For over one hundred and fifty years investigations and research projects, some more advantageous than others, have been conducted on the preserved remains of stilt houses found throughout Europe. The unique discoveries of pile dwellings in Lake Zurich in 1854 triggered the frantic search for other prehistoric sites, attracting the interest of antiquarians seeking to improve our understanding of the past (Menotti, 2004). Hundreds of new sites were found, and the work of early archaeologists such as Munro and Keller provided a written record for the future. Ethnographic sources from the second half of the 19th century shaped the first interpretations, creating a romantic picture of the Neolithic societies that inhabited these lake dwellings (Fig. 1). It would be more than fifty years before these theories could be challenged, with the development of scientific and archaeological techniques that allowed professional research to be conducted. Diving opened up the possibility of surveying and excavating underwater sites without having to remove the water and its preservative characteristics. Mainstream archaeologists still find it difficult to accept that archaeological work can be carried out successfully underwater, but the methods and techniques used to inspect and excavate Scotland's pile dwellings have proven otherwise. Although evidence for the existence of pile-dwelling societies in Europe is known to date dating back to Herodotus (Dixon 2004, 18), no systematic investigation of these sites occurred before the second half of the 19th century. The winter of 1853-4 was severe enough to leave the level of Lake Zurich in Switzerland unusually low. Inhabitants seeking to reclaim the land discovered piles of wood along with other prehistoric artifacts, including...... middle of paper......Henderson, J.C. 1998. Islets through time: the definition, dating, and distribution of Scottish crannogs. The Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 17:2, 227-244.Keller, Ferdinand. 1866. The stilt houses of Switzerland and other parts of Europe. Longmans, Green, and Co. London. Menotti, F. 2004. Lake living in prehistoric Europe: 150 years of stilt house research. Routledge; New York.Morrison, I. 1985. Landscape with stilts. Edinburgh University Press. Edinburgh.Munro, R. 1886. The archaeological importance of ancient British stilt houses and their relation to similar remains in Europe. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.15: 452-470. Pétrequin, M. 1988. Le Néolithique des lacs: préhistoire des lacs de Chalain et de Clairvaux, (4000-2000 av. J.-C.) . Errance Editions. Paris.