94 A GALLOWAY STONE-AGE VILLAGE. 
that at least a small amount of some covering of vegetable fibre, 
or even of soil or turf, rested upon the roof. A _ stoneless 
structure, however, could not bear the weight of a large amount 
of superincumbent matter; and the fact that a depression, and 
not a mound, marked each site indicates that a light form of 
roofing was employed. This roofing, after desertion of the 
settlement, would fall in, and the hollow would gradually 
become silted up. 
As has been seen, the flooring arrangements were ingeni- 
ously, laboriously, and substantially contrived, and admirably 
adapted to the end in view. It is natural to believe that the 
less difficult matter of walling and roofing should also have been 
successfully met by the same men. Doubtless the whole place 
of abode, while very small, would be well suited to protect the 
inhabitants against the discomfort of too much sun, rain, wind, 
or cold. 
It would be hazardous, nevertheless, to conjecture what 
exactly was the nature and appearance of the structures when 
entire. They were probably single-chambered wooden dwellings 
partly sunk under the surface level, and wholly, or in part, 
hidden by a mound of turf and earth. 
Dwellings presenting the external appearance of mounds 
survived in Scotland to recent times. This type of house seems 
to have existed at a very early period, and to have been copied, 
though perhaps on a smaller scale, but naturally in a more sub- 
stantial style, in the architecture of graves. There are thus 
cairns with internal sepulchral chambers. Houses and graves of 
this type were usually of stone, but it is reasonable to believe 
that wood might take the place of stone in districts where stones 
of the size required for building purposes were not plentiful. 
Now, if it can be shown that grave-mounds with internal con- 
structions of timber once existed, it is a fair inference that there 
may have been dwelling-mounds with timber-built chambers, the 
roof protected by turf or simply earth-covered. This link in 
the chain of evidence is fortunately forthcoming, for at least two 
cases in Britain have been carefully recorded of what appeared 
to be grave-mounds or barrows containing timber constructions 
in the interior—the Dalry mound, Ayrshire, which probably 
dated from the Bronze Age; and the Wor Barrow, Dorset, 
assigned to the Stone Age. In the Wor Barrow district building 
