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XII. On Lake-Dwellings of the Early Periods: by William Michael Wylie, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.
Read April 7, 1859.
Some time has now elapsed since we received the first tidings of the discoveries of very ancient remains in the lakes of Switzerland,[1] which have scarcely obtained the attention really due to their archæological importance. These accounts were followed by an earnest appeal from the Society of Antiquaries of Zürich, praying our Society to undertake an examination of the lake Prasias, in the hope of verifying the descriptions of Herodotus, with which these discoveries in Switzerland seem closely to correspond.
The earliest account we have of any people betaking themselves permanently to dwellings on sites of artificial construction among waters is that given by Herodotus of a Thracian tribe who thus dwelt in Prasias,[2] a small mountain lake of Pæonia now part of modern Roumelia. Their habitations, we learn, were constructed on platforms raised above the lake on piles, and connected with the shore by a narrow causeway of similar formation. These platforms must have been of considerable extent, for the Pæonians lived there, in a state of polygamy, with their families and horses; their chief food being the fish which the lake produced in great abundance.
Such an investigation, full of interest as it doubtless would have been, was of course beyond the powers of our Society. Inquiry was nevertheless attempted, and, pending the results of this, I think we may profitably take a rapid review of the circumstances which the Swiss Antiquaries have so deeply at heart. While the many recent discoveries of the vestiges of lake-dwellings in Switzerland allow of a more perfect generalisation than heretofore, we have also better means of attempting some comparison with
