THE GLASTONBURY LAKE VILLAGE.*
Tun "lake village," partly described in this handsome volume, is a highly interesting place, though it never was such a settlement as those which Herodotus describes as existing among the Pieonians or those which have been found in the Swiss Lakes. The Pasonian villages were made up of plat- forms supported by tall piles standing in the middle of a lake, and were approached by a causeway. " The site of that here described was," we are told, " selected because an area of peat firmer than other parts of the swamp was found in or near navigable water." It is quite true that Somersetshire in old times bad a far larger proportion of water than it has now. Even in comparatively recent times the water area has diminished. So as late as 1540 we hear of a lake (Meese Pool) belonging to Glastonbury Abbey which must hare covered some thousands of acres, the value of the fishing being estimated at £26 13s. 4d,, a sum to be multiplied by 8 at least if we are to arrive at its present-day value. In fact if we are to realize what the county, or at least the Glastonbury region, was in former days we must look at it when it is covered with winter floods. But it was never what is called a lake country. The term applied may be justified by the fact that the village was practically defended by water. There was always a stream, doubtless much bigger than it is now—in winter a great expanse of standing water and in summer a marsh which it must have been very difficult to traverse. The date of the occupation of the village is not carried back very far by Mr. Bulleid, who has dealt with this part of the subject. He thinks that it may have commenced about 100 B.C., and have come to an end at about A.D. 50, when the Roman occupation of the country commenced. The ethnological section is to be dealt with in the second volume, but Professor Boyd Dawkins, to whom it has been entrusted, has come to the general con- clusion that the inhabitants were of the Iberian stock. All the skulls examined are of a doliohooephalic type. The village covers an area of about two acres and con- sists of about ninety mounds, two-thirds of which showed signs of human occupation. Most of the mounds have more floors than one; one, indeed, has as many as ten. The foundations, it would seem, were continually sinking and had to be renewed by the addition of timber or clay. And as there is a varying number or floors so there is also of hearths. In one as many as thirteen have been found. Commonly they are made of baked clay ; but some consist of slabs of lies ; gravel, marl, and other materials have been used. The whole settlement is surrounded with a palisade.
Among the objects of use or ornament which have been found the most numerous, and perhaps the most interesting, are the long-handled weaving combs. No site excavated in Great Britain has produced so great an abundance of these articles. By far the greater number of these were made of the antlers of -red deer. Most of them are ornamented (fig. 58 shows a somewhat elaborate pattern). The teeth—which vary in number from five to thirteen—appear to have been mostly cut with fine saws; in some ruder specimens a knife seems to have been used. Spindle-whorls and loom-weights have also been found, and it is clear that the village was the home of a weaving industry of some importance. If only some of the products had survived ! But that was not to be expected. Of other objects one of the most important is a bronze bowl holding a little more than a pint and weighing about half a pound troy. It bad been frequently repaired, not with much skill. Mr. Gray thinks that it was of home manufacture, but we must own to feeling doubtful on this point. He asks, indeed, himself with much 'force : " if these lake dwellers were capable of making the bow], why were the repairs so clumsily executed P " Among the finds were brooches, or jibalac, all of bronze, mostly resembling safety-pini in design. Other brooches of what is called the penannular (almost circular) kind were found in some number. So were finger-rings (all of bronze), bracelets, and a mirror—st very humble specimen this last, it is true, 'about five inches across and without ornament. Horse-
' The Glastonbury Lake:Village. By Arthur Bulloid and Harold St, George Gray, Glastonbury antiquarian euoiety..
trappings have also been found and a variety of other objects, some of them not being easily classified. A significant class of discoveries is to be seen in the crucibles, showing that the metal working was one of the village industries. Altogether we are left with an impression of a community somewhat advanced in civilization. The work of exploration, which was begun nearly twenty years ago, has produced valuable results which find a record worthy of their importance in the volume before us.
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