LIST OF PLATES.

LAKE DWELLINGS OF IRELAND.
Plate.		Page
	Frontispiece.—Irish Lake-dwelling of the isolated type.
I.	Crannog Hut, Kilnamaddo. Restored from existing remains,	39
II.	Crannog Hut discovered at Inver, Co. Donegal. Drawn from the Model in the Museum, R.I.A.,	40
III.	Front, side elevation, and ground plan, &c., of Crannog Hut, discovered at Inver, Co. Donegal,	40
IV.	Single-piece Canoes, Paddle, and Anchors,	48
V.	Curach, as used on the Boyne, 1848,	52
STONE, BONE, BRONZE, AND IRON IMPLEMENTS, &c.
VI.	Flint, Wood, and Bone Implements from Crannogs,	58
VII.	Hafted Bronze Rapier Sword, showing both sides. Full size,	60
VIII.	Iron Weapons and Manacle from Lagore,	61
IX.	Weapons of Iron from Crannogs,	62
X.	Iron Spear-head, from Lisnacroghera, side and edge view. Half-size,	63
XI.	Portion of Spear-shaft, with ferrules and rivet of bronze. Full size,	64
XII.	Sides of Bronze Sword Sheaths, from the Crannog of Lisnacroghera,	66
XIII.	Iron Tools, &c., found in the bottom of a “dug-out” at Cornagall,	67
XIV.	Front View of Bronze Shield from Lough Gur. Diameter, twenty-eight inches,	71
XV.	Boss-like Objects, and Rings of Bronze, from Lisnacroghera. Full size,	72
WOODEN IMPLEMENTS.
XVI.	Wooden Yokes found in Donagh Bog and on the margin of Lough Erne,	79
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY.
XVII.	Culinary Utensils, Implements, &c., stone, bronze, wood, and iron,	82
XVIII.	Fragments of Pottery, from No. 3 Crannog, Lough Eyes. (Discovered by W. F. Wakeman),	99
XIX.	Fragments of Pottery, from No. 5 and No. 6 Crannogs, Lough Eyes. (Discovered by W. F. Wakeman),	99
XX.	Wooden Platters,	102
ARTICLES OF THE TOILET, &c., OR OF PERSONAL ADORNMENT.
XXI.	Scribed Pins from Ballinderry Crannog,	106
XXII.	Scribed Pins from Ballinderry Crannog,	107
XXIII.	Scribed Pins from Ballinderry Crannog,	108
XXIV.	Iron and Bone Pins from Lagore,	111
XXV.	Articles of Wood,	112
XXVI.	Bronze Brooch from Lagore,	117
XXVII.	Beads, composed of various materials, from Ardakillen, Lagore, Ballinderry, Drumdarragh, Cloonfinlough, and Lough Eyes,	122
MUSIC.
XXVIII.	Harp, from the Crannog of Ballinderry. Woodwork restored,	125
XXIX.	Bronze Trumpet, now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy,	127
AMUSEMENTS.
XXX.	Stone and Bone Circular Discs from Crannogs,	132
HORSE FURNITURE.
XXXI.	Forefront of Ancient Irish Saddle. Back and Front view,	136
MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES.
XXXII.	Decorated Bones from the Crannogs of Ardakillen and Lagore. Use unknown,	139
XXXIII.	Miscellaneous Articles found in Crannogs,	141
XXXIV.	Miscellaneous Articles found in Crannogs,	142
XXXV.	Objects of various Materials from the Crannogs of Cloonfinlough, and now in the British Museum,	143
XXXVI.	Fishing Implements of Iron from Crannogs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, from Ardakillen or Strokestown Crannogs. No. 9 from Lagore. All one-third real size,	144
PART II. PLANS, SECTIONS, AND GENERAL APPEARANCE OF CRANNOGS, WITH MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES FOUND IN THEM.
XXXVII.	Bronze Weapons from Crannog Sites on Toome Bar,	171
XXXVIII.	Crannogs in Lough Mourne,	172
XXXIX.	Haft of Iron Sword, with Bronze Mountings, from Lisnacroghera. Full size,	174
XL.	Upper and lower portion of Sides of the Bronze Sheath, from Lisnacroghera, full size, of which a half-size representation is given, Plate XII. fig. 2,	175
XLI.	Elevation, Plan, Section, and details of the Ballydoolough Crannog, Co. Fermanagh,	182
XLII.	Drumgay Crannogs,	184
XLIII.	Lough Eyes Crannogs. Plate I.,	189
XLIV.	Lough Eyes Crannogs. Plate II.,	190
XLV.	General View of the half-drained Lake of Loughavilly,	191
XLVI.	Remains, &c., found at Loughavilly, Kilnamaddo, and “The Miracles,”	192
XLVII.	(Figs. 202, 203, 204).—General Plan of the Bed of the Drained Lake of Cloneygonnel, alias Tonymore; General View of the exposed Lake Bed; Section of Crannog,	197
XLVIII.	(Figs. 206, 207).—General Plan of Drumkeery Lake, and Plan of Promontory, with Crannog,	200
XLIX.	(Figs. 220, 221, 222, 223).—View of Loughrea, showing Shore and Ash Island; Plan of Shore Island; Section of Shore Island; Section of Shore Island,	226
L.	Map of Ireland, showing approximate distribution of all known Lacustrine Sites,	250

