Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/425

 CHAPTER XIII

the previous chapter I described some special investigations which, in the hands of Chierici, Strobel, Pigorini, and other eminent archæologists, culminated in the discovery that a typical terramara settlement was a land habitation comprising a group of huts supported on piles, and fortified by an earthen rampart and moat. We shall now proceed to inquire into the social condition, culture, and civilisation of the people who inhabited these villages, by an inspection of such of their relics and food-refuse as have been found from time to time among the accumulated débris of a more or less lengthened occupation. I make no pretence, however, of supplying an exhaustive report of all the discoveries known to have been made on terramara sites during the long period they have been under critical review. Their archæological records are scattered throughout so many obscure and almost inaccessible tomes, local monographs, archæological periodicals, and even daily and weekly journals, that the task would be a veritable tour de force which no Italian antiquary, to my knowledge, has yet undertaken. I have, therefore, selected for the present purpose a few of the more carefully explored sites, especially those which have yielded an abundant assortment of relics of everyday life. The knowledge thus acquired has been culled from all sources to which I have had access books, periodicals, museums, etc., as will be seen from the copious bibliography and number of illustrations I am able to lay before you.