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A cave dweller, or troglodyte, is a human who inhabits a cave or the area beneath the overhanging rocks of a cliff.
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).
Starting about 170,000 years ago, some Homo sapiens lived in some cave systems in what is now South Africa, such as Pinnacle Point and Diepkloof Rock Shelter. The stable temperatures of caves provided a cool habitat in summers and a warm, dry shelter in the winter. Remains of grass bedding have been found in nearby Border Cave.
About 100,000 years ago, some dwelt in caves in Europe and western Asia. Caves there also were inhabited by some , from about 35,000 years ago until about 8000 Anno Domini Both species built shelters, including tents, at the mouths of caves and used the caves’ dark interiors for ceremonies. The Cro-Magnon people also made representational Cave painting.
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.
Perhaps fleeing the violence of Ancient Rome, people left the Dead Sea Scrolls in eleven caves near Qumran, in what is now an area of the West Bank managed by Qumran National Park, in Israel. The documents remained undisturbed there for about 2,000 years, until their discovery in the 1940s and 1950s.
From about 1000 to about 1300, some Pueblo people lived in villages that they built Cliff-dwelling in what is now the Southwestern United States.
The DeSoto Caverns, in what became Alabama in the United States, were a burial ground for local tribes; 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.
In Hirbet Tawani, near Yatta Village, in the Southern Hebron Hills, in an area contested by the Palestinian Authority and Israel, there are Palestinians living in caves. People also inhabited caves there during the time of the Ottoman Empire and British rule. In recent years some have been evicted by the Israeli government and settlers. Cave dwellers defy Israeli eviction bid, September 24, 2004 ( The Guardian website)
At least 30,000,000 people in China live in cave homes, called ; because they are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, some people find caves more desirable than concrete homes in the city.
In England, the rock houses at Kinver Edge were inhabited until the middle of the 20th century.
Caves at Sacromonte, near Granada, Spain, are home to about 3,000 Gitanos people, whose dwellings range from single rooms to caves of nearly 200 rooms, along with churches, schools, and stores in the caves. From 2021–2023 Beatriz Flamini spent 500 days alone in a cave in Granada in an experiment on the effects of social isolation.
Some families have built modern homes in caves, and renovated old ones, as in Matera, Italy and Spain. In the Loire Valley, abandoned caves are being privately renovated as affordable housing.
In Pennsylvania caves were used by newcomers as homes for a long time, certainly half a century. They generally were formed by digging into the ground about four feet in depth on the banks or low cliffs near the river front. The walls were then built up of sods or earth laid on poles or brush; thus half only of the chamber was really under ground. If dug into a side hill, the earth formed at least two walls. The roofs were layers of tree limbs covered over with sod, or bark, or rushes and bark. The chimneys were laid of cobblestone or sticks of wood mortared with clay and grass. The settlers were thankful even for these poor shelters, and declared that they found them comfortable. By 1685 many families were still living in caves in Pennsylvania, for the Governor's Council then ordered the caves to be destroyed and filled in. Earle, Alice Morse, ' 'Home Life in Colonial Days' ', Ch. 1, pp.2-3.
In 2003, a Missouri family renovated and moved into a sandstone cave.
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