Robert Munro

“ In searching back through the successive stages of human civilisation we arrive at a period when both written history and traditions fail. This prehistoric period, up to the commencement of the present century, was entirely lost in the thick veil of darkness which surrounded everything pertaining to the past history of the globe. ”

“ Though the famous three ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron had been established as a method of classification before lacustrine treasures became known, I question if there is in the whole range of prehistoric archæology any class of antiquities that gives greater support to this remarkable chronological sequence, or throws more light on the introduction of metals into Europe than those collected from the lake-dwellings. The period of duration of the early pile-dwellings in Central Europe entirely covers and overlaps that which witnessed the introduction of the great art of metallurgy in Europe. ”

“ For our present purpose it is, however, enough to know that the members of the sub-Kingdom of the Angiosperms, or Flowering Plants, are not only the most recent in point of evolution, but the most numerous in the vegetable world of to-day. They embrace an endless variety of species widely different, in form, size and structural complexity. They exist under all the conditions of life, from the dense jungle of the Tropics to the home of eternal snows. In the ordinary walks of life we meet them everywhere, dominating our woodlands, prairies, meadows and ponds. ”

“ It is safe to say that no prehistoric monument in Great Britain has given rise to more speculation as to its origin, date and purpose; and although the few hoary stones still extant are but a small portion of the original structure they are still sufficiently imposing to excite the wonder of the passing traveller, and mysterious enough to puzzle the antiquary.
Stonehenge was first mentioned by Nennius in the 9th century, who asserts that it was erected in commemoration of the 400 nobles who were treacherously slain near the spot by Hengist in 472. ”

“ It is, indeed, to such catastrophes that we owe much of our information, as the sudden interruption of busy life-scenes in such a manner and especially when accompanied by circumstances that tended to preserve the ruins from decay, has been the means of supplying us, as it were, with a photographic picture of the habits, customs, and industries of the people; and it requires only a sufficient number of such instances to be able, from a comparative examination of the recovered relics, to construct a fair scale of the progressive civilisation and culture of the lake-dwellers. ”

“ Ice Age.—Among the physical phenomena which materially helped to mould Britain into its present shape was the incoming of the great Ice Age. This singular episode in the world's history lasted during the whole of the Pleistocene period, but not as one continuous span of advance and retreat of its accompanying load of ice, but rather as a series of ice ages alternating with warm intervals of long duration. At the time of maximum glaciation the larger portion of Britain was covered with a vast mer de glâce, causing the environment to be in a state of general instability. ”

“ The quest for food, protection from enemies, and sexual impulses seem to furnish the chief motives of their respective life-activities; and hence the raison d'être for the invention and differentiation of special organs to carry out these purposes. The policy adopted in propagating the species seems to be to flood the environment with their young progeny, with the result that there is a perpetual struggle for existence which always ends in the premature death of the vast majority. For, of the multitudes born, there is room for only a small fraction to come to mature life. ”

“ Cities and mighty empires have risen, flourished, and disappeared, without transmitting to future ages a single record of their existence, like flowers born to blush unseen. Such, indeed, [Pg 111] might have been the fate of many of these pile-villages, notwithstanding the favourable conditions in which their ruins have been sealed up, had it not been for the mere accident of peat cutting, which has disclosed so many of their buried treasures. These remarks are peculiarly applicable to the celebrated settlement at Robenhausen, with which I begin to-day's lecture. ”

“ In no other way can the association of works of art of a very high order with rude and rough instruments of daily use be accounted for. In that respect, therefore, the Victoria Cave affords as true and vivid a picture of the troublous times of the fourth and fifth centuries as the innumerable burned Roman villas and cities ”

“ Henceforth primeval antiquities of every description, the merest "waifs and strays" of humanity, things which previously were utterly ignored, were now eagerly collected, described, and catalogued; and in every centre of intelligence societies and journals were founded with the express object of following up the new found trail of prehistoric man. Since then the problem of man's place in nature has come largely to the front, and now appeals for its solution to all departments of science, and to all legitimate processes of reasoning. ”

“ To condense the story of half a century's explorations and discoveries over a wide field by a crowd of eager and enthusiastic workers who, probably then for the first time, realized the grandeur of the conception of the uniformity of nature, is an effort which calls for some indulgence on the part of the reader. We will begin the task by a rapid survey of a few of the principal Palæolithic discoveries made in Western Europe up to the present time—for we are not yet in a position to isolate Britain from the Palæolithic area on the Continent. ”

“ Thus, if the handicraft products of reasoning man, or perishable organisms, such as the bodies of animals, be accidentally deposited in the mud of a sea, lake, or river, or suddenly buried in the ruins of a city, or sunk in a bed of growing peat, or become frozen up in a field of perpetual ice, these exceptional results are apt to follow. ”

