Washington, Apr 10 (ANI): Prehistoric cave dwellers perused dwelling in much the same way as house buyers scrutinize properties with a checklist of desired features now, according to a recent study by British archaeologists.

Andrew Chamberlain of the University of Sheffield’s Department of Archeology and his team found that prehistoric cave dwellers in Britain looked for specific details and amenities they offered before beginning to use them as dwellings.

As part of their three-year long survey, the team studied 230 caves in the Yorkshire Dales and 190 caves in the northern England Peak District and found that people living there between 4,000 to 2,000 B.C. selected caves based on at least five criteria.

"There was a higher frequency of prehistoric usage of those caves with larger entrances and deeper passages, also of caves that were higher in altitude and caves with entrances that faced towards the east or to the west," Discovery quoted Chamberlain as saying, adding that most of the caves linked to human activities tended to have level areas outside of the entrances.

Chamberlain and his colleagues further found that the Peak District attracted more prehistoric cave users than the Yorkshire Dales, suggesting that today’s "location" real estate mantra might have also been true 6,000 years ago.

"The (Peak District) region is a more productive area for agriculture today and the same may have been true in prehistoric times and thus there may have been more people in the Peak District,” said Chamberlain.

“It is a possibility that people there simply utilized caves more,” he said, adding that since the caves served a multitude of purposes aside from housing the ancients, early people also conducted ritual activities and performed burials in them. (ANI)