Cave dweller
Encyclopedia
A cave dweller is a human being
who inhabits a cave
or the area beneath the overhanging rocks of a cliff
.
humans were cave dwellers, but most were not. (See "Homo
" and "Human evolution
".) Such early cave dwellers, as well as other prehistoric peoples, are also called cave men (the term also has other meanings
). Despite the name, only a small portion of humanity has ever dwelt in caves: caves are rare across most of the world; most caves are dark, cold, and damp; other cave inhabitants, such as bears, cave lion
s, and cave hyenas
, also have made caves inhospitable for people.
The Grotte du Vallonnet
, a cave in the French Riviera
, was used by people approximately one million years ago. Although stone tools and the remains of eaten animals have been found in the cave, there is no indication that people dwelt in it.
Since about 750,000 years ago, the Zhoukoudian
cave system, in Beijing
, China
, has been inhabited by various species of human being, including Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis) and modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens).
Approximately 100,000 years ago, some Neanderthal
humans dwelt in caves in Europe
and western Asia
. Caves there also were inhabited by some Cro-Magnon
s from about 35,000 years ago until approximately 8,000 B.C.
Both species built shelters, including tent
s, at the mouths of caves and used the caves’ dark interiors for ceremonies. The Cro-Magnon people also made representational
paintings on cave walls
.
Also about 100,000 years ago, some Homo sapiens worked in Blombos Cave
, in what became South Africa
. They made the earliest paint workshop now known, but apparently did not dwell in the caves.
, people left the Dead Sea Scrolls
in eleven caves near Qumran
, in what is now Israel
; the documents remained undisturbed there for approximately 2,000 years, until their discovery in the 1940s and 1950s. The DeSoto Caverns
, in what became Alabama
, in the United States
, were a burial ground for local Amerindians
; the same caves became a violent speakeasy
in the 1920s. The Caves of St. Louis
may have been a hiding-place along the Underground Railroad
.
From about 1000 to about 1300, some Pueblo
people lived in villages that they built beneath cliffs
in what is now the Southwestern United States
.
In the 1970s, several members of the Tasaday apparently inhabited caves near Cotabato
, in the Philippines
.
Caves at Sacromonte
, near Granada
, Spain
, are home to about 3,000 Gitano people, whose dwellings range from single rooms to caves of nearly 200 rooms, along with churches, schools, and stores in the caves.
Some families have built modern homes (or renovated older ones) in caves, as in Missouri, Sicily, and Spain.
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
who inhabits a cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
or the area beneath the overhanging rocks of a cliff
Cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...
.
Prehistory
Some prehistoricPrehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
humans were cave dwellers, but most were not. (See "Homo
Homo
Homo may refer to:*the Greek prefix ὅμο-, meaning "the same"*the Latin for man, human being*Homo, the taxonomical genus including modern humans...
" and "Human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
".) Such early cave dwellers, as well as other prehistoric peoples, are also called cave men (the term also has other meanings
Caveman
A caveman or troglodyte is a stock character based upon widespread concepts of the way in which early prehistoric humans may have looked and behaved...
). Despite the name, only a small portion of humanity has ever dwelt in caves: caves are rare across most of the world; most caves are dark, cold, and damp; other cave inhabitants, such as bears, cave lion
Cave lion
Panthera leo spelaea also known as the European or Eurasian cave lion, is an extinct subspecies of lion known from fossils and many examples of prehistoric art.-Physical characteristics:This subspecies was one of the largest lions...
s, and cave hyenas
Cave Hyena
The Cave Hyena is an extinct subspecies of spotted hyena native to Eurasia, ranging from Northern China to Spain and into the British Isles...
, also have made caves inhospitable for people.
The Grotte du Vallonnet
Grotte du Vallonnet
Grotte du Vallonnet is an archaeological site located near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, between Monaco and Menton, in France, that was first discovered in 1958...
, a cave in the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
, was used by people approximately one million years ago. Although stone tools and the remains of eaten animals have been found in the cave, there is no indication that people dwelt in it.
Since about 750,000 years ago, the Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian or Choukoutien is a cave system in Beijing, China. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris...
cave system, in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, has been inhabited by various species of human being, including Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis) and modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens).
Approximately 100,000 years ago, some Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
humans dwelt in caves in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and western Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Caves there also were inhabited by some Cro-Magnon
Cro-Magnon
The Cro-Magnon were the first early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiometrically dated to 35,000 years before present....
s from about 35,000 years ago until approximately 8,000 B.C.
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
Both species built shelters, including tent
Tent
A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...
s, at the mouths of caves and used the caves’ dark interiors for ceremonies. The Cro-Magnon people also made representational
Representation (arts)
Representation is the use of signs that stand in for and take the place of something else. It is through representation that people organize the world and reality through the act of naming its elements...
paintings on cave walls
Cave painting
Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest European cave paintings date to the Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known...
.
Also about 100,000 years ago, some Homo sapiens worked in Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave is a cave in a calcarenite limestone cliff on the Southern Cape coast in South Africa. It is an archaeological site made famous by the discovery of 75,000-year-old pieces of ochre engraved with abstract designs and beads made from Nassarius shells, and c. 80,000-year-old bone tools...
, in what became South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. They made the earliest paint workshop now known, but apparently did not dwell in the caves.
Modern times
Especially during war and other times of strife, relatively small groups of people have lived temporarily in caves, where they have hidden or otherwise sought refuge. They also have used caves for clandestine and other special purposes while living elsewhere. Perhaps fleeing the violence of Ancient RomansAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, people left the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
in eleven caves near Qumran
Qumran
Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia...
, in what is now Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
; the documents remained undisturbed there for approximately 2,000 years, until their discovery in the 1940s and 1950s. The DeSoto Caverns
DeSoto Caverns
DeSoto Caverns are a series of geologic caves and a tourist attraction located in Childersburg, Talladega County, Alabama. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is touted as "Alabama's Big Cave"...
, in what became Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, were a burial ground for local Amerindians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
; the same caves became a violent speakeasy
Speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition...
in the 1920s. The Caves of St. Louis
Caves of St. Louis
The Caves of St. Louis, Missouri, USA have been important in the economic development of the city. The young St. Louis was built upon a complex of natural caves which were once used for the lagering of beer by early German brewers...
may have been a hiding-place along the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
.
From about 1000 to about 1300, some Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
people lived in villages that they built beneath cliffs
Cliff-dwelling
Cliff dwelling is the general archaeological term for the habitations of prehistorical peoples, formed by using niches or caves in high cliffs, with more or less excavation or with additions in the way of masonry....
in what is now the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
.
In the 1970s, several members of the Tasaday apparently inhabited caves near Cotabato
Cotabato
Cotabato , is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the SOCCSKSARGEN region in Mindanao...
, in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
Caves at Sacromonte
Sacromonte
Sacromonte is a neighbourhood of Granada, in Spain. It derives its name from the nearby Sacromonte Abbey, which was founded in 1600 on the hill of Valparaiso outside the old city, and is built over catacombs ....
, near Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, are home to about 3,000 Gitano people, whose dwellings range from single rooms to caves of nearly 200 rooms, along with churches, schools, and stores in the caves.
Some families have built modern homes (or renovated older ones) in caves, as in Missouri, Sicily, and Spain.