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ERRATA.

Pages 74, 168, n., 182, 234, for Cervus elephas, read Cervus elaphus.

Page 90—fig. 65, for No. 1 Crannog, read No. 4 Crannog.

” 180—Crannog-na-n-Duini (see p. 150) is omitted in the enumeration of sites in the Co. Donegal.

” 181—Fort Lough is situated in the Co. Donegal, not (as given) in the Co. Derry.

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LAKE DWELLINGS.

PART I.

ORIGIN, CONSTRUCTION, AND CIVILIZATION

OF THE

ANCIENT LACUSTRINE HABITATIONS OF IRELAND,

AS ILLUSTRATED BY THEIR REMAINS, AND THE ANTIQUITIES
FOUND IN AND AROUND THEM.

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LAKE DWELLINGS OF IRELAND.

Let us travel back in thought some thousands of years, and picture to ourselves the aspect of Erin at that period. After all, this retrospect is comparatively short, if we take as correct the present computed period of man’s existence on this globe. Geology now assigns to the human race a duration it was long considered heterodox to imagine: generation upon generation, who shall say how many, lie beneath the sod over which our footsteps now pass.

The words of Genesis are in no way antagonistic to the discoveries of modern geologists, nor even to the theory of evolution. That the term “day,” as used in the Book of Genesis, is not to be understood as confined to a mere duration of twenty-four hours, but should be taken as an undefined period of time, is a point now so generally admitted that it is scarcely needful to quote the words of Scripture, that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” In common parlance we speak of events that occurred “in days of old” without intention to limit the idea to periods of twenty-four hours: the form of expression may be held to cover an indefinite number of centuries. In the modern acceptation of the word used to denote the duration of twenty-four hours, we consider the day to be represented by the morning and the evening: there is the brightness of morn followed by the gloom of eve. How different is the idea conveyed by the words of Moses, who was versed in all the learning of the Egyptians, “the Evening and the Morning were the first day,” and so on to the end of the six days or intervals of time. While in its course through the heavens our planet was in process of solidifying, “the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Here we have the evening: afterwards “there was light,” that is to say, morning followed, marking full completion of the first day, or interval of time in the earth’s progress towards its present state. It is therefore plain that the term evening cannot be considered to represent a decline from the state of the previous period; rather it betokens the nature of the morn about to follow. We watch with interest the signs of the evening, not in relation to the day which has already passed away, but as foreshowing the kind of morn that is to succeed.

In looking back through the pages of history we arrive at a period when all written records cease; but the remains of the dwellings of man, of his arts and industries, enable us to trace out in some degree the general routine of his every-day life. In the matter now under consideration, prehistoric archæology interests chiefly as demonstrating, in a practical manner, the state of the people who occupied Erin long before the beginning of authentic history. Recent researches enable us to lift the veil that heretofore concealed the past of subsided lake-dwellings in Ireland, to bid

to realize to a great extent the physical past of their inhabitants, and in imagination to partake of their daily life. If till lately the learned were on this subject purblind, it is the less surprising that the uncultured fisherman, gliding in his skiff over the placid surface of the waters and peering into the clear depths, should have failed to recognize that the mouldering stems projecting from the oozy bottom were traces of the love of security of his forefathers, that in the muddy matrix of the ever-accumulating lacustrine deposit, are preserved material evidence of a state of society long since passed away.

