MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
for one thing, that earth and stone made far more durable 
building material than wood. The stockaded village, like 
those once built by many of the American Indians and 
still in active use in various backward parts of the world, 
now gave place in certain regions to the walled town. 
Doubtless this development was gradual. No one in- 
dividual, however gifted, could have conceived the idea, 
all at once, of making even adobe bricks and of piling them, 
Fic. 97. Bronze vase with geometrical ornamentation and with 
rims perforated for suspension; Denmark, late Bronze Age. 
After Neergaard 
one on top of another, to form a wall. We may surmise the 
probable course of events, beginning with the piling up 
of alittle earth about the bases of the upright stakes form- 
ing the palisade, to give them a firmer support. Then it 
was found that by increasing the amount of earth, so as to 
form a mound with a stockade running along its top, an 
even better defensive work might be formed. Regions of 
scarce trees dispensed with the wooden fence and built the 
earthen mound high enough and steep enough on its outer 
surface to form an effective obstacle to marauders. In 
some cases, as at present in the villages of northern China, 
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