Windows and Slopes

 Having built four roundhouses, I am convinced that the pitch of the roof of this Bronze Age home is steeper and the thatch thinner than most archaeologists suppose.  Built of wood, mud, and thatch, they generally come through the millennia only as foundations and floor plans, so archaeology offers few definitive clues.  At the famous Iron Age reconstruction of Butser Farm, in Hampshire, England, the round house roof is pitched at about 45 degrees.  It was done by a professional thatcher, which means it was thatched in a modern way.

  On my roundhouses, I tied layers of waters reeds onto roofs in the simplest way possible, then added a thatched cap to the top.  I pitched the roofs at an angle of 55 degrees, taking my cue from the tiny, ceramic, house-shaped objects known as ”house urns” found in Germany and dating from about 500 B.C.

   These roofs work extremely well. Rain runs off the steeper slope quickly before its has a chance to seep through. They require about one-third less thatch than those at Butser farm.  And they are thin enough to allow smoke from the inside to filter through, clearing the air inside.

  Most archaeologists assume round houses had no windows, although I can not understand why.  It seemed reasonable to me to cut windows in the daub walls, not just for light but to provide a draft for the central fire. Windows might be fitted with reed blinds that can be dropped to block the wind and elements. 

  After cutting my windows, I learned that “pieces” of daub with rounded “cut-outs” were found at Bronze Age sites in Rumania and in Eure-et-Loir, France.  They are considered window ledges.

  At several Bronze Age settlement sites, pits have been found in a row, each one relating to a house.  Excavators have been baffled by them, ascribing to them some unknown ritual function.  I believe they were daubing pits, created as a by-product of mixing daub to build houses.

 I have found from experience that when you mix clay, soil, and straw on the ground for daub and shovel it to add to the wall, a little soil form the ground beneath the daub is shovelled up as well.  That creates a pit after only a few batches. Such pits are found next to houses because you want the daub as close as possible to the house you are building.