Until the first half of this nineteenth century all memory of the ancient lake-dwellers of Ireland seemed to have vanished completely, but with the study of ethnology the interest excited in tracing out the idiosyncrasies of the various races of man penetrated to Ireland also, and now “few things can be more interesting than the spectacle of an ancient, long-forgotten people, thus rising, as it were, from the waters of oblivion to take that place which properly belongs to it in the history of the human race.”[1] Beyond the limits of history and archæology there extends a boundless period of human existence. Far back in this indefinite past we catch glimpses of a shadowy race, the first dwellers in Erin, who, it may be fairly surmised, were in a very rude state—nomad hunters and fishers, subsisting by the chase, which they supplemented by indigenous wild fruits:

They formed their ordinary implements and their weapons of warfare from flint, stone, bone, shells, and even wood.

New comer succeeded new comer in Erin. This epoch was eminently characterized by the sway of brute force—a warlike front alone secured immunity from spoliation; in short, these times were governed on

Wooded nature of the Country.—The ancient classical name of Ireland was Ierne, which some etymologists derive through its Greek form from the Celtic, signifying, they say, “the extremity,”[2] the “Ultima Thule” of classic writers; a mystic land, girded by unknown seas, and protected by phantom dangers, the product of imagination,

The witty and eccentric Dean Swift, remarking on the custom of writers of his day, said:—

It is strange how long this ignorance both as regards Ireland and the “Dark Continent” continued. One of the earliest names of Ireland, given her by her own native poets, is very descriptive, Fidh-inis, “the woody island.” This name at once brings before our minds the then characteristic feature of the country, even as its modern poetical designation, “The Emerald Isle,” depicts the luxuriant vegetation watered by the cloud-masses of the Atlantic. The bogs of Ireland, however, speak even more eloquently on this point than her bards, for in these bogs vestiges of ancient forests are found buried, sometimes at great depth below the present surface; the remains of oak, birch, mountain ash, alder, yew, beech, deal, &c., testify to the variety of the arboreous vegetation: they lie either prostrate in a horizontal position, or bear marks of having been felled by man. According to old bardic accounts, the first proceeding chronicled of the earliest settlers was the clearing of timber off many great plains in various parts of Ireland, evidently showing the paucity of arable land.

Wild Animals.—This continuous forest must have swarmed with wild animals of every description. Wolves, which even in the present day prove a scourge occasionally in parts of Europe, were numerous; the caves which abounded in the country were the home of the bear, and the boar fed beneath the deep forest shade. In these remote times, too, the Irish elk, with its huge, broad, branching antlers, a creature of immense size and strength, was existent. Remains of this gigantic deer, the Megaceros Hibernicus, have been found, covered by the peat at various depths, sometimes close to the surface; and from allusions in Irish poetry and legends[3] it is more than probable that it continued to exist down to a much later period than most of the other animals now extinct. In a very curious legend, one of the great Irish bards who is reputed to have lived in the third century, and to have himself attained a very advanced age, is described as reciting at a banquet a poem in which he extolled the greatness and strength of his contemporaries and forefathers, and described the tall gigantic deer hunted by them. His listeners laughed incredulously, whereat the old man rose in anger, and going to a neighbouring heap where were piled the relics of bygone hunts, he selected therefrom a shank-bone, and returning to the banquet, took from the table one of the shank-bones of the deer on which the guests were then feasting, and dropped it through the hollow of the bone he had brought in. This legend of the dim old times tends to prove that at a very remote period tradition alone kept up the memory of the Irish Bighorn.[4] The fact of the co-existence of the Megaceros with man does not, however, rest on mere legend; for in a locality called the “Elk Hole,” Co. Wexford, numerous skeletons of the extinct deer have been found in company with the remains of man, also a skull and horns, in the “kitchen midden” of the largest of the lake dwellings in Loughrea, Co. Galway, measuring over 13 feet from tip to tip of the antlers;[5] whilst in the refuse heap at Breagho, Co. Fermanagh, portion of an antler (according to the opinion of Professor Owen) was discovered, sawn and perforated with holes. It does not necessarily follow that this relic had belonged to an animal killed and utilized by the lake-dwellers; the horn may have been found by them on some spot where it had rested for ages. However, in the lake-dwelling at Cloonfinlough, Co. Roscommon, bones of the Megaceros Hibernicus have been dug up in a very broken state, as if fractured for the purpose of extracting the marrow, whilst remains of the Megaceros, in company with a greenstone celt, were discovered in a cave at Cappagh, the bones broken and formed into implements by the hands of man.[6] In Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, wherein is the site of a lake dwelling, remains of the Cervus tarandus, or reindeer,[7] were found, together with those of the bear; and near Ballybetagh, Co. Dublin, similar remains were associated with those of the Megaceros, whilst elsewhere bones of the Cervus alces, or true elk, have been exhumed, and traces of the mammoth, Elephas primigenius, have been found near Dungannon.

