The other objects most commonly found were weights made of baked earth,
and perhaps used for the weaving-loom, much worn in the place where the
cord passed through on which they were hung; _fusaiolas_, or
spindle-whorls, very varied both in shape and size, likewise made of
baked earth; large mill-stones with a polished surface. Next, we have
poniards or spear-heads, hatchets, and hair-pins, all made of bronze.
The _marniera_ of San Ambrogio has furnished a mould indicating that
bronze was melted and cast in this district.
An attentive study of the bones of animals contained in the _terramares_
has led to the following information being obtained as to the _fauna_ of
Upper Italy during the bronze epoch.
With respect to the mammals which lived in a wild state, the existence
has been ascertained of a species of stag of much greater size than the
present variety, and about equal to that of the lacustrine settlements
of Switzerland (fig. 154); also of a wild-boar, much more powerful than
that of Sardinia or even of Algeria, the roe, the bear, the rat, and the
porcupine. In different spots have been found stags' horns and bones,
and also sloe-stones which have retained the impression of the teeth of
some small rodent. The bear, the wild-boar, the stag and the roe, have,
at the present day, disappeared from the country. The porcupine, too,
has migrated into regions further south, which leads to the supposition
that the temperature of the provinces of Parma and Modena is a little
lowered since the date of the bronze epoch.
[Illustration: Fig. 154.--The Chase during the Bronze Epoch.]
It is to be remarked that in these settlements, contrary to what has
been noticed in Switzerland, in the lacustrine habitations belonging to
the Stone Age, the remains of wild animals are met with much more rarely
than those of domestic animals; this must be consequent on a superior
and more advanced stage of civilisation having existed in Italy. Among
the domestic species found we may mention the dog, two breeds of which,
of different sizes, must have existed; the pig of the peat-bogs, the
same variety as that of which the bones were discovered in Switzerland;
the horse, the remains of which, although rare, testify to the existence
of two breeds, one large and bulky, the other of slighter and more
elegant proportions; the ass, of which there are but few bones, could
not, therefore, have been very common; the ox, the remains of which are
on the contrary very abundant, like the dog and the horse, is
represented by two distinct breeds, the more powerful of which appears
to have descended from the _Bos primigenius_ or _Urus_; lastly, the
sheep and the goat, the remains of which can scarcely be clearly
distinguished on account of their great anatomical resemblance.
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