The knives may be considered as of two sorts. Some differ from the axes, principally in having their width greater than their length. In other cases they were made of flint flakes. In this manner also were obtained the saws, which in addition had their edges somewhat rudely dentated; they were fixed into handles of wood by some sort of cement; but we do not find in Switzerland any of the semilunar saws, which are frequent in Denmark.
The arrow-heads were made of flint, or in some cases of rock crystal, and were, as in Ireland, of three principal sorts, between which however, there were a great many varieties. The first sort had a diamond shape, the posterior half of which was, in some specimens, shorter and rounded off. The second sort had the posterior margin more or less excavated, so that the angles being produced, as it were, into wings, clasped the shaft and enabled the arrow-head to be more firmly fixed. In the third sort, the middle part of the posterior side had a projection which sunk into the shart. There are also found rounded stones, pierced with one, or sometimes with two holes. The use of these is uncertain, but they may perhaps have been used to sink fishing lines.
"Waste not, want not," is a proverb which the Lake-dwellers thoroughly appreciated. Having caught any wild animal, except the hare, they ate the flesh, used the skin for clothing, picked every fragment of marrow out of the bones, and then in many cases, fashioned the bones themselves into weapons. The larger and more compact ones served as hammers, and, as well as horns of the deer, were used for the handles of hatchets. In some cases pieces of bone were worked to a sharp edge, but they can only have been used to cut soft substances.[1] Bone harpoons, poignards, arrow-heads, and javelin heads also occur, and pins and needles of this material are very common. Teeth also, and particularly those of the wild boar, were used for cutting, and were also, in some cases, worn as ornaments or armlets. There can be little doubt that wood was also extensively used for different purposes, but unfortunately most of the implements of this material have perished. A wooden mallet, however, was found at Concise.
For our knowledge of the animal remains from the Pileworks we are almost entirely indebted to Prof. Rütimeyer, who has published two memoirs on the subject. (Mittheilungen des Antiq. Gesellschaft in Zurich, Bd. xiii. Abth. 2, 1860; and, more recently, a separate work, Die Fauna des Pfahlbauten in der Schweiz, 1861.) The bones are in the same fragmentary condition as those from the Kjökkenmöddings, and have been opened in the same manner for the sake of the marrow. There is also the same absence of certain bones and parts of bones, so that it is impossible to reconstruct a perfect skeleton even of the commonest animals.
The total number of species amounts to about 66, of which 10 are
- ↑ According to Sir E. Belcher, however, sharpened pieces of horn are used by the Esquimaux in the preperation of flint weapons.