Climatic Changes.—If reliance can be placed on the accounts of classical writers, it would appear that two thousand years ago an excessive degree of cold prevailed in the climate of Europe. The great number and extent, of forests, lakes, and morasses, which according to classical authors existed in their time, must have rendered the climate of Europe exceedingly cold and moist. The forests have nearly all been felled, the stagnant water drained, thus producing a very considerable difference between the temperature described as existing in these latitudes 2000 years ago and in the present day. What occurred on the Continent occurred also in Ireland, which, shaded with forests and abounding in marshes, must have had an atmosphere more frigid than if its soil were then, as now, freely exposed to solar influence.

Claudian applied to Ireland the epithet ‘icy’: Strabo looked on it as a country scarcely habitable; Mela described the climate as cold and unfavourable: however, to counterbalance these authorities, it may be inferred from Tacitus that Ireland was considered milder in climate than Gaul; in that point of view Æthicus says it was superior to Britain, and Solinus states that it abounded in pastures. Owing to the disappearance of Erin’s former leafy mantle, and the absence of pestilential exhalations from stagnant fens, the summers have become much colder and the winters warmer than in remote times.

The turf-cutter in Ireland finds that “usually the roots and trunks of the trees under the peat, or in the lowest strata, are principally those of the oak and yew, as if prior to the growth of the peat the low country was a vast forest of these trees. It would appear that subsequently mosses and other peat-producing plants began to grow and flourish, until eventually they stopped the drainage, and formed an envelope of peat, thus killing the trees, which one by one toppled over and were buried in the succeeding growth of peat. After the disappearance of the major portion of the oak trees, the bogs, year by year, gradually increased in depth, until apparently suddenly, for some as yet unexplained cause, their growth ceased, and on their surface forests, principally of deals, sprang up.”[8] Thus we see that since the glacial period there have been great changes in the aspect and the surface of Ireland: first, the great oak forest age; then an age in which was an active growth of peat; thirdly, a period when forests of deal sprang up; fourthly, again a period of luxuriant peat growth.

The remains of human handicraft, in the form of log-houses or lake-dwellings, have been found buried under each and all these peat growths: a depth of 25 feet had overgrown the log-house discovered at Inver, Co. Donegal, and on the floor-level, outside the building, were traces of the corkers of the great oak forest age. It is practically impossible to estimate the rate at which a bog grows: if there be a fall, and consequent drainage, it will increase but little, whereas an undrained bog augments with considerable rapidity: so many contingencies are thus introduced as practically to invalidate in a great degree calculations regarding the growth of peat over prehistoric or other remains. G. H. Kinahan has estimated that in undisturbed conditions each year’s growth, represented by a layer or lamina somewhat resembling the markings on a forest tree, would average one hundred laminæ to the foot in white or surface turf, two to three hundred to the foot in brown turf, and six to eight hundred to the foot in black turf, so that the accumulation of 25 feet above the log-house at Inver, according to this painstaking calculation, would represent an age of startling remoteness.

Lakes.—Ireland was a land of lakes as well as of forests, for the white-shell marl, which forms the substratum of peat bog in low-lying situations, was formerly covered by water, till gradually displaced by the encroachments of the surrounding bog. Many of the smiling districts of to-day were then covered by water—

Lakes were thickly scattered over the face of the country—lakes of irregular shape connected by stagnant shallows—the majority of small size, half marsh, half water, fringed with forest, and abounding in fish: The axe of the primitive pioneer and the modern engineers’ spade have revolutionized the aspect of the landscape: this process however was gradual, the forests were only driven back little by little, and it is comparatively yesterday since draining operations on a large scale have been carried out; within the memory of persons still living there were numerous localities throughout the kingdom, where

It is only after drainage on a great, or rather thorough scale, that anything like complete inspection of the original structure of a lake dwelling, or any extensive “find” can be hoped for, the majority of such sites being surrounded by soft pulpy bog to such a depth and extent as to bewilder the most enthusiastic explorer.

Lough or Loch is the term applied both in Ireland and Scotland to a lake: it also signifies an arm of the sea. The shores of small sheets of water, and marshes with sedge-grown borders, were generally surrounded by bog, and the annual growth of this latter substance gradually encroached on the lake, till its former shining surface was changed into a peat moss.

