674 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



of Combarelles often appear in parallel pairs, having between thein 

 the figure of an animal. In the cavern of Font-de-Gaume there are 

 some of these drawings on the body of a bison, in the cavern of 

 Bernifal there are two others on the body of a mammoth, while 

 elseAvhere the bodies of animals have represented upon them pro- 

 jectile arms and human hands, or their outlines.^ 



Thus, at the end of the paleolithic period the hunters of the clos- 

 ing glacial age dwelt not only in caves but also in huts ; in the latter 

 probably during their long tours over the hunting territory, which 

 took them far away from the region of the caverns and obliged them 

 to construct artificial shelters. These were, as far as we can judge, 

 in keeping with the state of civilization which was comparatively not 

 at all a low one, as the excavations in the caverns frequently show. 

 It is not known whether these huts rested upon an artificial base or 

 directly upon the surface of the ground, for the drawings show 

 only the exterior view. Both alternatives are possible, but the sec- 

 ond is the more probable. It would be in keeping with the state of 

 civilization, as also with the climatic conditions, that these primitive 

 structures should be on a higher plane than the humblest beginnings 

 of architecture, represented among the low hunting races of to-day, 

 for instance, the screen dwellings {paraoent) of the Negritos in the 

 Philippine Islands or the summer shelters {toits d?ete) of the 

 Veddas of Ceylon. But they have in common with these rudi- 

 mentary means of protection against wind and weather the quad- 

 rangular form ; for the screens and summer shelters of these Asiatic 

 races consist of a quadrangular framework into which are inter- 

 twined brushwood and foliage. These frames included oblique 

 stakes to sustain the roof. The huts of the paleolithic hunters of 

 western Europe had two parallel sides at the roof like those of the 

 Seminoles of the south of North America. The sustaining poles 

 were in the center. 



The nature of the floor was an important matter. On the draw- 

 ings it is usually figured by squared tree trunks, and according to 

 Matthews such is also the construction of the floor in the huts of the 

 Seminoles,^ while in the screens of the Negritos and shelters of the 

 Yeddas it is made of foliage and straw. The huts were the habita- 

 tions of the men; the summer shelters, of the hunters; Avhile the caves 

 were the winter residences where the women, children, and old people 



1 The cavp-dwelllng figures referred to are nearly all reproduced in the work of 

 Cartailhac and Breuil. La Caverne d'Altamira, Monaco, 1906 : Combarelles and Font de 

 Gaume, p. 31, flg. 17; Bernifal, p. 24, fig. 11; Marsoulas, p. 30, fig. 16; Altamira, p. 63, 

 figs. 46 and 47. Niaux : L'Anthropologle, vol. 19, 1908, p. 38, flg. 21. Castillo Alcalde del 

 Rio, Pinturas y Grabadas, Table 9. Animals between the huts at Combarelles : Revue 

 d'ficole d' Anthropologic, vol. 12, 1902, p. 45, fig. 12. Huts on the body of an animal at 

 Font de Gaume, ibid.. Table 1, flg. 2. The same at Bernifal, ibid., vol. 13, 1903, p. 203. 



* See also Cartailhac and Breuil, loc. elt.. p. 163 (fi?. 2 represents a Seminole hut with- 

 out floor, after MacCauley i . 



