Primitive Man Part 28

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 179.--Knife Hatchet (front and side view), from the Lacustrine Habitations.]

M. Morlot has given the name of _knife-hatchets_ (fig. 179), to those instruments, the perforated ears of which are scarcely, if at all developed, and could by no means serve to give firmness to a handle. It is probable that these instruments were grasped directly by the hand; and that the mere rudiments of wings which may be noticed, were merely intended to subst.i.tute a rounded surface for a sharp ridge. Figures 176, 177, 178 and 179, are taken from M. Desor's 'Memoire sur les Palafittes.'

Next to the hatchets we must mention the chisels for wood-work (fig.

180), which are cut out to a great nicety, and in no way differ from our present chisels, except in the mode of fitting to the handle, which is done by means of a socket.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 180.--Carpenter's Chisel, in Bronze.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 181.--Hexagonal Hammer.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 182.--Knife with a tang to fit into a Handle, from the Lacustrine settlements of Switzerland.]

There has also been discovered a kind of prismatically shaped hexagonal hammer (fig. 181), likewise provided with a socket, the length of which is about 3 inches. This hammer forms a portion of the collection of Colonel Schwab.

The knives are the most numerous of all the sharp instruments. The workmans.h.i.+p of them is, in general, very skilfully executed, and their shape is very elegant. Some of them have a metallic handle; but the greater part terminate in a kind of tang intended to fit into a handle of wood or stag's horn, as represented in fig. 182, taken from M.

Desor's 'Memoire sur les Palafittes.'

We also find knives furnished with a socket (fig. 183). The blade measures from 4 to 8 inches in length, and is often adorned with tracings; in some instances the back of the blade is very much thickened.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 183.--Socketed Knife, from the Lacustrine settlements of Switzerland.]

Together with the knives we must also cla.s.s the sickles or reaping hooks. These implements have been collected in somewhat large quant.i.ties in the settlements of Auvernier and Cortaillod (Lake of Neuchatel). They are of good workmans.h.i.+p, and frequently provided with ridges or ribs in the metal of the blade. Fig. 184, given by M. Desor in his work, represents a sickle of this kind which was found by the author at Chevroux.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 184.--Bronze Sickle, found by M. Desor at Chevroux.]

The largest of these sickles does not exceed 6 inches in length. They were fitted into a wooden handle.

We cannot of course describe all the bronze objects which have been recovered from the Swiss lakes. After having mentioned the preceding, we shall content ourselves with naming certain saws of various shapes--razors, actual razors, indicating no small care given to personal appearance--bodkins, or piercers--needles, with eyes either at the end or some distance from the end, articles of fis.h.i.+ng tackle, such as single and double fis.h.i.+ng-hooks (figs. 185 and 186), with a plain or barbed point--harpoons, various small vessels, &c.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 185.--Bronze Fish-hook, from the Lacustrine settlements of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 186.--Double Fish-hook, from the Lacustrine settlements of Switzerland.]

We shall dwell, although briefly, on the various objects of personal ornament which have been found in the Swiss lacustrine settlements of the bronze epoch.

We will mention, in the first place, the hair-pins, &c. which have been recovered from the various lakes. The most curious fact about them is, that no one has ever found two exactly alike both in shape and dimensions. We borrow from M. Desor's work the four following figures representing various shapes of pins. Some have a round head (fig. 187), and others a flat (fig. 188), or cylindrical head (fig. 189); others, again, are finished off with a twisted end to which is attached a movable end (fig. 190).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 187.--Hair-pin, found by M. Desor in one of the Swiss Lakes.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 188.--Hair-pin, found by M. Desor in one of the Swiss Lakes.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 189.--Hair-pin with cylindrical Head.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 190.--Hair-pin with curled Head.]

The round-headed pins are sometimes ma.s.sive in shape and unornamented, that is, exactly similar to the bone pins of the Stone Age; sometimes, and even more frequently, they are perforated with one or more round holes and adorned with a few chasings.

The flat-headed pins differ very much in the diameter of the b.u.t.ton at the end, which is sometimes of considerable size. There are some, the head of which is nothing more than a small enlargement of the pin, and others, in which there are two or three of these enlargements, placed a little way apart and separated by a twist. Their sizes are very various, and in some cases are so exaggerated, that it is quite evident that the objects cannot have been used as hair-pins. In Colonel Schwab's collection, there is one 33 inches long, and M. Troyon has mentioned some 20 and 24 inches long.

