MINDEI.EKFl 



NOTCHED DOORWAYS. 



255 



simply to be two different methods of accomplisliiug the same purpose — 

 one in solid rock, the other in masonry. That it was considered desirable 

 to reduce the openings as much as possible is evident from the employ- 

 ment of framing slabs in the lower portions, reducing the width of that 

 part generally to less than a foot, while the upper portions are usually 

 3 feet and more in width, and the absence of framing slabs in the 

 upper part of the openings was probably due to their use as suggested; 

 no slabs could be attached with sufficient firmness to resist the drag 

 of a back load of wood, for example, forced between them. The strict 

 confinement of door openings to one type suggests a short, rather than 

 a long, occupancy of the site under discussion, a suggestion which is 



Fio. 305. —Notched doorway in Tnsayan. 



borne out by other details: and this unity of design renders it difBcult 

 to form a conclusion as to the relative age of the two types of open- 

 ings under discussion. So far as the evidence goes, however, it sup- 

 ports the conclusion that the doorways of the cavate lodges were 

 derived from a type previously developed, and that the idea has been 

 modified and to some extent adaj)ted to a different environment; for 

 if the idea had been developed in the cavate lodges there would be a 

 much greater number of variations than we find in fact. There can be 



