A SUPPOSED NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT. 101
stone tools only.2 For instance, logs of oak, four or five inches in
diameter, may have been divided across in the following manner :—
A deep cut was made on each side of the log at distances nearly a
foot from each other ; then the timber was smashed into two
by some heavy weight, perhaps a log of wood, being let fall on
the weakened part, fig 4. This idea of the method employed is
suggested by a cut stake which has been preserved (see fig. 5).
And the other drawing (fig. 6) represents how such a stake may
have been employed. The result was two pieces of timber with
staked ends. The number of split logs and thick planks found
was also very great. The description given by Dr. Keller,
in his Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, applies well to the methods 1
Fig. 6. Suggested plan of employing roughly pointed wooden stakes,
suppose to have been employed at Skitts Hill in the fashioning
of the fascine dwelling-places. We read thus (Vol. I, pp. 6-7) :—
" Some Lake-dwellings were not supported upon piles, but rested upon
"layers of sticks, or small stems of trees, built up from the bottom of the
"lake, till the structure reached above the water mark, and on this platform
"the huts were placed."
" The Crannogs of Ireland and Scotland were built up from the bottom
"of the lake, on the soft mud, exactly in the manner of fascine dwellings of
"Switzerland. The bed for the floor is a mass of ferns, branches, and other
"vegetable matter, covered over with a layer of split or round logs, and above
"this a quantity of clay, sand, gravel, and stones."
The above is an exact description of our Braintree dwelling-
places. The mass of leaves, sticks, nuts, acorns, &c., found
mixed up with the clay of the platforms, looks like stuff gathered
2 [This is, however, a doubtful point ; see Mr. Reader's remarks at the end of the paper.—
Ed.]