Much of the time shelter was similar to a wigwam. Sticks laid to make a circular hut which was then covered with hides or materials such as brush, cattails, hay, etc. Tents were simply a more portable and temporary version. Winter encampments had better structures. This was where people spent the cold weather and were built to withstand it. You could find pit houses. Caves big enough to shelter a number of people were relatively rare. More often was the rock shelter. This had South facing exposure and an overhang of rock. One excavated French site showed that logs were piled against the rock and then covered. The covering was hides as many anchor stores were found along where the logs were. The inside was covered with seaweed. Communal living was common. You could pool resources and labor to build it and having multiple people in the same shelter provided additional heat. <span>Remember that people didn't have the central heated, storm proof housing we enjoy. They were more acclimatized to cold weather and what we today think of as harsh conditions.</span>
There were 3: West central African(Kongo-Angola), Upper and Lower Guinea
