal stone, fragments of pottery ornamented with strips of tin, etc. Near this in 1875 Professor Grangier discovered a curious object now supposed to be the handle portion of an Etruscan chariot. (B. 270 and 336.)

There are thus three well-defined Bronze stations in the vicinity of Estavayer, besides an equal if not larger number of the Stone Age. The chief collection of relics from this part of the lake of Neuchâtel is in the Museum of Fribourg, where I have noted:--A double-legged pin (No. 11), portion of chariot handle (=Fig. 191=, No. 10), a small bronze cup, a perforated bronze hammer (=Fig. 12=, No. 20), a couple of socketed bronze axes (Nos. 17 and 19), and a well-made arrow-point of flint (No. 25).

There are also many objects from Estavayer in the Cantonal Museum at Bern, among which may be mentioned:--A bronze fibula (No. 12), part of an ornamental chain of various sorts of bronze links (No. 13), a socketed axe (No. 23), and three large knives (Nos. 18, 30, and 31). The other illustrations are a bronze pin with a spiral head (No. 28), a gold earring (No. 16), an amber bead (No. 15), a bronze knife (No. 22), a bronze fibula (No. 14), a pin with a flat head (No. 27), and a curious horn object (No. 29). Implements like the latter are frequently met with in Swiss lacustrine stations. They vary from a few inches up to twelve or more in length, and are always curved and polished. In the Bern Museum there are four from Gerlafingen, five from Schaffis, and others from Sutz, Locras, etc.

FOREL.--Little was done to this station till 1883, when the Fribourg Government granted free permission to the searchers for lacustrine antiquities to collect on their portion of the shore of Lake Neuchâtel. Since then many curious objects are reported as coming from this station, but they are mostly held by private collectors. Mr. A. Vouga gives some notes of these discoveries in the _Anzeiger_. (B. 414.) He states that the relics are found on this station in three different strata, the most superficial of which is 1 foot 6 inches deep, and the lowest 4 feet 8 inches.

Among the objects described and figured by Vouga are:--A stone hatchet in its horn fixture, several hatchets of coloured nephrite and one of green jade, perforated hammers and a cup of horn; knives, pins, etc., of bone; a curved implement made of the jawbone of a stag (=Fig. 13=, No. 19). Some remarkable objects made of horn or bone and ornamented with dots, circles, etc., consisting of bracelets (No. 20), and pendeloques (Nos. 13, 17, and 18), have attracted the attention of critics, and the general opinion is that they are forgeries.[15]

CHEVROUX.--Troyon describes three large settlements of the Bronze Age (B. 31, p. 150), near Chevroux, farther from the shore than a Stone Age settlement, on which were found bracelets, hair-pins, sickles, knives, two swords of bronze, and a great iron fork (=Fig. 13=, No. 15). In 1866, an object (=Fig. 191=, No. 10), described by Keller as part of an Etruscan chariot, was found near this. (B. 337.)

In the Museum at Lausanne there is a large collection of objects, both of the Stone and Bronze Age settlements, from Chevroux. Among the former are:--Two beautiful flint daggers with thin handles of wood (=Fig. 13=, No. 1), six saws of flint in their handles, part of a wooden comb, three wooden dishes, the club handle of a stone hatchet with the implement still in position, bone pins with neatly-fashioned heads (Nos. 4 and 6), etc. There are over 300 plain stone celts, and 30 perforated tools. About 100 horn fixings, of which one-third have bifurcated tops. Some celts have been identified as belonging to the following substances:--chloromelanite five, three of which are in their horn fixings (two bifurcated); saussurite, 14 to 20, one of which is in its handle (square); jadeite 22 to 25, five in handles (two bifurcated); nephrite 23 to 26, two in their fixings. There are also a few of felsite, amphibolite, etc. About 100 flint arrow-points, and the same number of beautifully chipped flint arrow-heads (No. 5). Also of horn there is a large number of chisels, pointers, hammers, flax-hecklers, and some curiously-shaped perforated clubs of horn.

Among the pottery are some curious dishes, two of which are here figured (Nos. 8 and 14), the latter being adorned with string ornamentation.

Among the objects from the Bronze Age stations are:--Many hair-pins, two phalères, five sickles, a few bracelets, one winged and one flat hatchet, portion of a flat copper celt, a few knives with tangs, six small daggers, and two remarkable pendeloques, one of which is here figured (No. 3).

Mr. Vouga (B. 414d) describes some fine discoveries that were latterly made on the Bronze stations. Among the objects which have come under his notice are:--A razor with a curved handle, 4½ inches long (No. 11); a thick crescent, ornamented with half-moons; a fibula (No. 10); a pin with spiral stem (9½ inches long) and perforated head (1⅛ inch in diameter). Another has a very large head (2 inches diameter), with 24 holes in it (No. 12). Other objects from this station are a comb (No. 9), an amber bead (No. 7), a copper dagger (No. 16), and a copper chisel (No. 2).

GLETTERENS TO LA SAUGE.--Some eight or nine stations have been noted by the earlier explorers along this part of the coast, many of which have yielded Roman tiles and pottery. At Port Alban there are the remains of a station on which bronze (No. 21) and iron objects have been found. Recently there has been brought into notice a kind of ornamental metal mirror, said to have been found here (=Fig. 192=).[16]

Another site is farther east, giving indications of an early Stone Age station, but on which Desor found iron objects. Among recent finds are some large horn buttons and a so-called "portemonnaie lacustre" (No. 22).[17]

At Champ Martin there is a steinberg, on which spindle-whorls and a few other things have been found.

At Cudrefin the lake-dwellings are unimportant, but the station is well known as the site of a canoe, carefully described by Professor Grangier. It measures 36½ feet long, 2 feet 9 inches broad, and 1 foot 6 inches deep. This dug-out, like so many in Ireland and Scotland, had for strengthening purposes four transverse beams left in the solid. The prow had a perforated beak, which might have been used as a means for fastening a rope. (B. 194.)

At La Sauge fragments of Roman amphoræ and tiles were found associated with some piles.

LAKE OF MORAT (MURTEN).