THE REMAINS OP CITIES OP THE STONE AGE. 81 



settlers in Eastern America have adopted houses of 

 wood as their usual habitations. 



Neither antiquity, therefore, nor culture are marked 

 by any particular material for building. But the ma- 

 terial used will make a vast difference with reference to 

 the remains left. A nation, however rude or ancient, 

 that has been able to use caverns for habitation or to 



build of stone, will leave some permanent, nay, inde- 

 structible evidences of its presence preserved in cave- 

 earth, or rising from the surface of the ground. A 

 nation that has built of clay will leave merely mounds. 

 The nations that built habitations of clay in the allu- 

 vial plain of Mesopotamia, or the valley of the Missis- 

 sippi, were not necessarily less civilized than those 

 who built with stone in Peru or Egypt. The New 

 England villager who lives in a neat wooden house 



Q 



