beech-nuts and acorns, which were probably intended as food for the swine; as well as the raspberry, strawberry, elderberry, blackberry, the cherry and sloe. Fragments of pottery were very abundant, as well as various implements of stone, antler, and bone, of the kind described above, and sometimes with the handles of wood preserved in a perfect condition (Fig. 100). Fragments of leather prove that they were acquainted with the art of tanning, and a wooden last that they were in the habit of making shoes or sandals to measure. There were also wooden bows, bowls, and various other articles, which are only preserved under very exceptional circumstances. The asphalt of the Val de Travers, now so commonly employed for pavements, was used for cementing the stone implements into their handles, and the fires were lighted by means of a flint flake and a piece of iron pyrites, used in the same manner as "the flint and steel" of the present time.
The large quantities of bones thrown away in the refuse-heap at the bottom of the lake show that the villagers lived on the wild animals of the district, as well as on their flocks and herds, and the produce of their fields and gardens. They also ate large quantities of fish. The domestic animals, with the exception of the large oxen, were of the same breeds as those kept in Neolithic Britain, and of these at least three—the swine, the sheep, and the cows—were kept in pens close to the huts of their owners.[1]
- ↑ Keller, op. cit. p. 50. Their excrements form a layer varying from two to ten inches in thickness, mixed with litter.
