Archaeology Magazine - May 1977 - 17

settlement was constructed on low ground along
the shore of a lake. Traces of such villages,
dating in many cases to Neolithic times, were
first discovered in the winter of 1853-54. Due to
an unusually dry period at the time, the water
level of Swiss lakes had decreased sufficiently to
expose numerous wooden piles. Ferdinand
Keller, a Swiss archaeologist, conjectured that
these buildings had been erected in prehistoric
times on platforms supported by piles above the
water surface. Travelers to New Guinea
described such houses; the only recorded ancient
accounts, those in Herodotus' work, referred to
dwelling platforms erected at Lake Prasias in the
fifth century b.c. Keller's theory, however, was
regarded as established fact for three-quarters of
a century. The primary evidence for it was
provided by the prehistoric village remains at
Swiss, German, French and Italian lakes.
Systematic excavations and modern research
have disproved this view of the lake dwellings.
The piles seemed rather to have served to
solidify the waterlogged subsoil and provided a
firm basis for building wooden houses on the
surface of the ground during periods when
water levels in the lakes were even lower than
they are now. Recent investigations have shown
that there were some settlements on peat bogs
and marshy land. In structures like these, the log
platforms were laid on marshy ground to serve
as foundations for the huts. Lake villages also
included settlements placed on islands for
security, such as the pile dwellings on St. Peter's
Island in Lake Bienne, where the easiest
approach was by canoe or by a narrow causeway.
Such constructions protected the inhabitants
against wild animals and hostile tribes and
helped to conserve the limited amount of land
suitable for agriculture and pasturage in the
mountainous terrain. In addition, they made the
difficult work of clearing space in the dense
forest unnecessary and made the easy disposal of
refuse in the lakes possible.
Refuse is the mainstay of archaeology, and
the domestic arrangements of the early Swiss
have proved highly beneficial. The lake waters
have preserved much organic material that
would otherwise have rotted completely away.
Wooden implements, textile fragments, grain,
fruits and plants have come to light in lakeside
villages. Significant parts of the house structures
have also been detected. In some instances the
stumps of the supporting piles still stand above
the lake floor and can be seen through the water

on a clear day. In times of extreme drought they
may project above the surface. In contrast, any
preservation of organic substances is unlikely in
settlements on dry ground; there, only traces of
previous dwellings (such as postholes and baked
clay daubs) and objects made of stone, clay or
metal are preserved.
Wooden objects and animal and vegetable
materials can only be preserved when air is
excluded - and oxidation prevented - from the
moment they are discarded. The relic beds of
the lakeshore dwellings appear to have been
sealed permanently from air by the humidity of
the soil. Because the deposition of relic layers
can take place only beneath the level of the
settlement, the relic beds of lakeside dwellings
indicate a dry level of habitation above a humid
level of deposition - a situation made possible
only by artificial support of a raised living
platform on piles. The humid level may have
been marshy soil or shallow water at the
edge of a lake. This general type of village
construction - an architectural unit made up of
humid level, piles and platform - is characteristic
of the prehistoric periods of the Alpine massif
and neighboring territories. Such dwellings also
appear among some primitive present-day tribes
living along the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers in
South America, in New Guinea and Borneo, and
in parts of Africa. The nature and age of the
material found in the relic beds allows us to
describe the lake dwellers and their settlements
in some detail.

T he oldest Swiss lake villages were apparently
setded during the early Neolithic period, around
the end of the fourth millennium b.c. Such
lakeside settlements continued to be built during
the Bronze Age and, depending on the location,
into the early Iron Age. Many sites were
inhabited over long periods, though not
necessarily continuously. At Robenhausen, for
instance, three Neolithic layers have been found;
at other sites, the various levels belong to
different archaeological periods.
Some of the villages are relatively large, with
houses four to five meters in width and six to
twelve meters in length. The longest building
discovered so far measured 36 meters. At
Robenhausen, in an area of about three acres,
100,000 piles - eight to twelve centimeters in
diameter - were found. At some sites the
diameter of specific piles was as much as 23
161
Archaeology Magazine - May 1977

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