Cave dwellers or troglodyte describe as prehistoric men dwelling in caves, and cave-dwelling animals of corresponding time periods, as well as cave-dwelling men of more recent historic times. Long before authentic history, primitive men lived in natural caverns. These caverns were often shaped, enlarged, fortified, or furnished by the occupants. The ages in which prehistoric cave dwellers lived are usually called the Palaeolithic, or Ancient Stone Age, and the Neolithic, or Later Stone Age.
Many caves have been explored in England, France, Belgium, Spain, America, and Australia. These caves include a famous cave known as Kent’s Hole, in Devonshire, England. They also include caves at Brixham and Perigord, and the Madeleine Cave on the Vezere River, France. In the Neolithic Age, numerous human skeletons were found, but very few at the time of the Middle Ages. It is believed that some of these human remains antedate Europe’s glacial drift period.
The remains found underground are usually overlaid with deposits of varying thickness and quality. In Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, there were found four distinct strata of deposits overlying the cavern floor: the surface layer of dark earth containing Neolithic and Roman remains, the second layer a thin stalagmite floor, the third a stratum of red earth containing flint implements and bones of animals, and the lowest deposit constituting a hard breccia, in which human and animal remains of a ruder and earlier period were uncovered.
Nevertheless, the caves in which extinct animals’ bones are found owe their origin, for the most part, to rainwater action on limestone rocks. This is where they most frequently occur. These caverns usually contain a mixture of clay, sand, and gravel. In this deposit are embedded animal remains, and they are either angular or rounded. Bones rarely occur in entire skeletons. Instead, they are scattered in such a way as to show that they must have been moved from their places after the animals’ deaths.
They seldom, however, have suffered much from friction; and at times look so fresh that, but for the complete abstraction of the animal matter they must have originally contained, they might be supposed to have been brought into the cave a few weeks before. The most remarkable fact about these bones is that most of them belong to animals that do not now exist at all.
They live only in regions far beyond caverns. Some of those found in European caverns belong to animals now living only in tropical or sub-tropical regions, and others are the remains of animals now residing in more northerly areas, while others, although evidently molded on types similar to existing animals, differ from them in several essential features. To add to the difficulty of explanation, human bones have repeatedly been found mingled with those of lower animals.
The evidence of the cave remains proves man’s co-existence with animals not now living in the same areas; of these animals, some are now extinct, such as the cave-bear (q.v.) and cave-lion, the mammoth, and mastodon, the trichorhina, rhinoceros, etc. Others have only migrated. Thus, the reindeer is no longer found in southern Europe; the Hyena crocuta, found in the Gibraltar caves, now resides in South Africa.
The ibex, the chamois, and a ground squirrel once lived in the Dordogne, but are now present only along the Alps and Pyrenees. Thus, it is evident that a considerable change in climate has taken place in Europe. Man’s relation to these extinct animals, and his existence at the time these changes took place, are demonstrated by the discovery in the caves of human bones and worked flints beneath layers of hyaena droppings, as in Wookey Hole, near Wells; mixed up indiscriminately, as in Kent’s Hole, with bones of elephant, rhinoceros, hyaena, etc; and by the fact that many bones of the extinct animals are split up, evidently for the sake of the marrow.
Therefore, in the Dordogne and Savigne caves fragments of horn have been found bearing carved—or, rather, deeply scratched-out outline figures of ibex, reindeer, and mammoth. Reindeer bones are found in large numbers, some showing that the flesh was cooked. It is believed that this animal was a chief source of food for cave dwellers.
In addition to the remains, flint, and stone are found along with the remains. Among the non-extinct animals known to have dwelt in caves with men, or to have been carried there for food, or to furnish their skins for clothing, are the mammoth, musk-ox, horse, dog, bison, rhinoceros, and hyena. In 1820 Dr. Buckland explored a cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, England. He proved that it had been inhabited by substantial numbers of hyaenas that had dragged many other animals.
Among the remains found in Europe, nothing has been shown to indicate that cave-dwellers domesticated any animals, or used them for anything but food and clothing. Needles of ivory are found, leading to the inference that they knew how to sew skins together for garments. No agriculture traces, and no agriculture implements, have been discovered. Lanceheads, arrowheads, hammers, flint saws, and harpoons have been discovered.
The vast number of fish-bones found, showing marks of cooking, indicates that they engaged in fishing extensively, but the variety of bird remains indicates their inferior skill in catching or killing winged creatures. They probably had no spinning implements and did not know pottery. In the cave of Cro-Magnon in the south of France skeletons were found that are accepted by paleontologists as those of genuine cavemen.
Moreover, taking them as a type, it is inferred that the Palaeolithic cave-dwellers were a tall, powerfully built race, with long narrow skulls, broad faces, and powerful jaws. Investigations in the Belgian caves seem to indicate that the cavemen of that region were of much smaller stature, but with symmetrical, well-shaped bodies.
