The New Student's Reference Work/Lake Dwellings

Lake Dwellings, houses built on platforms supported by piles or posts in the shallows or margins of lakes. From the earliest times there were lake-dwellers in central Europe, and the custom prevailed in Scotland and Ireland to a late day. When the waters of Lake Zürich in Switzerland receded in 1854, the remains of a lake dwelling were discovered at Meilen, and similar relics were found at the mud-bottoms of many Swiss lakes. Since then they have been thoroughly investigated and their existence determined in the stone, bronze and iron ages. Nothing, however, is known of the origin of this mode of life. In the stone age the larger implements were made of hard stone, the smaller of the less plentiful flint. In the bronze age the dwellings seem to have been further out in the water than in the stone age. The pottery is finer and more elegantly ornamented, and the implements and weapons are of bronze. The lake dwellings of Marin are the best known of the iron age. The extent of the settlement was 1,200 by 250 feet. Many articles of fine workmanship in iron have been found here, such as shield-mountains, buckles, bridle bits, hatchets, dice, small objects of bone and Roman and Gallic coins, the latest being of Emperor Claudius, 41 to 54 A. D. The custom of living in water-houses is still practiced among barbarous tribes in the Malayan Archipelago, New Guinea, Venezuela and central Africa. See Munro's Lake Dwellings of Europe.