Mike Hood, age 9, of Indianapolis, Indiana, for his question:

Did the cavemen build their own caves?

Our cavemen ancestors learned how to cope with the world very slowly. They made a great step forward when they learned to find caves to shelter them from the weather. It took them ages to learn how to use fire to cook their food and warm their caves. They learned to make a few tools and weapons and perhaps they discovered how to make pats from hardened clay. But they never learned how to build their own homes.

The caves they used were made by water seeping through the ground. Sometimes their shelters were dust overhanging ledges of rock. Sometimes they were deep caverns reaching far underground. And sometimes the ancient cavemen had to share their shelters with animals. Very often the hunters returned to find that a huge hungry bear was hiding in some dark corner of the cave    and then the caveman had to drive out or hill the intruder    or find another cave. But nobody thought of scooping out a cave or building a home of his very own.