“ But, in fact, there is much less uniformity in these terremare than is often found in the dwellings of animals; therefore I maintain logically, that even prehistoric men changed their mode of living according to place, time, and circumstances; and that the terramaricoli did not live solely in pools of water, as some assert, but had settlements both in the water and on dry land, and that the terramara beds are the results of the latter. In some of the terrestrial settlements they probably had pile-dwellings, while in others they lived in huts or tents. ”

“ I have already remarked that no remains of wooden islands have been found in the south-east of Scotland. This, however, may be due to want of research on the part of antiquaries, and other causes, which so long kept us altogether in the dark regarding the phenomena of lake-dwellings in this country; and, indeed, some curious indications have already been supplied by independent observers as to their existence, not only in the south-east of Scotland, as at Balgone in East Lothian (see footnote, page 249) , but in several parts of England and Wales. ”

“ But the mammoth soon left the neighbourhood, retiring to Siberia, doubtless with the hope of adapting his hereditary modus Vivendi to Arctic conditions of life. The experiment was, however, unsuccessful, as he soon succumbed to the severity of the climate, and, sad to relate, the last lingering individuals of the species met the fate of extinction by being frozen in ice, where their carcases are still to be found. With the final amelioration of the climate the reindeer also disappeared from Central Europe; and so the Palæolithic Age and its unique civilization came to a close in Europe. ”

“ Although no timbers were visible at the time of our visit, the whole surface of the enclosure being green with grass, and the surrounding moss covered with heather and bog plants, its situation and character indicated its true nature to those experienced in lake-dwellings, and a very slight excavation at once confirmed this view. Beginning in the centre, the diggers exposed beneath the shallow layer of vegetable soil the familiar features of a fascine-dwelling. ”

“ That the influence of the Hallstatt civilization had not entirely spent itself short of our shores is amply proved by the existence, in the museums of Britain and Ireland, of a number of objects whose origin can be clearly traced to common types in Central Europe. These continental culture and art elements were, however, so handled by the "barbarians in the ocean" as to produce within the British Isles a new school of art, known as Late Celtic, whose products can be readily differentiated from those of all other contemporary phases of European civilization. ”

“ It is true that the specimens of pottery are coarse and devoid of ornamentation; but this might have been due to social causes rather than a deficiency of knowledge, as we find that in some of the other early stations, as for example Schussenried, the pottery is highly ornamented. In the struggle for existence the original founders of the lake-dwellings, surrounded by fierce aborigines and wild animals, had to pay more attention to the mere necessaries of life than to art. ”

“ The stage in European history we are thus called upon to inspect is known by the name Neolithic Age, so-called because a new and improved mechanical principle then came into general use, viz. the art of polishing stone implements by rubbing them with some hard material, so as to give them a sharper cutting edge than was possible by the old process of chipping. How far we have travelled in time to reach this phase of culture we cannot say in so many years, or centuries, or even millenniums. ”

“ From the final departure of the Romans to the conquest of the kingdom of Strathclyde by the Northumbrian Angles, a period of several centuries, this unfortunate people had few intervals of peace, and with their complete subjugation ended the special functions of the lake-dwellings as a national system of protection. No doubt some of them, as well as caves and such hiding-places, would continue to afford refuge to straggling remnants of natives, rendered desperate by the relentless persecution of their enemies ”

“ Half a century has now passed since the theory of organic evolution captured the philosophic mind of the day, and at once placed the science of anthropology into the position of being one of the most fascinating of intellectual pursuits. Our object in the present chapter is to give some idea of the progress that has been made during this long interval, in investigating the history of humanity and civilization from the new standpoint. ”

“ Sometimes, for the sake of protection, houses were built upon piles driven into a morass or bottom of a lake, as for example in Barton Mere, near Bury St. Edmund's, where bronze spear-heads have been discovered, one 13 inches long, among piles and large blocks of stone, as in some of the lakes in Switzerland. Along with them were vast quantities of the broken bones of the stag, roe, wild boar, and hare, to which must also be added the urus, an animal proved to be wild by its large bones, with strongly-marked ridges for the attachment of muscles. ”

“ The system of human economy founded in these early days was the outcome of the free play of natural laws little affected by the principles of religion or ethics. The reflections of these Palæolithic folk had probably for the most part to do with the habits of the animals they hunted, and the strategic means by which they could be waylaid and captured. Of agriculture, the rearing of domestic animals, the arts of spinning and weaving, and the manufacture of pottery they appear to have been absolutely ignorant. ”

