The Lake-Dwellings of Europe: Being the Rhind Lectures in Archæology for 1888Munro, Robert
History
The Lake-Dwellings of Europe: Being the Rhind Lectures in Archæology for 1888
Munro, Robert
Lake-dwellers and lake-dwellings -- Bibliography; Lake-dwellers and lake-dwellings -- Europe
What is known as Laibach Moor is an extensive but irregularly shaped
plain now nearly all well cultivated, which extends southwards from
the town of Laibach to Ober-Laibach, some 12 miles distant. Previous
to a series of drainage schemes, executed at various times during the
last fifty years, the whole of this plain was a morass or peat bog,
and there can be no doubt that in prehistoric times it was a navigable
sheet of water. It covers an area of about 85 English square miles,
and is interspersed here and there with six or seven rocky eminences,
which, when the locality was under water, formed so many islands. It
is also intersected by the rivers Laibach, Isca, and some smaller
streams, which unite before reaching the town of Laibach, and about
half way up it is crossed by the railway to Trieste. Some years ago a
new road was constructed along the valley of the Isca, from Laibach to
Brunndorf, and in 1875, in the course of excavating a ditch alongside
of it, various bone implements and fragments of pottery were turned up
by the workmen. Mr. Martin Peruzzi, the proprietor, recognising the
archæological value of these objects, at once gave information of the
discovery to the authorities of the Landesmuseum at Laibach. This led
to an extensive series of investigations, which were continued during
the following two years under the care of Dr. Karl Deschmann, curator
of this museum. An illustrated report of the first year's operations
was published by the eminent archæologist, Baron von Sacken (B. 290),
while those of the two following years have found an able exponent in
Dr. Deschmann. (B. 302 and 317.)
The first year's working revealed the foundations of a pile-dwelling
close to the road on its west side, where, by the removal of some
3,000 square yards of peat, quite a forest of piles was disclosed.
These were irregularly placed, but on an average they numbered three
or four in a dozen square feet. They were made of aspen, poplar, elm,
and fir, the last, however, being sparingly used. The peat was about
6 feet thick, and below it was the ancient sediment of the lake into
which the piles were driven, their heads now merely entering into the
peaty stratum. Between the peat and lake sediment there was a thin
layer of organic _débris_, 4 or 5 inches thick, in which alone the
relics of the lake-dwellers were found. In the following year some
2,000 square yards were cleared of peat, partly in the same place, and
partly on the other side of the road. In this new locality the piles
were more closely set and the deposit of peat was a little thicker,
but the character of the relics was exactly the same, only a larger
proportion of the fragments of pottery were ornamented.
[Illustration: Plan of Lake-dwellings in LAIBACH MOOR]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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