It has been remarked, that occasionally the silt now occupying the former lake-bed, demonstrates the fact, that the under stratum was formed in great measure by decomposed vegetable matter, probably aqueous plants and the shed foliage of the encircling forest: the later deposit is considerably mixed with fine clay. The most probable solution of this problem is, that on the disappearance of the woods the exposed surface of the soil was washed down from the surrounding heights by every shower that fell, and if the land were tilled this denudation would be accelerated. Consequent upon the discharge of the water deepening and extending the outlet, and the contemporaneous deposition of matter held in solution in the lake-bed, small loughs in some instances now occupy sites which, from natural evidences, it is apparent must formerly have been extensive sheets of water; in other instances the large lake of ancient days, is now represented by several of diminutive size, connected by marshes that had at one time formed part of a great whole. In ancient times, however, the lakes most frequently appear to have gradually increased in height: this was due to the silting up of the outlet, under any circumstance a long and tedious process; for though the aqueous growth on the bottom of the outlet would, during the summer, impede and catch the heavy particles washed down or held in solution by the current, yet in winter, when it decayed, most of the accumulated matter would be swept away, so that in a hundred years the increase in height of the outlet would be scarcely perceptible. What then must be the age of lake dwellings, where three and even four superincumbent floors testify to the necessity of providing against the ever-rising water level!

Lakes, marshes, and woods, have in all ages afforded shelter to the conquered, and have often enabled them to set the invader at defiance. Pliny describes the Caledonian forests as “Romanorum armis terminus.” A race inferior in numbers, in arms, or in physical development, would avail themselves of artificial or natural bulwarks to ward off the attacks of dreaded enemies, and water and woods have from the earliest times formed important factors in the art of defence.

One cause to which may be ascribed the first erection of lake dwellings in Ireland was the original paucity of open country, for on the arrival of the first colonists (if credence is to be given to the early native annals) the only plain not covered with forest was the level district stretching between Dublin and Howth. This statement of the superabundance of forest is, to some extent, corroborated by the vast number of local names derived from Irish words signifying woods or timber of some description. However, the most probable cause of their erection was to serve as places of refuge, for these island homes would necessarily provide safety and protection; indeed such, in their later or historical existence, was undoubtedly the cause of their continuous occupation. It is quite obvious that in primitive times, especially, a habitation on water was of great security—more secure than could be a stockaded doon or fort.

Lake dwellings have been universally employed both in ancient and modern times: similar physical surroundings originated practically the same style of structures amongst far distant and even ocean-separated tribes. “Man is moulded to a remarkable degree, physically as well as mentally, by manner of living, food, and climate. Among barbarous nations,” says Humboldt, “we find a tribal, rather than an individual physiognomy; there are no varieties of intellectual development to stamp the face with diversity of character: thus the slave-dealers in Upper Egypt never ask for the individual character of a slave; they only inquire where he was born, his character being that of his tribe.”

Let us now, like Puck,

and inspect these habitations for ourselves. Ancient classical writers are not altogether silent on the subject. Hippocrates, who lived upwards of 400 years B.C., when describing the manner of life of the inhabitants of Phasis, a region of the Black Sea, says that the country was fenny and wooded, the climate warm and humid; but despite these disadvantages, the natives lived entirely in the swamps, “for their dwellings are constructed of wood and reeds, and are erected amidst the waters.” He adds that they seldom practise walking, either in the city or the market, but sail up and down in canoes constructed out of single trees, for there are many canals there.[9]

An account is given by Herodotus of the abode of a Thracian tribe, the Pæonians, who lived on Lake Prasias, now Lake Takinos, situated in the country known in the present day as Roumelia. The habitations of this tribe were reared on platforms, raised on piles above the water, and connected with the shore by a narrow causeway of similar formation. This tribe successfully resisted the attack of a Persian army under the satrap Myabyzus. The Father of History thus describes this settlement:—“The habitations on the lake of Prasias are of this nature—floors laid on lofty poles stand in the middle of the lake,[10] with a narrow entrance by one bridge from the mainland. All the inhabitants used to drive, at their common expense, the piles that served to support the floors. Subsequently they have adopted the following regulation: for every woman a man marries he is to drive three piles, which they procure from a mountain called Orbelus. Now, every man takes several wives. They dwell here in the following manner: each has a hut in which he lives, and a trap-door in the floor opening down to the water. To their horses and draught cattle they give as fodder fish, of which there is such an abundance that when one opens his trap-door, and lets down his empty basket into the lake by a cord, after waiting only a short time, he hauls it up full of fish.”[11] The fishermen of this lake still continue, as in the time of Herodotus, to inhabit huts built over the water.[12]

In Layard’s work, descriptive of the discoveries on the site of Nineveh, there is an engraving of a bas-relief from the palace of Sennacherib, which represents an artificial island, apparently formed by weaving together the tall reeds that grew on the banks of the Euphrates; and a prehistoric age is indicated by the dwellings which existed in the Gocktscha lake in Armenia.