“ Struck with the elegance and beauty of the stone weapons and implements so profusely scattered over the land, they seized the idea, occasionally previously mooted by writers in other countries, but hitherto never seriously considered, that there was a time when people were entirely ignorant of the use of metals, and, in the prosecution of their social industries, had to depend exclusively on such tools as could be manufactured out of stone, horn, wood, etc. ”

“ We thus see that in post-Palæolithic times there sprang up over Western Europe, as the result of the social contact of two different populations—one dolichocephalic and the other brachycephalic—a mixed people who between them founded the Neolithic civilization. At first there was a preponderance of the long-headed races among them, but as the flow of new-comers from the East continued, this cephalic feature was in some localities reversed, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. It was a colony of this mixed population in Europe, but mostly long-headed people, who first invaded Britain. ”

“ In La Tène both stone and bronze objects are quite the exception, while those of iron are not only in great abundance, but, from their variety and style of art, clearly show that the working and forging of this metal had reached a great state of perfection. In short, we have inherent [Pg 303] evidence that the civilisation of the Bronze Age was now superseded by one of a totally different character, and yet it would seem that this complete change had been accomplished independent of, and prior to, the advent of the Romans. ”

“ Had the bed of the English Channel been raised some forty or fifty feet, instead of being depressed to that extent, we would probably find many shell-heaps and other remains of feasting along the raised beaches of its shores. The only thing that improved the social life of this primitive population was the incoming of the first Neolithic immigrants from Europe, who brought with them the arts of cultivating plants and cereals, and the rearing of animals in a state of domestication. ”

“ The inhabitants live in the marshes, and have houses of timber and of reeds constructed in the midst of the waters; and they seldom go out to the city or the market, but sail up and down in boats made out of a single tree-trunk, for there are numerous canals in that region. The water they drink is hot and stagnant, putrefied by the sun, and swollen by the rainfall, and the Phasis itself is the most stagnant and quiet-flowing of all rivers. ”

“ The introduction of bronze into the arts and industries of the Stone Age people of Europe speedily revolutionized their whole system of social economy. Not only had all the primitive implements and weapons to be remodelled in accordance with the principles of a metallic régime, but new industries and higher artistic aspirations were engendered which, by degrees, greatly modified the commercial and social aspects of life. ”

“ Here they pitch their cabins; and when the waves cover the surrounding country far and wide, like so many mariners on board ship are they; when, again, the tide recedes, their condition is that of so many shipwrecked men, and around their cottages they pursue the fishes as they make their escape with the receding tide. It is not their lot, like the adjoining nations, to keep any flocks for sustenance by their milk, nor even to maintain a warfare with wild beasts, every shrub, even, being banished afar. ”

“ I am now of opinion that these "river-bed" people were the descendants of the Palæolithic races who continued to inhabit Britain after the setting in of the milder climate which destroyed the big game on which they formerly depended for sustenance. In the changed circumstances they were gradually reduced to great straits, and had to resort to the produce of the sea-shores as the most readily available source of food, next to small animals, roots, nuts, seeds, etc. They wandered chiefly along the shores of the British seas, where their haunts, workshops and relics are now mostly submerged. ”

“ They were skilled in the ceramic art, and in the manufacture of cloth by spinning and weaving wool and fibrous textures. In hunting the forest fauna they used, in addition to spears, lances and daggers, the bow and arrow. They built houses both for the dead and the living—thus showing that religion had become a governing principle in their social economy. But of the artistic taste of their Palæolithic predecessors they possessed not a vestige, and whatever they did by way of ornament consisted of a few incised scratches arranged in simple geometrical patterns. ”

“ Near the village of Heimenlachen, in the Canton of Thurgau, there is a peat-moor covering about 15 acres, in which the peasants while cutting peat were occasionally turning up objects of human industry deeply buried, but they have been either dispersed among the curious or thrown away. A large skull of an ox, supposed to be that of a urus, lay for years exposed among a heap of rubbish, but when subsequently searched for, it could not be found. Among these relics were celts of nephrite, stone hammers, various articles of bone and horn, and some fragments of pottery and basket-work. ”

“ When Palæolithic civilization began to be curtailed in virtue of cosmic changes in the environment, and new methods of living were forthcoming, it is possible that the British fringe of the Palæolithic population would shrink back to Europe, and thus, for a time, leave a gap in the continuity of human life in Britain. ”

“ Between those objects in which iron is used as an ornament (all of which are of the same style as the bronze objects) , and the La Tène weapons, there is a wide gap which is not bridged over by any relics found in the lake-dwellings. In short, the evolutionary stage between the smelting of bronze and the forging of iron is here represented by a corresponding hiatus between the styles of art of the two periods more striking than that which distinguishes the neolithic from palæolithic industrial remains. ”