At the _Exposition Universelle_ of 1867, in the collection sent by M.

Desor, the visitors' admiration might have been called forth by some of the pins which had been repolished by the care of the learned Swiss naturalist. They were certainly very elegant, and ladies of the present day might well have decorated themselves with these ornaments, although they dated back to an era so many thousands of years ago.

Among many savage tribes, the dressing of the hair, especially among the men, is carried to an excessively elaborate pitch. The head of hair of an Abyssinian soldier forms a species of lofty system of curls which is meant to last a whole lifetime. He carries with him a long pin, furnished with a thick b.u.t.ton, owing to the impossibility of reaching his skin through his _coiffure_ with the extremities of his fingers.

In the same way the New Zealanders wear an enormous "chignon," 2 feet high and ornamented with ribbons.

The Chinese and the j.a.panese also devote excessive attention to the dressing of their hair.

It is, therefore, probable that the inhabitants of the lacustrine villages, both men and women, devoted an immense amount of care to the cultivation of their _coiffure_. In the tombs of the bronze epoch, pins have been found 2-1/2 feet in length, with large k.n.o.bs or b.u.t.tons at the end, similar to those used by the Abyssinian soldiers of our own day.

The combs, which resembled those of the present New Zealanders, although 6 inches long, had only six to eight teeth, and must have been better fitted to scratch their heads than to dress their hair.

Bracelets, too, have been found in some considerable numbers in the Swiss lakes. They are very varied in their shapes, decidedly artistic in their workmans.h.i.+p, and often set off with carved designs.

Some (fig. 191) are composed of a single ring of varying width, the ends of which almost meet and terminate by a semi-circular clasp; others (fig. 192), are a combination of straight or twisted wires ingeniously joined to one another.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 191.--Bronze Bracelet, found in one of the Swiss Lakes.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 192.--Another Bronze Bracelet.]

We also find certain rings, cylindrical in shape, and made all in one piece (fig. 193), which were probably placed round the legs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 193.--Bronze Ring.]

Some of these ornaments remain, even up to the present day, in a perfect state of preservation. In an urn which was recovered from the settlement of Cortaillod, six specimens were discovered, the designs of which appeared quite as clearly as if they had only just been engraved. There is one point which must be remarked, because it forms an important _datum_ in respect to the size of the Swiss people during the bronze epoch; this is, that most of the bracelets are so small that they could scarcely be worn nowadays. They must, therefore, have been adapted to very slender wrists--a fact which naturally leads us to believe that all the other limbs were small in proportion. This small size in the bracelets coincides with the diminutiveness of the sword-hilts which have been found in the lacustrine habitations of Switzerland.

Earrings, also, have been found in great numbers in the Swiss lakes.

They are either metallic plates, or wires differently fas.h.i.+oned; all, however, testifying to a somewhat developed degree of taste.

Next after these trinkets and objects of adornment we must cla.s.s certain articles of a peculiar character which must have been pendants or appendages to bracelets.

All these ornaments are, in fact, perforated at the top with a circular hole, intended, no doubt, to have a thread pa.s.sed through it, by which it was hung round the neck. Some of them (fig. 194) are small triangular plates of metal, frequently ornamented with engraved designs; others (fig. 195), are in open-work, and include several branches, each terminated by a hole similar to that at the top. Some, again, a.s.sume the form of a ring not completely closed up (fig. 196), or rather, perhaps, of a crescent with wide and almost contiguous horns. In the same cla.s.s may be placed the rings (fig. 197) to which were suspended movable ornaments in the shape of a double spiral.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 194.--Bronze Pendant, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 195.--Another Bronze Pendant, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 196.--Bronze Ring, from the Lacustrine Habitations of Switzerland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 197.--Another Ornamental Ring.]

The four bronze objects, representations of which we have just given, are designed from the sketches supplied by M. Desor in his 'Memoire sur les Palafittes.'

Some few trinkets of gold have been found in the lacustrine settlements of the bronze epoch; but this sort of "find" is very rare. They are in the form of earrings, and may be seen in the collection of Colonel Schwab.

CHAPTER VI.