It is certain that lake dwellings were used as places of permanent abode. Remains of such works of ancient date are, on the continent of Europe, by no means confined to the area of Switzerland, to which country they were for some time popularly supposed to belong exclusively; they have been found in Savoy, in the north of Italy, Würtemberg, Bavaria, Austria (Carinthia), Hungary, Mecklenburg, Denmark, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and also in France. If dependence can be placed on remains found in these numerous and widely-distributed sites, many of them would appear to have been occupied so late as the period of the Romans; and the silence of their historians on the subject is therefore singular, as in general the characteristic traits of the tribes with which the Roman legions came in contact were depicted with remarkable fidelity.

In Switzerland, during the year 1829, an excavation was made on the shore at Ober Meilen, on the lake of Zurich, for the purpose of deepening the harbour; and although piles and other antiquities were then discovered, they appear to have attracted no attention. So matters stood till the winter of 1853-4, when an extraordinary drought and long-continued frost caused the lakes to sink to a level never before known. This circumstance presented great facilities for the reclamation of land along the shores, and the inhabitants of Ober Meilen proceeded to rescue from the water some of the land thus temporarily exposed. When making excavations to form an embankment, they came upon a net-work of wooden piles, a great number of stags’ horns, and various implements, only two of which were of bronze. The discovery of this settlement aroused peculiar interest, not merely on account of its being apparently the first recorded, but because it evidently belonged almost exclusively to the stone age. Similar structures were immediately after discovered in almost all the lakes of Switzerland, the favourite site being a sunny sheltered bay, with soft and gently-shelving bottom. They were of three classes—first, pile dwellings: the piles, sometimes 30 feet in length, were driven into the bottom of the lake, and occasionally further strengthened by the deposit of stones around their base: these constructions always occur in deep water. Secondly, frame pile dwellings, in which the piles, instead of being driven into the mud, were fixed by a mortise and tenon arrangement into split trunks lying horizontally along the bottom of the lake. Thirdly, fascine dwellings, formed by layers of fagots, alternating with brushwood, clay, gravel, and stones, one over the other, till the top reached the required level above the surface of the water; piles were driven in around to bind the heap together, and the whole overlaid by a wooden floor, upon which the dwellings were erected.

Fig. 1.—Sketch Section of Swiss Pile Dwelling.

This construction bears a close family resemblance to the Irish type, in which the huts stood, so to speak, on terra firma, and not en l’air, above the surface of the water. Like Irish dwellings of analogous formation, this species of substructure has as yet been found only in small lakes with soft and muddy bottoms, and of little depth and extent; they owe their origin to the fact, that piles driven into the oozy lake bottom could not have supported the necessary weight; for, if heavily laden, they must have sunk altogether below the surface of the water, or at least could not have retained their relative positions. This formation seems to have been of more ancient date than the artificial stages upon piles alone, inasmuch as few, if any, instances have been discovered in which bronze remains are associated with fascine dwellings. So far as can be judged from the manner in which the timbers are mortised together, as well as from the characteristics of the fictile ware found, their inhabitants differed in nothing from those who, owing to their better acquaintance with metal, constructed dwellings of greater solidity, in deeper water, and under more varied conditions. “It was impossible to adopt the fascine structure in the larger lakes, for it must have been foreseen that the waves which could drive amongst the upright piles of the usual pile dwelling without injuring them, would, in stormy weather, wash over the edges of the fascine platform and tear it in pieces.”[13]

The “fascine” lake dwelling in the lake of Fuschl, near the Mondsee in Austria, resembles, in most respects, those found in Switzerland, Ireland, and Scotland. This little lake is rich in fish, and its banks abound with game; on its western shore, in a little inlet, lies an artificial island nearly circular, about fifty paces in diameter, separated from the mainland by a narrow channel, now almost choked with peat-moss and marsh plants. The islet is only just above the ordinary water-level, and on inspection its construction was found to be as follows:—

