THE LAKE-DWELLINGS OF EUROPE.* IT was a laborious task to
gather into one volume a general account of the Lake-Dwellings of Europe and the collection of so much material has not left Mr. Munro scope for any elaborate examination of the facts. The book demonstrates clearly enough the futility of one thing, the attempt to sub- divide the Stone Age into three periods. There are, as Mr. Munro justly observes, no facts to justify such a classification. To split up what is conveniently known as the Stone Age into three portions founded on subtle distinctions of form and ornamentation, to describe them as well-marked periods, is both useless and unnecessary. It is superimposing an artistic distinction on a division founded entirely on the physical nature of the'materials ; and to do so is to assume a knowledge of the lake-dwellers which even the most profound archeologist does not possess. We may talk of the Early Stone Age and the Later Stone Age, which may be conveniently called the " Transition " period, when the knowledge of metal sprang up ; and the difference between them is great, for they are separated by a comparatively vast interval of time ; it is as the difference, roughly speaking, between imperfection and perfection ; but so gradual is the development, that more than a broad and general distinction cannot be adopted. It is surprising that the overlapping of ill-defined stages of progress has not warned archeologists of the uselessness of these hypothetical periods. We must remember, too, as Mr. Munro points out, that there is not much evidence as to how long the lake-dwellers existed in the "pure" Stone Age. The pile-structures associated with that age are confined to the neighbourhood of the Alps, the lakes of Lombardy, Laibach, Bavaria, Switzerland, and Savoy, Lake Bourget excepted. The supposition is, that the Neolithic tribes, entering Europe by the Danube, reached the Alps, from the Alps they spread in all directions, some to found the terremare of Italy, others north-west, to become in future ages a puzzle and a subject of controversy. " Those following the Drave and the Save entered Styria, where they established themselves at Laibach. From there they crossed to the Po Valley, where they founded not only the pile-villages, but the terremare. The Danubian wanderers, reaching Lake Con- stance, spread over Switzerland to Lake Neuchiltel, thence to Morges, Geneva, Annecy, and Bourget." The terremare are considered to be later than most of the lake-dwellings, but some of these, again, are later than the terremare. The great lakes, however, were densely populated, and while some would wander, others of a more homely nature would build new villages close at hand. Nothing, indeed, proves more clearly the long duration of these settlements than the mingling of materials, the inextricable confusion of implements, clumsy
• The Lake-Dwellings of Europe : being the Rhind Lectures in Archzology for 1888. By Robert Munro, M.A., M.D. London Cassell and Co.
and finished, their discovered sites reveal. And here comes in another controversial point : Was there a Copper Age P Such an Age, if it existed, must be included in the passing of the Stone into the Bronze Age, the " Transi- tion" period. Mr. Munro, to elucidate this problem, has given a list of the copper and bronze implements found in seven stations—Polada. Laibach, Mondsee, Robenhausen, Locras, Vinelz, and St. Blaise—which came • to an end before the full development of the Bronze Age (le Bel Age du Bronze), but whose inhabitants were beginning to learn the advantages of metal. On the whole, there is a slight pre- ponderance of copper. At all these stations, except Vinelz, which had copper only, bronze objects were associated with those of copper. Polada, on the other hand, has yielded only a few bronze objects, resembling in this respect two other stations, Ober-Meilen and Roseaux, which have bronze and stone, but no copper, yet evidently belong to the earliest " Transition " period. If there was a Copper Age, it follows that Vinelz was earlier than the other six ; but its industrial remains, its cloth, its pottery, and the elegance of its imple- ments would appear to place it on a level with some stations of the Bronze Age. Mr. Munro says we are not to infer that stations like this and Robenhausen, which is famous for its industrial remains, were not existing in the Bronze Age. Locras, possessing much the same kind of industrial remains, has copper implements and a bronze sword and dagger, he says, though we see he counts as Locras two stations,— one of which produced only a copper c,elt; the other, sepa- rated by only a few paces, belonged to the " Transition " period, having both copper and bronze objects. Mr. Munro thinks the true explanation to be the importation of bronze objects, and the consequent discovery of the reduction of the metal from the ore, and the subsequent discovery of the alloy. It is extremely probable that the bronze implements were im- ported, but that the lake-dwellers went through the evolu- tionary process described by Mr. Munro, is an open question. No doubt, as he says, the first bronze implements were of a warlike nature. The Copper Age may have existed—certainly it cannot have existed long—but in some localities copper objects may have been produced, the secret of the alloy being jealously kept until it was no longer a secret, and the fate which would probably overtake the copper implements can be easily imagined. These comparisons of the numerous lake-villages are apt to be misleading, not only from the mixing of remains which at once upsets all generalisations, but because we can never know how much the physical geography of the day, and other circumstances, such as isolation, affected the lake-villagers. Some were compelled by the rapid growth of peat to desert their homes ; others under different circumstances, becoming great fishermen, might pre- serve old-fashioned methods, as fishermen are wont to do, as long as they were adequate to their wants.
