Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/321

] were built wooden huts with thatched roofs, 27 feet long by 22 wide, and between them were the cattle-pens, sheep-folds, and pig-sties. The remains of six of these huts were exposed in digging a canal, in a space of 150 feet long by 40 feet broad. In this at six different points at equal distances were little heaps of corn, pieces of woven and plaited cloth, stores of raw flax, together with a mealing stone, and also six groups of stones which had formed the hearths. It is evident, therefore, as Mr. Messikomer observes, that each was inhabited by one family, which had its own arrangements for preparing victuals and making clothes, and we may conclude that the whole settlement was not a community with common store-houses like a Mexican pueblo. The litter for the cows was chiefly of straw and rushes, and that for the sheep, pigs, and goats, of sprigs of fir and twigs of brushwood. In one place a considerable quantity of ears of wheat and barley was found along with bread; in another corn and bread with burnt apples and pears; in a third flax in hanks or skeins, spun and plaited into cords, nets, and mats, and woven into cloth, along with earthenware weights for the loom. The corn had been reduced to meal in mortars or on mealing stones, and afterwards either made into porridge, or into little round loaves baked on hot stones, or under the embers. It was also eaten parched. Caraway and poppy seeds were also used, probably for flavouring, and a small round cake of the latter was discovered, which may have been intended for use as a narcotic.

The villagers of Robenhausen also laid up stores of the water-chestnut, the common nut, the walnut, and apples, of which no less than 300 were found together