Model of a group of prehistoric pile dwellings (palafitte in Italian) based on those discovered near Desenzano del Garda at Lavagnone once a former lake, now a drained peat bog. Pile dwellings are huts of straw, wood, cane and other materials built on to wooden platforms which are supported on wooden stilts set into the beds of lakes, rivers or lagoons. The pile dwellings at Lavagnone have been dated by dendrochronology to the Early Bronze Age between 2213 and 1916 BC. As the sites were underwater, the conservation conditions were ideal and provided much information, of the ancient life of these agricultural communities and the farming and livestock breeding practised by primitive man. From the Archaeological Museum of Desenzano. Lavagnone is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site on Pile Dwellings.