The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
This mode of building found such favor among the early
inhabitants of Europe that it continued in use through the
Neolithic Age, that of Bronze, and even into the age of Iron.
Passages here and there in ancient histories evidently refer to
them. Though they have long since passed away in Switzerland, the
Spaniards found them in Mexico, and they are still to be seen in
some of the isles of the Pacific. Remembering this, we need not
be surprised if we find in one small lake settlements belonging
to widely different ages. Here one of the Stone Age, there one of
the Bronze, or even a confused mingling of what seems to be
several ages in one settlement.9
There is scarcely a country in Europe that does not contain
examples of lake villages. From their wide distribution we infer
that a common race spread over the land. We will now mention some
differences in construction discovered at some places, where,
from the rocky nature of the bed of the lake, it was impossible
to drive piles so as to form a firm foundation. They sometimes
packed quantities of stone around the piles to serve as supports
in a manner as here indicated. “In all probability the stones
used were conveyed to the required spot by means of canoes, made
of hollowed out trunks of trees. Several of these canoes may
still be seen at the bottom of Lake Bienne, and one, indeed,
laden with pebbles, which leads us to think it must have
foundered with its cargo.”10
Foundation, Lake Village.
In some cases these heaps of stone and sticks rise to the surface
of the water or even above it, the piles in such cases serving
more to hold the mass together than as a support to the platform
on which the huts were erected. This mode of construction could
only be employed in small lakes. This makes in reality an
artificial island, and seems to have been the favorite method of
procedure in the British Islands. In Ireland and Scotland immense
numbers of these structures are known. They are called crannogs.
This cut represents a section of one in Ireland. Though they date
back to the Neolithic Age, yet they so exactly meet the wants of
a rude people that they were occupied down to historic times.
Irish Crannog.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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