At Robenhausen, in the moor which was formerly the bed of the ancient Lake of Pfaffikon which continued in occupation after the introduction of bronze, on some parts three distinct successions of inhabited platforms have been traced. The first is represented at the bottom of the lake by a layer of charcoal mixed with implements of stone and bone and other relics highly carbonized. The second is represented above the bottom by a series of piles with burnt heads, and in the bottom by a layer of charcoal mixed with corn, apples, cloth, bones, pottery and implements of stone and bone, separated from the first layer of charcoal by 3ft. of peaty sediment intermixed with relics of the occupation of the platform. The piles of the third settlement are fixed in the layers representing the first and second settlements. The huts of this last settlement appear to have had cattle stalls between them, the droppings and litter forming heaps at the lake bottom.
The settlement of Auvernier in the Lake of Neuchatel yielded four bronze swords, ten socketed spear-heads, 4o celts or axe heads and sickles, so knives, 20 socketed chisels, four hammers and an anvil, 6o rings for the arms and legs, several highly ornate torques or twisted neck rings, and upwards of 200 hair pins of various sizes up to i6in. in length, some having spherical heads in which plates of gold were set. Moulds for sickles, lance-heads and bracelets were found cut in stone or made in baked clay.
From 400 to Soo vessels of pottery finely made and elegantly shaped are indicated by the fragments recovered from the relic bed. The Lac de Bourget, in Savoy, has eight settlements, all of the bronze age. These have yielded upwards of 4,00o implements, weapons and ornaments of bronze, among which were a large proportion of moulds and founders' materials. A few stone im plements suggest the transition from stone to bronze; and the occasional occurrence of iron weapons and pottery of Gallo Roman origin indicates the survival of some of the settlements to Roman times. Near the north-east confines of Lake Neuchatel is the celebrated station of La Tene (q.v.).
Other classes of prehistoric pile-structures akin to the lake dwellings are the terremare of Italy and the terpen of Holland. Both are settlements of wooden huts erected on piles, on flat land subject to inundations. The terremare (so named from the marly soil of which they are composed) appear as mounds, sometimes of very considerable extent, which when dug into disclose the remains and relic beds of the ancient settlements. They are most abundant in the plains of northern Italy traversed by the Po and its tributaries, though similar constructions have been found in Hungary in the valley of the Theiss. These pile-villages were often surrounded by an earthen rampart within which the huts were erected in more or less regular order. Many of them present evidence of having been more than once destroyed by fire and re constructed, while others show one or more reconstructions at higher levels on the same site. They belong for the most part
to the age of bronze, although in some cases they may be referred to the latter part of the stone age. Their inhabitants practised agriculture and kept the common domestic animals, while their tools, weapons and ornaments were mainly of similar character to those of the contemporary lake dwellers of the adjoining regions. The terpen of Holland appear as mounds somewhat similar to those of the terremare, and were also pile structures, on low or marshy lands subject to inundations from the sea. Unlike the terremare and the lake dwellings they do not seem to belong to the prehistoric ages, but yield indications of occupa tion in post-Roman and mediaeval times. Owing to an exceptional drought in 1921 extensive foundations of pile dwellings were ex posed to view at Greug, Lake Morat, Switzerland, and several settlements in Lake Neuchatel.