First, a thick layer of peat-moss, then a stratum of branches, principally of mountain pine and dwarf birch: the foundation consists of large boughs or trunks of pine trees, the top pointing inwards. Small piles were driven through the different layers to hold the mass together, whilst on the exterior, a number of much smaller piles were driven into the lake-bed, probably to protect the structure from wave action. The difference in general constructive details between the dwellings on Helvetian and Hibernian lakes may be accounted for by the depth of water of the former, and the shallow muddy bottoms of the latter. Remains of a dwelling have been found embedded in the peat-bogs by which the hill of Chamblon is surrounded. The peat-cutters of Les Uttins, discovered horizontal beams with mortises, and a wooden roadway across the marsh leading to the spot. There are two settlements here, both very ancient: one is situated at a distance of 1850 yards from the lake, the other at a distance of 2200 yards, in an alluvial plain formed since their erection. Dr. Keller also describes ‘steinberge’ or stonehills, i. e. elevations on the bottom of the lakes, composed of stones and gravel artificially deposited. These were formed by the natives on natural shallows, for the purpose of lessening the depth of water. At Nidau, in the lake of Bienne, there is an artificial island encircled with piles, planks being laid horizontally at the bottom to retain in place the stones of which it is composed. At Möringen, in the same lake, there is a structure of similar type; whilst a large canoe, which had probably been used at its formation, was found lying at the bottom laden with a cargo of stones. Structures almost identical with the Irish have been found in the lakes of Inkwyler, Nussbaumen, and Wauwyl. The pile dwellings of Switzerland, i. e. those erected in deep water and in the larger lakes, bear a much closer resemblance to the description given by Herodotus than to the dwellings discovered in Ireland and Scotland. The settlement at Morges, on the Lake of Geneva, was 1200 feet in length by 120 in width, so that if entirely covered by a platform its area, according to the computation of M. Troyan, would have been sufficiently ample to accommodate a population of upwards of 1200 souls. Sometimes, as at Wangan, the villages were built close to the shore, and seem, as in Ireland, to have been protected by palisades.

The framework of the huts was probably made of logs and wattles, or of hurdles plastered over with clay: portions of the latter, with marks of the wattling still distinct on them, have been drawn from their watery bed. The Swiss dwellings appear to have been rectangular, resembling perhaps the châlets of the present day: it has not been decided whether they were divided into rooms, but, just as in the Irish dwellings, each hut had its hearth, of which the flat stones still often lie in situ; the invariable presence of clay weights indicates that most families possessed a loom, whilst from the remains of straw and reeds, it may be inferred that the roofs were thatched. The wide chronological range of these remains is very remarkable. The settlements in which stone implements have been found are more widely spread and more numerous than those of the metallic period. In Switzerland these lake villages appear to have commenced to decay, or to have been abandoned towards the close of the bronze age, and to have almost ceased to exist on the introduction of iron. In the stone era the bones of wild animals, of stags, of urus, of aurocles, and wild boar, are found, whilst in the metallic ages remains of domesticated animals preponderate more and more, till the final abandonment of these “water-towns.” The remains of human handicraft around the dwellings illustrate the habits, domestic usages, and skill, of their inhabitants during untold centuries; but the most striking fact is not so much their similarity to the Irish structures, as the identity in form and use of the articles discovered in them, both those employed in war and in the chase, as also the culinary and domestic implements, the objects of personal decoration, and those employed in the toilet.[14]

Scottish archæologists were aroused by the lacustrine discoveries on the Continent to investigation of similar remains occurring in their own country. It was found that early historic references to island forts, and incidental notices of the exposure of artificial islands, consequent on drainage operations, had been entirely overlooked. A crannog, that of Lochinadorb, in Moray, was honoured by a visit from Edward I. in 1303, and was considered of such importance, that thirty-three years later Edward III. led an army to its relief. A crannog in Loch Kinord, in Aberdeenshire, is mentioned in history in the year 1335: it received James IV. as a guest in 1506, and enjoyed a continuous existence until 1648, when its fortifications were razed by order of Parliament. Forty years after the dismantling of this island fortress, the crannog of Lochan-Eilean, in Strathspey, is described as “useful to the country in times of trouble or wars, for the people put in their goods and children here, and it is easily defended.” Artificial islands formed of wood or stone, often identical with those a short time previously ascertained to have existed in Ireland, were found more or less spread over the entire of Scotland. These have been lately classified and considerably added to by Dr. Munro, and in his work[15] at least fifty-three well-authenticated discoveries of wooden lake structures in Scotland are enumerated.

