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These are the people we call hunter-gatherers and they were always on the move in search of food, so very few of their homes were permanent. Most would have made tent-like huts covered in animal skins or clumps of earth and twigs and these could then be easily taken down and carried to their next camp. Mostly they would build these homes close to the sea or maybe a river. They would use branches and twigs to form a frame. They might bind the branches with flax or even animal intestines. They liked Hazel and Birch trees, which grew near the water, as these branches were easy to bend into a cone shape which they would cover with the animal skins or, if they had used all of these for clothes, they would stick lumps of turf on the walls. The inside of the home would be almost empty. They might have laid dead grass or leaves on the ground to make a sort of mattress to sleep on. When food ran out, they would gather up the branches and skins, head off and build again. They would light fires outside their tents at night to keep warm, scare off animals and give them some light. There were no lights then, not even candles. They probably didn’t realise it but this method of living actually allowed plants and trees to re-grow. It was a recycling method.

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