There have also been found in the Swiss lakes, along with the _fibulæ_, a number of rings, the use of which is still problematical. Some are flat and others chiselled in various ways. It is thought that some of them must have been used as buckles for soldiers' sword-belts (fig. 259); but there are others which do not afford any countenance to this explanation. Neither can they be looked on as bracelets; for most of them are too small for any such purpose. Some show numerous cuts at regular intervals all round their circumference; this fact has given rise to the supposition that they might perhaps have served as a kind of money. [Illustration: Fig. 259.--Iron Buckle for a Sword-belt, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel.] In the lake-settlement of La Tène (Lake of Neuchâtel), iron pincers have also been found (fig. 260), which were doubtless used for pulling out hair, and are of very perfect workmanship; also scissors with a spring (fig. 261), the two legs being made in one piece, and some very thin blades (fig. 262), which must have been razors. [Illustration: Fig. 260.--Iron Pincers, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel.] [Illustration: Fig. 261.--Iron Spring-Scissors, found in the Lake of Neuchâtel.] [Illustration: Fig. 262.--Razor.] The specimens of pottery belonging to this date do not testify to any real progress having been made beyond the workmanship of the bronze epoch; the clay is still badly baked, and of a darkish colour. It certainly is the case, that along with these remains a quantity of fragments of vessels have been picked up, and even entire vessels, which have been made by the help of the potter's wheel and baked in an oven, and consequently present the red colour usual in modern earthenware. But archæologists are of opinion that this class of pottery does not date back beyond the Roman epoch; and this opinion would seem to be confirmed by the existence, in the midst of the piles at the settlement of La Tène, of a mass of tiles, evidently of Roman origin. The conclusion to be drawn from these facts is, that many of the pile-works in the Swiss lakes continued to be occupied when the country was under the Roman rule. One of the characteristics of the iron epoch is, as we have before stated, the appearance of coin or money. In 1864, M. Desor recovered from the Lake of La Tène five coins of unquestionable Gallic origin. They are of bronze, and bear on one side the figure of the horned horse, and on the other a human profile. In fig. 232, we gave a representation of these curious specimens of coin found by M. Desor in the lacustrine settlements of the Lake of Neuchâtel. The marks of the mould still existing on each side show that these coins were cast in a series, and that after the casting the coins were separated from one another by means of the file.