The Dowalton settlement, in the lake of that name, in Wigtownshire, seems to have been abandoned by its inhabitants at an early period: nothing mediæval was found on the site; a copper coin indeed (described, however, as of doubtful character) was picked up; but as it may have been dropped into the water at any period, its presence need not disturb such inference as we may draw from the other articles discovered. Mr. Stuart says, “there is a peculiar interest in the small colony of Dowalton, from its neighbourhood to the site of Ptolemy’s Roman town of Leucophibia … and that at least one object of Roman workmanship … has been found amongst the relics of the old inhabitants of the islands. It was only a matter of conjecture how it came there—whether in the course of commerce, by gift, or by appropriation after the removal of their Roman neighbours. It seems, however, not unreasonable to regard the occurrence of a Roman vessel at Dowalton, associated as it is with relics which are elsewhere found in early sepulchral cairns and British hut circles, as pointing to a period of occupation of the islands not later, and probably earlier, than that of the Roman settlement.” The list of antiquities brought to light at Dowalton is therefore extremely valuable for Irish Archæologists, as it included specimens of almost everything usually found in Irish crannogs (with the exception of the copper coin of doubtful character), also of a bronze vessel of undoubted Roman manufacture.

The Irish lake dwellings have, over and over again, yielded articles precisely similar to the annexed list,[16] but as a rule they are more prolific in objects of early manufacture, which, from their style of ornamentation, are commonly referred to a period from the fifth to the tenth century. Dr. Munro remarks, that although we cannot “argue definitely from the present geographical distribution of Scottish lake dwellings, the indications are so clearly suggestive of their having been peculiar to those districts formerly occupied by Celtic races, that the significance of this generalization cannot be overlooked.”

The unlooked-for discovery of lake dwellings in Yorkshire, resembling those of Ireland and Scotland, proves that in Britain also there had been a lacustrine population in times probably prehistoric. During the execution of drainage operations in the Holderness district, bone tools and fragments of piles were exhumed: this led to the discovery of the remains of lake dwellings. The excavations made it apparent that the construction, as is observable also in many Irish crannogs, was of two ages—the stone and the bronze. In the upper stratum, bronze objects, then rude stone, flint, and bone weapons. As in the Irish so in the British remains, the very dressing of the timber framework demonstrates the fact of the constructors having worked in the lower portion with stone, and in the upper with metal hatchets.

It may be remarked that the great city of London seems to have risen from a collection of rude pile dwellings, as traces of these structures have been found both near London-Wall and at Southwark. They are thus described by General Lane-Fox:—“Upon looking over the ground, my attention was at once attracted by a number of piles, the decayed tops of which appeared above the unexcavated portions of the peat, dotted here and there over the whole of the space cleared.… Commencing on the south, a row of them ran north and south on the west side: to the right of these a curved row, as if forming part of a ring. Higher up, and running obliquely across the ground, was a row of piles having a plank about an inch and half thick, and a foot broad, placed along the south face, as if binding the piles together.… The points of the piles were inserted from one to two feet in the gravel, and were for the most part well preserved, but all the tops had rotted off at about two feet above the gravel, which must have been the surface of the ground, or of the water at the time these structures were in existence.”[17] The vast majority of the relics belonged to the Roman era, but there were others of ruder workmanship. The kitchen middens contained cockle, mussel, oyster, and periwinkle shells: amongst the animal remains were those of the red deer, horse, wild boar, goat, dog, and the Bos-primigenius, Trochoceros, Longifrons, and Frontosus. The superincumbent strata varied from 18 to 21 feet in depth. The Thames, formerly a less deep but wider river than at present, appears to have had a pile-dwelling population established on its shallows at various favourable points. At Kew, near the mouth of the Brent, piles have been disclosed to view, marking as is supposed the site of an ancient “water-town;” and at Barnes, in the opposite bend of the stream, similar remains have been observed associated with flints, celts, and other primitive relics. Well-authenticated lacustrine sites have been discovered at Wretham Mere, in Norfolk;[18] at Barton Mere, near Bury St. Edmund’s;[19] on Cold Ash Common, Berks;[20] and in Llangorse lake, near Brecon, South Wales.[21]

Dr. Munro is of opinion that the lake dwellings of Scotland were erected by the semi-Romanized Celtic inhabitants, as a means of protection when they were left to contend against the attacks of the Angles, the Picts, and the Scots, upon the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain; but when Cæsar arrived on the banks of the Thames the use of wooden stakes, palisading, and piles, for defensive purposes, was, as described by him,[22]