Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/778

* LAKE DWELLINGS. 704 LAKE DWELLINGS. ologist finds lliat with the aid of the histo- rian and the ttlinoyiaphor he has no dilKculty in rt'c'iinst rue tiny tliu aiKieiil hike dwellings. In the Stone Age piles were not planted with abso- lute regularity, and at 'auw.vl the crannoge or I'ackwcrkbautcn style was loUowed. The ground was laid olT in four quadrangles, the interiors of whieh revealed several platforms, one above an- other, the spaces between being filled with branches of trevs, leaves, and peat. This sueces- sion of levels proves that the site was hmg occu- pied. Communication with the land was by means of boats and narrow pile bridges. The dwellings in the earliest lake villages were per- haps circular tents or huts made wholly or in part of skin, the builders transferring their land habitations to platforms. Later on there were urus, bison, stag, deer, wild boar, and marsh boar) : but in the Bronze Age stations the liones ot wild animals are very rarely found. Domestic animals (h'jrse. ex, goat, sheep, and dog) were all known to the Xeolilhie lake dwellers. The Uronze Age people retained these and added or tamed the hog. The llora is equally instrmtive. Barley, wheat in several varieties, spelt, beans, acorns, a])ples. and ilax, in a charred state, come from the most ancient as from the most recent sta- tions. ]Ieiii|). oats, and rye are absent from all. Heer makes the imfortant suggestion (hat while the charred remains of wild species agree in the minutest particulars with those still living in Switzerland, the cultivated plants ditl'er from all existing varieties, having smaller seed. LAKE DW Pile Tillage. Lake Sina Maria below Maracaibo, ■n-alls consisting of wooden uprights, wattled with brush, chinked with moss, and plastered on the inside. Troyon was convinced that the dwellings were circular like those of the historic Gauls and 10 to 1.5 feet in diameter, but the more sober view, from evidence and analogies, is that they were rectangular and varied greatly in dimen- sions, rhe floors were of poles or of roughly hewn planks like those made by the Haida and Tlinkit Indians, and often in two layers, one above the other. The fire-place was either of clay or later of dressed stone. The roofs were of grass, or earlier of skins held down by poles, as may be seen among the South .mcrican tribes. There were out -structures for the domestic ani- mals and for defense. The storage was in the nature of granaries. Cooking was by roasting or boiling. The wat-.>r of the lakes was sufficient for domestic purposes. The industrial activities of the lake dwellers are shown by the abundant and diversified relics. Checker, twilled, and twined weaving and wiekerwork abound. They made coiled basketry with locked and split stitches like that of the Salish tribes, chipped and hafted scrapers, saws, adzes, and other tools like the Eskimo, and excavated canoes from logs. Bears'- teeth necklaces are abundant. The pottery is more like that of Eastern America. Lances, spears, ami barbed harrioons are plentiful, but the toggle harpoon is missing. The animals of the lake dwellers in their re- mains tell an interesting story of progress in culture here. In the Stone .Age lake dwellings, the hones of wild animals abound (bear, badger, martin, skunk, wolf, fox. wild cat, beaver, elk. ELLING. Venezuela. AUer E. M. Plumacher. U. S. Consul. The history of the lake dwellings is as long as that of industrial Europe down to the com- plete dominion of iron. They were in Switzer- land and Italy in the Neolithic Age, when the people of England, France, and Spain were erect- ing their megalithic monuments and building dolmens. They e.isted during the entire Bronze Age. however long that may have been, since polished stone and bronze are here and there mingled with that metal. In a few of them iron axes and knives are mixed with sword and lance blades. The Stone Age remains outnumber the others, and some of them are of vast extent. The builders of the Neolithic lake dwellings in Switzerland and thereabout were almost cer- tainly the thick-set. brown-eyed, brachvcephalic race of middle Highland Europe, with chestniit- brown hair, called Celtic by ohler writers. Alpine by T.apouge, Lappanoid iiy Pruner Bey, and Celto-Slavic by French writers cencrally. They bear other names, but they all refer to the same short-headed stock wedged into Middle Europe- bet ween blond long-heads on the north, and bru- net long-heads on the south. The lake dwellers are supposed to have been of Asiatic origin and to have marched at their leisure entirely across Europe, between the forty-fifth and fiftieth paral- lels, thousands of years ago. reaching Switzer- land. Belgium, and even Ireland, through Hun- gary and the Valley of the Danube. A variety of industrial occupations insured their material and intellectual progress, and their residence in a country abounding in game and fish and fertile land encouraged hunting, fishing, boat-building, skin-working, agriculture, textile arts, pottery, and gave them surplus for