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Acave dweller, ortroglodyte, is ahuman who inhabits acave or the area beneath the overhanging rocks of acliff.[1]
Someprehistoric humans were cave dwellers, but most were not (seeHomo andHuman evolution). Such early cave dwellers, and other prehistoric peoples, are also calledcave men (the term also refers to the stereotypical "caveman" stock character type from fiction and popular culture). 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; and other cave inhabitants, such asbears andcave bears,cave lions, andcave hyenas, often made caves inhospitable for people.
TheGrotte du Vallonnet, a cave in theFrench 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, theZhoukoudian cave system, inBeijing, 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, someHomo sapiens lived in some cave systems in what is now South Africa, such asPinnacle Point andDiepkloof 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 nearbyBorder Cave.[2]
About 100,000 years ago, someNeanderthals dwelt in caves in Europe and western Asia. Caves there also were inhabited by someCro-Magnons, from about 35,000 years ago until about 8000B.C. Both species built shelters, including tents, at the mouths of caves and used the caves’ dark interiors for ceremonies. The Cro-Magnon people also maderepresentationalpaintings on cave walls.[3]
Also about 100,000 years ago, someHomo sapiens worked inBlombos Cave, in what became South Africa. They made the earliest paint workshop now known, but apparently did not dwell in the caves.[4]
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Especially during war and other times of strife, 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.
Writers of the classicalGreek andRoman period made several allusions to cave-dwelling tribes in different parts of the world, such as theTroglodytae.[5]
Perhaps fleeing the violence ofAncient Romans, people left theDead Sea Scrolls in eleven caves nearQumran, in what is now an area of theWest Bank managed by Qumran National Park, inIsrael. The documents remained undisturbed there for about 2,000 years, until their discovery in the 1940s and 1950s.
From about 1000 to about 1300, somePueblo people lived in villages that they builtbeneath cliffs in what is now theSouthwestern United States.
TheDeSoto Caverns, in what becameAlabama in the United States, were a burial ground for localtribes; the same caves became a violentspeakeasy in the 1920s. TheCaves of St. Louis may have been a hiding-place along theUnderground Railroad.
In the 1970s, several members of theTasaday apparently inhabited caves nearCotabato, in thePhilippines.
In Hirbet Tawani, nearYatta Village, in theSouthern Hebron Hills, in an area contested by thePalestinian Authority andIsrael, there arePalestinians living in caves. People also inhabited caves there during the time of theOttoman Empire and ofthe British Mandate for Palestine. In recent years some have been evicted by the Israeli government and settlers.[6]
At least 30,000,000 people in China live in cave homes, calledyaodongs; because they are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, some people find caves more desirable than concrete homes in the city.[7]
In the Australian desert mining towns ofCoober Pedy andLightning Ridge, many families have carved homes into the undergroundopal mines, to escape the heat.[citation needed]
In Greece, some Christian hermits and saints are known by theepithet "cave dweller" (Greek:Σπηλαιώτης,romanized: Spileótis) since they lived in cave dwellings; examples includeJoseph the Cave Dweller (also known as Joseph the Hesychast) andArsenios the Cave Dweller.[8]
In England, the rock houses atKinver Edge were inhabited until the middle of the 20th century.[9]
Caves atSacromonte, nearGranada, Spain, are home to about 3,000Gitano people, whose dwellings range from single rooms to caves of nearly 200 rooms, along with churches, schools, and stores in the caves.[citation needed] From 2021–2023Beatriz Flamini spent 500 days alone in a cave in Granada in an experiment on the effects of social isolation.[10][11]
Some families have built modern homes in caves, and renovated old ones, as inMatera, Italy[12][13] and Spain.[14] In theLoire Valley, abandoned caves are being privately renovated as affordable housing.[15]
In her bookHome Life in Colonial Days,Alice Morse Earle wrote of some of the first European settlers in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania living in cave dwellings, also known as "smoaky homes":
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.[16]
In 2003, a Missouri family renovated and moved into a 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) sandstone cave.[17]
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