THE
Lake-Dwellings
OF
Europe:

PREFACE.

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in offering me the Rhind lectureship in Archæology for the year 1888, left me no choice of a subject, as they had already suggested that the course should be on the "Lake-dwellings of Europe." Their communication embodying this proposal came upon me with complete surprise, and, indeed, it was with considerable misgiving that I pondered over the undertaking, because at that time I had no special knowledge of lake-dwellings beyond Scotland. But the kind encouragement of friends and the fact that I had two years to collect the necessary materials, ultimately overcame my scruples; and so with the acceptance of this appointment the work now offered to the public may be said to have been begun. My first and almost immediate step was a hasty run to the principal centres of lake-dwelling researches in Europe, so as to get a preliminary idea of the best and most practical way of carrying out this work. It was only then that the magnitude of the labours I had undertaken dawned upon me. The relics from the more important settlements, with few exceptions, were so widely scattered that, to form an intelligible notion of the civilisation and culture of their inhabitants from a study of their industrial remains, scores of museums and private collections had to be visited. Nor was the condition of the literature and records of the various discoveries more favourable to my purpose. The successive investigations by different parties in the more prolific stations were constantly altering the previous records and, in some instances, even falsified the earlier deductions founded on them. Again, descriptive notices were directed more to illustrate the particular and rarer finds of the investigator than to convey to general readers a fair estimate of the tout-ensemble of any special station. Keller's earlier reports were really exhaustive monographs, but by-and-by the subject became so extensive that to carry out the work on the same scale would entail the publication of many volumes. In 1866, when Mr. Lee translated and arranged Keller's first six reports, his work was fairly representative of the progress then made in lake-dwelling researches; but to keep pace with this progress a second edition at the end of the following decade assumed the magnitude of two large volumes.

Since then, however (1878), the results of lacustrine researches have been greater and more important than during any previous corresponding period. The "Correction des Eaux du Jura," together with various harbour alterations in the lakes of Zürich, Geneva, etc., have been the means