The lake-dwellings of these islands are interesting not only from the peculiar skill in ornamentation possessed by the Irish, but from the striking evidence of the use which the Celtic dwellers found in pile-villages, or fascine structures (these being less likely to sink in the soft bottom), for the purposes of retreat. The Swiss lake-dwellers adopted their island-homes from the sense of security it gave against feuds and the attacks of wild beasts, and as a protection against the continually arriving rear-guard of the long march from Asia. As their civilisation advanced, so did the necessity of building the villages further from the shores. Many of these stations came to an abrupt end, were burnt, either by invaders or by the owners themselves perhaps : we cannot now fathom their reasons, which were doubt- less good, for doing so. Most of the Irish crannogs were founded, Mr. Munro declares, in the Iron Age, and " at least, as far posterior to Roman Civilisation as that of the Swiss Pfahlbauten were anterior to it." This is a sweeping statement. It is supported, however, by the nature of the remains in Irish crannogs, especially by the exquisite finish given to artistic decorations, which it is somewhat difficult to believe could be obtained by any but the tempered edge of iron tools. That bronze and horn were constantly in use, seems to prove, indeed, that the artistic sense of the people recognised the decorative possibilities of these materials, not that they knew no others ; and iron, for all we know, may have been difficult to obtain. The crannogs may not have been a favourite method of homesteading with the Irish, for the simple reason that the treacherous nature of the lake-bottoms made the building of them a tedious task, and the labour must always have been severe. Probably they were, many of them, built and not occupied till their owners were driven to the water. We do not say that they were not lived in, for they furnished most convenient retreats after a hunting or a raiding expedition. Mr. Munro raises an interesting question as to whether the gangways that connected the crannogs with the lake-shore were under water. As far as can be judged, they all seem to have been submerged, and one in the Black Loch of Sanqnhar, being a zigzag, as he says, could only be waded by those acquainted with the plan of con- struction. Traps for the stranger were easy to arrange, as a famous incident early in English history will remind us.
On the hypothesis that the Celts were responsible for British lake-dwellings, and learnt the system from the Swiss pile- drivers, we ought to find more traces of foreign invasion in the Swiss pile-villages. Most of them show no traces of such invasion or occupation. For the Celts to have become imbued with this manner of living, they must have tried it for some time, otherwise the crannogs, as some suppose, would appear to be the result of another cause, and other circumstances. The Celts who invaded the lake-dwellings of Switzerland never returned. The great spread and universality of the Bronze Age render it not unlikely that most of the lake- villages, even in outlying parts, were constructed in it. But if we are to compare the outside of the fringe with the civili- sation of the centre, one might be in the Age of Bronze, the other in the Age of Iron.
A controversial war still wages round the terremare of the valley of the Po. These are now covered with mud, and were always subject to floods, being built on land and protected by dykes of earth and piles. The peculiar stratification of their relics, assorted by water, led Chierici to suppose that the inhabitants built their huts over an artificial pond, kept liquid by running water. Three successive sets of piles, one above the other, have been found in some of them, hence the idea of water at the higher levels was deemed absurd by some. Successive floods may, however, have compelled the terre- maricoli to raise their structures in proportion as the outside level rose. The terremare were founded and flourished in the Bronze Age, for few remains of even the " Transition " period have been discovered in them. Most of them lie to the south of the Po. One station on the north side has relics of the Stone Age, in the direction, indeed, whence the left branch of the Neolithic tribes, according to Mr. Munro, came. While most of the terremare were later than the lake-villages, Lake Garda has furnished relics of a nature that point to a yet later occupation. Were these the remnants of those terre- maricoli driven from the valley of the Po, or some un- molested descendants of early settlers ? They did not survive long, both terremare and lake-villages ending abruptly about the culmination of the Bronze Age.
The points which The Lake-Dwellings of Europe raise are many of them of absorbing and tantalising interest. The author has not been able to go into detail, or to work out a hypothesis of his own, owing to the conditions of the task and its magnitude ; but he has made suggestions, and we have to thank him for compressing lacustrine research into a reasonable and well-illustrated volume.
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