ABSTRACT
Epipalæolithic habitation of the Alpine slopes is attested by the deposits in the caves of Birseck near Basel and Offnet in Bavaria, and the latter shows that the short-headed Alpines go back to Azilian times. The furniture of the famous lake- dwellings which represent the neolithic civilization of the Alpine zone exhibits many traits which might have been inherited from the Maglemose and Azilian cultures. Picks, celt-hafts, harpoons, and fish-spears of horn, phallange whistles 1 and wooden boomerangs, 2 have parallels at Maglemose and Brabrant. Vouga has recently found painted pebbles, like those from Mas d’Azil, in the oldest settlements on L. Neuchâtel. And the form of the habitations may itself be derived from the epipalæolithic raft. The neolithic villages in Switzerland consisted usually of dwellings raised on piles above the shore of the lake. But more primitive structures, platforms or Packwerkbauten, were also used, especially in North Switzerland and Bavaria, as the foundations for the houses. These seem to have begun in a simple raft-float on the edge of the lake moored by posts at the sides. As the substructure became waterlogged, another layer of logs would be laid upon it and then another as occasion arose, until a regular platform resting upon the lake-bottom was created. 3 In this way a pile-structure might have been evolved from the primitive raft.
