e made, it is surprising what numbers of these ancient
lake villages have been discovered. Switzerland abounds in large
and small lakes, and in former times they must have been still more
numerous, but in the course of years they have become filled up, and now
exist only as peat bogs. But we now know that during the Neolithic Age
the country was quite thickly inhabited, and these lakes were the sites
of villages. Over two hundred have been found in Switzerland alone.
Fishermen had known of the existence of these piles long before their
meaning was understood. Lake Geneva is one of the most famous of the
Swiss lakes. Though in the main it is deep, yet around the shore there
is a fringe of shallow water.

It was in this shallow belt that the villages were built. The sites of
twenty-four settlements are known. We are told that on "calm days, when
the surface of the water is unruffled, the piles are plainly visible.
Few of them now project more than two feet from the bottom, eaten away
by the incessant action of the water. Lying among them are objects of
bone, horn, pottery, and frequently even of bronze. So fresh are they,
and so unaltered, they look as if they were only things of yesterday,
and it seems hard to believe that they can have remained there for
centuries."<7>

A lake settlement represents an immense amount of work for a people
destitute of metallic tools. After settling on the locality, the first
step would be to obtain the timbers. The piles were generally composed
of the trunks of small-sized trees at that time flourishing in
Switzerland. But to cut down a tree with a stone hatchet is no slight
undertaking. They probably used fire to help them. After the tree was
felled it had to be cut off again at the right length, the branches
lopped off, and one end rudely sharpened. It was then taken to the place
and driven into the mud of the lake bottom. For this purpose they used
heavy wooden mallets. It has been estimated that one of the settlements
on Lake Constance required forty thousand piles in its construction.<8>

The platform which rested on these piles was elevated several feet above
the surface of the water, so as to allow for the swash of the waves. It
was composed of branches and trunks of trees banded together, the whole
covered with clay. Sometimes they split the trees with wedges so as
to make thick slabs. In some instances wooden pegs were used to fasten
portions of the platform to the pilework.