The general terms for these structures are "lake-dwellings," "lacus trine habitations," "pile-dwellings," or, using a convenient word derived from the Italian, fialeptes. The principles of their architecture are well displayed on Plate 4. Figure i is an ideal restoration of an ancient palefitte, showing how it must have appeared when inhabited. The boat in the foreground is of the model of those found in the remains. Some of the houses on the platform were circular, others square, as represented. They were of wattled poles or of split boards. Figures 2 and 3 indicate how the piles were driven into the bottom of the lake when this was soft enough to admit them. When this was not the case, the ingenious device was adopted which we see represented in Figure 4; the piles were placed upright, and stones were banked around them sufficient to keep them in a firm position.
It is evident from a study of the remains of these villages, and of the objects of art which have been rescued from the lake-bottoms, that the builders of the palefittes were, even in the earliest times, a people of sedentary habits, with established governments, laws, and religions, largely agricultural, carrying on a commerce with distant points, and advancing with positive strides toward civilization. They possessed domestic ani mals, such as cows, sheep, and dogs, though of different breeds from those known to us. Of their cultivated plants several specimens are given. The two- and six-rowed barley is shown in Figure 58, and flax in Figure 55. Wheat was also cultivated, and from the roughly-ground flour of barley and wheat a coarse bread was made, some fragments of which have lasted to this day. One such (fig. 57) is not unlike the "pumpernickel" still in favor in some parts of Germany.
From the flax they made a plaited stuff (figs. 54, 90) which took the place of woven goods. For winter food they stored away wild apples and pears, which are found cut in halves, but not peeled; also hazelnuts (fig. 56) and cherries, of which the stones (fig. 59) have been preserved. We again find stone implements (figs. 5-32), but they are better made and more various than those of an older epoch. Particularly interesting are the finds which often occur in connection with the older forms; thus, the stone wedge is inserted into the deer's horn (figs. 34, 66-68, 70) or into
a wooden shank 69, 7 1-73), and these are sometimes supplied with handles (fig-. 71); the flint knives have wooden handles (jig. So) which extend along the back. Figure 85 shows a hoe, the stone blade being tied to the handle.
The improvement is still more apparent in articles made of .bone and horn, among which we may distinguish fine ornamental needles (fig. 82), shuttles (figs. 77, 78) with one or two holes, arrow- and harpoon-points (figs. Sr, 89), saw-like implements (figs. 74, 75), and simple awls and gouges (figs. 35, 37-49, 64). There are found, as in earlier times, large and small beads of clay (figs. 6o, 6r, 84, 87), and weights for nets (fig. 63). Among the earthen vessels, which in very simple shape the Lake of Constance still furnishes (figs. 50-53), those from the palefittes of Lake Fimona near Vicenza are especially remarkable (Jigs. 91-95). The shape and decoration of the handles, as well as sonic of the vessels themselves, so vividly recall the later Etruscan bronze productions that one is invol untarily led to believe in some relation between the two. Wood, espe daily oak, has been fairly preserved where it has always remained under water. We show on the Plate a twirling-stick (fig. S6) from the pile structures of Robenhansen (Switzerland), and a club and bow (figs. 62, 65) from those of Wangen on the north side of the Lake of Con stance. We can understand how all these things, even fruit, flax, etc., have been preserved by considering that at the destruction of the villages by fire they had been charred, and, falling into the water in that condi tion, were able to defy decay.
Since a people with fixed habitat cannot exist without social forms, the lake-villages mark an important advance in human civilization, although we cannot imagine what sort of social constitution they had, or even how far they formed a common league—whether they united as neighbors, families, tribes, or even as races. In Europe there have been found tools made of nephrite or jade, a species of stone which is native only in the eastern parts of Asia—a fact which indicates that peaceful intercommuni cation was widespread in the then inhabited regions of the globe.