The Neolithic, or Epoch of Tamed Animals, is characterized by stone implements, polished or made smooth by a process of grinding and cutting, the greater development attained in the art of pottery, and by the presence of the bones of the domesticated animals. This age, in which no remains of the reindeer occur, immediately follows the reindeer epoch, and to it are referred in general all discoveries made in the so called alluvial soil, the most ancient remains of the so called Celts, the shell-heaps of Denmark, the tumuli or grave-mounds, the dolmens, the earlier Swiss pile-buildings, the Irish lake-dwellings, and some of the caves of France.

Caverns.—The caves belonging to this period, and explored by MM. Garrigou and Filhol, are those of the Pyrenees and the caves of PradiÉrs, Bedeilhac, Labart, Niaux, Ussat, and Fontanel. Some of these caverns have been used in earlier ages, as is shown by the remains of extinct mammals. The upper crust of the floors of the caves belong to this period, and in them are found the bones of the ox, stag, sheep, goat, antelope, chamois, wild boar, wolf, dog, fox, badger, hare, and horse, intermingled with the remains of hearths, also piercers, spear-heads, and arrow-heads, made of bone; hatchets, knives, scrapers made of flints, and various other substances, such as silicious schist, quartzite, leptinite, and serpentine stone. These implements were carefully wrought, and mostly polished.

The cave of Saint Jean d'Alcas (Aveyron), explored at different times by M. Cazalis de Fondace, was used as a place of sepulture. It was first examined about twenty-five years ago, and at that time five human skulls, in a good state of preservation, were found, but have been lost, as their importance was not then known. Intermingled with these bones were flint, jade, and serpentine implements, carved bones, remains of rough pottery, stone amulets, and the shells of shell-fish, but no remains of funeral banquets. At the mouth of the cave were two large flag-stones lying across one another. The most recent discoveries in the cave have furnished metallic substances, which would place it, as a habitation, to the last of the neolithic.

Danish KjÖkken-MÖddings, or Shell-Mounds, or kitchen-refuse heaps.—The refuse heaps of Denmark were carefully examined by Professors Steenstrup, the naturalist, Forchammer, a geologist, and Worsaae, the archÆologist, commissioned by the Danish government, their reports being presented to the Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen.

They are found chiefly on the north coast of Denmark, and consist of the shells of edible mollusks, such as the oyster, cockle, mussel, and periwinkle. These deposits are from three to ten feet in thickness, from one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet in width, and sometimes as much as one thousand feet in length. In them are found weapons and other instruments of stone, horn, and bone; fragments of rough pottery, stone-wedges, knives, etc., in great abundance, accompanied with charcoal and ashes; no traces of coin, bronze, or iron, or domestic animals, except the dog. The bones of animals are very numerous, but no human bones have ever been discovered. Professor Steenstrup estimates that ninety-seven per cent. of the bones belong to the stag, the roe-deer, and the wild boar. The other remains are those of the urus (Bos primigenius), dog, fox, wolf, marten, wild-cat, hedgehog, bear (Ursus arctos), and the mouse, and the bones of birds and fishes. The auroch, musk ox, domestic ox, elk, hare, sheep, and domestic hog are absent.

The mollusca of these shell-mounds are of a size which are never obtained by the representatives of the same species now living on the Baltic. They are not more than one-half or even one-third the size. At the time of the formation of these mounds, the Baltic was a true sea, or an arm of the ocean, and these mollusks were taken from it. Now the Baltic has not the character of a true sea, but is merely brackish, and the oyster does not occur in the Baltic except at its entrance into the ocean.

These deposits have been found several miles inland, which would indicate that the sea had once covered the intervening space. On the western coast they have not been found, in consequence of their having possibly been swept away by the encroachments of the sea. They are also found on the adjacent islands.

These mounds are not peculiar alone to Denmark; for they are found in England, Scotland, France, and America.

Danish Peat Bogs.—The peat bogs of Denmark, so faithfully investigated by Professor Steenstrup, mark three periods of deposition. The most ancient is called the Scotch-Fir; the second, immediately above, the Oak, and the uppermost, the Beech. The peat is from ten to forty feet in thickness, and to form a layer from ten to twenty feet thick would require, according to Steenstrup, at least four thousand years, and perhaps even from three to four times that period.[68] These three epochs denote three periods of time. The lowest belongs to the neolithic, the middle to the bronze, and the last to the iron epoch. In the lowest, or Fir period, have been found worked flints and bones. Human bones have been found, which correspond with the bones taken from the tumuli of this epoch.

The Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland.—Dr. Ferdinand Keller and his associates have made known to the world the wonderful remains of villages situated in the lakes of Switzerland and other countries. The villages of Switzerland do not all belong to the same period, and they represent the neolithic, bronze, and iron epochs; but there was no hard line of demarcation between these three periods. These habitations are so numerous that more than two hundred settlements hare been discovered in Switzerland alone. Among the lakes furnishing these remains may be counted the Lake of NeuchÂtel (forty-six settlements); Lake Constance (thirty-two settlements); Lake of Geneva (twenty-four settlements); Lake of Bienne (twenty-one settlements); Lake of Morat (sixteen settlements); Lake of Zurich (three settlements); Lake of PfÆffikon (six settlements); Lake of Sempach (six settlements); Lake of Moosseedorf (two settlements); Lake of Inkwyl (one settlement); Lake of Nussbaumen (one settlement); Lake Greiffensee (one settlement); Lake of Zug (six settlements); Lake of Baldegg (five settlements), and others.

The habitations belonging to the neolithic are Lake Constance thirty, Neuchatel twelve, Geneva two settlements; one each at Morat, Bienne, Zurick, PfÆffikon, Inkwyl, Moosseedorf, Nussbaumen, the settlement of Concise, the bridge ThiÉle, the peat-bog of Wauwyl, and others.

These dwellings were built near the shore, on piles of various kinds of wood, sharpened by tools and fire, and driven into the mud at the shallow bottom of the lake. In some of the settlements the piles were fastened by heaping stones around them. The piles were sometimes placed together, at others apart. The heads were brought to a level and then the platform beams were fastened upon them. This basis served for the foundation of the rude rectangular huts they erected. These piles are not now seen above the water, yet they are visible above the bottom of the lake. The number of piles in some of these settlements is as high as one hundred thousand, and the area occupied, not less than seventy thousand square yards. It has been estimated that the population of the Lake-villages during the neolithic was over thirty thousand.

The object of these dwellings was to protect the inhabitants from wild animals, the attacks of enemies, and for the ready obtaining of food by fishing. They were not only occupied by the inhabitants, but also by their herds and the stores of fodder.[69]

Robenhausen.—It is not necessary to go into an account of a number of these settlements to represent the neolithic epoch, for the settlement at Robenhausen (Lake PfÆffikon) takes the first rank in giving the domestic arrangements of the ancient inhabitants. This settlement covered a space of nearly three acres, and one hundred thousand piles were used in the whole structure. Its form was an irregular quadrangle. It was about two thousand paces from the ancient western shore of the lake, and about three thousand from the shore in the opposite direction. With the last-named side there was a communication by means of a bridge, the piles of which are still visible. On this side were the gardens and pastures. The dwellers of this settlement were unfortunate, as their habitation was twice burned up, and each time, they rallied and rebuilt their huts. They remained a long time as would seem from the depth of the peat and the vast amount of relics found.

At a depth of eleven feet were found the earliest or most ancient relics; at ten and one-half feet, the remains of the first conflagration—charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at seven and one-half feet, flooring, relics of the second settlement, and excrement of cows, sheep, and goats; at six and one half feet, remains of second conflagration—charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at three and one-half feet, broken stones, flooring, and relics of the third settlement; at two and one half feet, stone celts, pottery, but no traces of fire. Above this was two feet of peat and one-half foot of mould.

Without going into detail, the objects found in these various beds are as follows: Made out of wood, are knives, ladles, plates, clubs of ash, in which is fixed a socket of stag's horn containing a stone celt, a boat made of a single trunk, twelve feet long, two and one-half feet wide, and five inches deep, flails for threshing out grain, bows notched at both ends, fishing implements, floats for the support of nets, suspension hooks, tubs, chisels, sandals, yokes made for carrying vessels, and a peculiar ornament. These implements were all made out of yew, maple, ash, fir, and the root of the hazel bush. Out of stag's horn—arrow-heads, daggers, piercing and scraping tools, implements for knitting and for agriculture. The implements of stone were polished, and of the usual form. The objects of clay were fragments of pottery, in the shape of urns, plates, and cups, in great abundance. There were also found spoons, and a perforated cone, supposed to have been used as a weight for the loom. Several crucibles or melting pots have been found, which were used for melting copper. The third building of this village was on the borderland between the stone and bronze ages.

