50 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



his hut and material for various wooden utensils. Sometimes 

 he still dwelt in caves, sometimes in the open country in huts of 

 wicker work, pit-houses, or terramaras, or in pile dwellings on 

 the lakes (see Fig. 6). Fish, birds, and the varied produce of 

 the chase especially venison formed his food. He had also 

 learnt to domesticate such animals as dogs, oxen, goats, sheep 

 and pigs ; he cleared the forest and tilled the ground and 

 sowed corn (millet, barley and wheat), and was able to appreciate 

 the value of various wild fruits as articles of food. But neolithic 



FIG. 6. A pile-dwelling. (After Prof. Haberlin.) 



man possessed yet other advantages over his predecessor. He 

 had acquired two new arts : pottery and plaiting and weaving, 

 both essentially adapted to help forward the work of civilisation. 

 We may safely conclude that these arts were introduced into 

 Europe from elsewhere, discoveries in Egypt having proved that 

 in other continents the dawn of a new day had broken long 

 before the people of Europe had left the Palaeolithic Age behind 

 them. The art of plaiting and weaving flax, and the employ- 

 ment of flax in spinning, must also have been brought from 

 other lands, for in none of the earlier palaeolithic deposits was 



