616 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



stimulus acting on the mind to interest it in past history and create 

 a pride in former achievements. It is self-evident that a race, each 

 generation of which builds houses of perishable material, leaves 

 little evidence of its past history, and whenever the creations of one 

 generation fall into decay in the next there remains nothing to 

 which tradition may point with pride. If the past adds nothing 

 to the present a race progress is not possible. Stone habitations 

 become monuments and endure, not only serving as an inspiration 

 for new endeavor but also securing lasting models for future gen- 

 erations. It is on these accounts that the limits of artificial cave 

 habitations are almost always the same as those of higher human 

 culture, historic and prehistoric.^ t 



Caves showing evidences of habitations are widely distributed 

 geographically. Beginning with China, a belt of cave dwellings ex- 

 tends across India to Asia Minor and Arabia, following both shores 

 of the Mediterranean, continuing into the Canary Islands, the West 

 Indies, Mexico, North and South America. Wherever geological 

 conditions furnish a rock that can readily be worked into suitable 

 oaves there are generally found ruins of stone buildings, and where 

 these exist there we are almost sure to see other evidences of past 

 culture. 



Two lines of architectural evolution reach back to the cave as the 

 original form: (1) Growth of a building within a natural cave, and 

 (2) evolution of a building from an artificial cave. While natural 

 caves must theoretically have formed the earlier shelter, we find, 

 when the character of the rock permits, that artificial caves were con- 

 structed almost contemporaneously with them. 



The use of unmodified natural caverns for shelter can not be con- 

 sidered at length at this time, but in passing it ma}^ be pointed out 

 that, while not limited to any one geographical location or climatic 

 condition, they are necessarily found under certain geological condi- 

 tions. Existing historical, legendary, and archeological accounts - of 

 human habitations in natural caves of Europe are very numerous, but 

 no extensive literature exists on the natural cave man of Asia, Africa, 

 and America. The association of human remains with those of 

 extinct animals in European caves carries the antiquity of man into 

 late geological formations. The limited observations on New World 

 caves rather than the poverty of the subject makes it difficult, almost 

 impossible in fact, to institute an adequate comparison of the culture 

 or relative age of the natural cave man of America and Europe. 



In order to show how little work has been done on this subject in 

 America, let me call your attention to one of many examples. At the 



1 Higher culture without permanent habitations or sacred edifices is almost incon- 

 ceivable. 



2 Wm. Boyd Dawkins, Cave Hunting : Researches on the evidence of caves respecting 

 the early inhabitants of Europe, London, 1874. 



