EARLY MAN 



or the sides of valleys were the favourite situations. In the numerous 

 small depressions called hut-circles, which are now found on the surface 

 of the ground in Norfolk and other parts of England, we see all that 

 remains of the dwellings in which Neolithic families lived. These hut- 

 circles generally occur in clusters, but sometimes singly. The depression 

 in the ground is surrounded by an annular mound composed of the 

 removed earth, and generally broken at one point where the entrance 

 to the hut was situated. The construction of this mound was probably 

 the first step towards making a Neolithic house. The next step was to 

 build over the hollow a kind of beehive hut made of intertwined 

 branches. In the case of the smaller dwellings this was accomplished 

 without difficulty, but when the hut was made upon a large scale with 

 a diameter of twenty feet or upwards a conical mound in the centre is 

 generally found, and this was apparently intended to receive a central 

 support such as the stem or bough of a tree. 



The purposes of making the depression of the ground were obviously 

 to procure sufficient head-room and some degree of warmth, and the 

 encircling mound was clearly intended to throw off the rain which fell 

 upon the roof. 



The inflammable character of such a structure as this rendered 

 it impossible to have within the hut such a fire as would be necessary 

 for cooking purposes without incurring a great danger of setting the 

 whole dwelling alight. The cooking-fire was therefore made outside 

 the hut ' at a convenient and safe distance from it. Remains of such 

 fires have been found in exactly this relation to the floors of Neolithic 

 dwellings,^ and from the marks of great heat and the amount of charcoal 

 found within them it is evident that cooking was carried on in Neolithic 

 times in much the same way as among some modern savages, the ground 

 being made sufficiently hot by long continued firing to cook whole 

 animals. 



The methods of hut-building varied in different places according to 

 the nature of the soil and the supply of materials. 



Many examples of these ancient hut-floors have been discovered 

 in Norfolk. One of the most important groups of such floors is at 

 Weybourne, and has been well described by the late Mr. Henry Harrod, 

 F.S.A. His account, which was published by the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Archsological Society,' contains much valuable information. 



The Weybourne pits, several hundreds in number, are situated upon 

 a sandy bed, and but for the fact that they were constructed with great 

 care there is no doubt they would have been destroyed long ago by the 

 influences of the weather. In making the pits one uniform plan seems to 

 have been adopted. A ridge of stones was first placed around the space 

 to be dug out. The soil from the interior was then thrown out, and the 



1 W. Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, p. 273. 



2 G. Clinch, ' Prehistoric Man in the neighbourhood of the Kent and Surrey Border : Neolithic 

 Age,' Journal of the Anthropobgtcal Institute (new series), ii. pp. 127, 134. 



3 Norfolk Archceologj, iii. pp. 232-40. 



263 



