92 A GALLOWAY STONE-AGE VILLAGE. 
the various pieces of evidence point to the Stone Age as the 
period during which the sites were in use. 
The situation of the settlement was well chosen, as the 
inhabitants could see a long distance in all directions, while the 
houses could, only with difficulty, be detected from afar, more 
especially as they were partly sunk under the surface and doubt- 
less mound-like above. 
The direction of the row of huts was also selected intelli- 
gently. The row follows the crest of the plateau and is on its 
sunny side. 
The position of the individual houses is also noteworthy. It 
would seem that the entrance passage was preferred not at the 
end but in the middle of one of the sides. As shown by the 
excavations, the east side seems to have been chosen. It is 
natural to expect the door to be placed there, as it would be 
protected from the prevailing rains and winds from the south 
and west. 
.Guided apparently by some such requirements, the pre- 
historic architect laid down the plan of the oval foundation in 
each case, so that the longer axis bore approximately north-west 
and south-east, and, it would appear, arranged that the entrance 
passage ran at right angles to that direction and was situated on 
the east side. 
The inhabitants of this group of sites were workers in the 
wood of the birch, hazel, and alder, and had well shaped 
domestic pottery ornamented with incised and impressed work 
and work in relief. They lighted fires of some coniferous wood, 
and had a variety of implements of stone—scrapers, polishers, 
rubbing-stones, pounders, hammers, and anvils. They had an 
effective form of axe, with a smooth surface and a finely made 
edge. They carried on the manufacture of large and small 
flint implements from the rough nodules. The fact that they 
spent considerable time and labour in the construction of their 
houses tells that the method of life was at least in some measure 
settled, and not purely nomadic, and the occurrence of a group 
of sites may signify that a system of village life was in vogue. 
The individuals who lived there did not follow the archi- 
tectural methods of the Terremare men of pre-historic North 
Italy, or the Terpen dwellers of ancient Holland. They do not 
appear to have been like the cranog-builders who built their 
