ABSTRACT
Very early the tribes of the Neolithic Age learned to build, hollowing out caves which were too small, or reducing clefts which gaped too widely with artificial walls. They soon learned to build huts of a wattle of reeds or branches covered with clay. The floor of these huts was at first made of beaten earth, and then it was given some kind of stone paving. These" hutfloors" have been found almost everywhere on the mainland, and there is one in Crete at Phaistos. 4 These dwellings were too fragile to resist the violence of storms and the injuries of time; on the same spot, and with tre same materials, others were built, and yet others. From century to century the accumulated debris raised the level of the soil. In this way the Neolithic stratum at Knossos reached a depth of between 6 and 8 metres.
