----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Juergen Botz" <[log in to unmask]>

That was a pretty good list.  I'd like to add: accidents from falling off 
cliffs.  In New Mexico, where I live, I am just amazed by some of the
locations that early people chose.

Some of the cliff dwellings in my state are so steep and difficult to get to 
that it is hard to imagine how children, pregnant women, elderly and 
injured/ill people ever made it up and down safely.  If the dwellings were 
seasonal, there would have had to be some climbing up and down by the entire 
group, not just the hunters/fishers.

While it is true that cliff dwellings (hollowed out of rock) were often used 
by early agriculturalists, the cliffs themselves may well have been used by 
earlier people who chose them so they could avoid predators, enemies, 
perhaps mosquitos, floods, etc.  Not an easy life to lead.

Kath