The remains of animals found here and at Moosseedorf and Wauwyl, all of the neolithic, belong to the brown bear, badger, marten, pine-marten, polecat, wolf, fox, wild-cat, beaver, elk, urus, bison, stag, roe-deer, wild-boar, marsh-boar; the domestic animals were the boar, horse, ox, goat, sheep, and dog. The remains of the domestic hog are absent from all the pile works of this period, save the one at Wauwyl.

Among cereals (Robenhausen) were found several varieties of wheat and barley; fruits and berries—service-tree, dog-rose, elder, bilberry, and wayfaring tree; the nuts—hazel, beech, and water-chestnut; the oil-producing plants—opium, or garden poppy, and dogwood; the fibrous plants—flax; plants used for dying—weld; forest trees and shrubs—silver fir, juniper, yew, ash, and oak; water and marsh plants—lake scirpus, pondweeds, common hornwort, marsh bedstraw, buckbean, yellow waterlily, ivy-leaved crowfoot, and marsh pennywort.

Besides these there have been found many specimens of plaited and woven cloth; also ropes, cords, and a portion of a linseed cake.[70]

In the different settlements the same axes and knives abound, and are of small size. The arrow-heads and saws are an improvement on those of the preceding epoch. Among domestic implements, spindle-whorls of rude earthenware were abundant in some of the villages, and corn-crushers are occasionally met with from two to three inches in diameter. About five hundred implements of stone have been found at Wauwyl, consisting of axes, small flint arrow-heads, flint-flakes, corn-crushers, rude stones used as hammers, whetstones, and sling-stones.

As these Lake-Dwellings not only belong to the last of the neolithic, but extend beyond, they naturally have a place in the close of this period. M. Troyon says the dwellings of this period came suddenly to an "end by the irruption of a people provided with bronze implements. The lake-dwellings were burned by these new-comers, and the primitive inhabitants were slaughtered or driven back into remote places. This catastrophe affects chiefly the settlements of East Switzerland, which entirely disappeared, and also a number of those on the shore of the western lakes. Some few settlements, however—namely, those of the so-called transition period—are said not to have been destroyed by the new people till after the inhabitants had begun to make use of bronze implements."[71]

Dr. Keller takes exception to these views. He says there is no sudden leap from one class of civilization to another, and that the metals came gradually into use. The lake-dwellings were not burned down by the irruption of a foreign people; for at Niederwyl, and several settlements of the Unter-See, no traces of fire have been observed. The fact that but a very few human skeletons have been found in the whole settlements, contradicts the supposition of a battle having taken place between the aborigines and the supposed conquerors, and of the destruction of the former by the latter.[72]

Lake-dwellings belonging to this age and the bronze, have been found in Bavaria, Northern Italy, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Herodotus says that the PÆonians lived this way in Lake Prasias (Thrace), and Lubbock says that the fishermen of Lake Prasias still inhabit wooden huts built over the water. The town of Tcherkask in Russia, is constructed over the river Don, and Venice itself is but a lacustrine city.[73]

Several attempts have been made to estimate the time which has elapsed since the neolithic period. The estimates of M. Morlot are based on the discoveries made in a hillock formed by the river TiniÈre at its entrance into the lake of Geneva. This cone contained three distinct layers of vegetable earth placed at different depths between the deposits of alluvium. The first was at a depth of three and one-half feet from the top, and was from four to six inches thick, and in it were found relics of the Roman period; the second was five and one-fourth feet lower, and six inches thick, in which were fragments of bronze; the third was at a depth of eighteen feet from the top, and varied in thickness from six to seven inches, and contained fragments of the stone age. History proves that the layer containing the Roman relics is from thirteen to eighteen centuries old. Since that epoch the cone has increased three and one-half feet, and if the increase was the same in previous ages, then the bed containing the bronze is from twenty-nine hundred to forty-two hundred years old, and the lowest layer, belonging to the stone age, is from four thousand seven hundred to ten thousand years old.

The calculation by M. Gillieron was made from the discoveries near the bridge of ThiÈle. About one thousand two hundred and thirty feet from the present shore is the old abbey of Saint Jean, built in the year 1100. There is a document which seems to show that the abbey was built on the edge of the lake. Then, in seven hundred and fifty years the lake retired one thousand two hundred and thirty feet. The distance of the present shore from the settlement of the bridge of ThiÈle is eleven thousand and seventy-two feet, and consequently the settlement is not less than six thousand seven hundred and fifty years old.

M. Figuier assigns to the lake-dwellings an antiquity of from six to seven thousand years before the Christian era.[74]