Plan and layout of an Upper Paleolithic.

Plan and layout of an Upper Paleolithic hut from Dolni Vestonice, Czechoslovakia. This structure was first dug out from a slope and the roof was supported with timber set into post-holes. It dates to about 23,000 BCE. The low walls were made of packed clay and stones. The evidence of clay firing at this site are the earliest ever found. The famous Venus figurine was found at this sitte.

A Paleolithic hut divided in three sections and made of animal skins was found at Pushkari, Ukraine. The inside was dug out and the structure was built-up from mammoth bones.
No other animal remains were found here -- these were specialised mammoth hunters. Many of the bones found here had evidence of red paint, a common find at Paleolithic sites.

Circular base of mammoth bones found at Mezin, near Tchernogov, that provided a supporting structure for a Paleolithic hut of a typical mammoth hunting society. The tent was made of mammoth hides and was probably carpeted with mammoth hides, although fur hides, like fox, wolf, and bearskins, were often used for bedding.

Mousterian hut found at Moldova, Ukraine, made of mammoth bones and mammoth hides. The mammoth jaws used at the base were interlocked -- a clever technique found at most of the mammoth hunter sites. The mammoth hunting culture appears to have thrived for tens of thousands of years.

Circular base of mammoth bones found at Mezin with some support bones still standing. The mammoth hunters often built entire huts out of mammoth bones and covered them with mammoth hides stitiched together and anchored at the corners. They also made tools and objects from the tusks. Remains suggest that some of them ate nothing but mammoth meat. They must have been delicious, since they ate every last one.