Table of Contents
What is the outside of a longhouse made of?
A traditional longhouse was built by using a rectangular frame of saplings, each 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm) in diameter. The larger end of each sapling was placed in a posthole in the ground, and a domed roof was created by tying together the sapling tops. The structure was then covered with bark panels or shingles.
What did the inside of the longhouse look like?
A Longhouse would have been very dark and smoky inside as there were no windows. Each family lived in a compartment. The sources of light were the smoke holes in the roof of the longhouse, from the light of the fire and during the summer there would have been light from the doors at either end of the longhouse.
Where are longhouses located?
The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee or “People of the Longhouses”) who resided in the Northeastern United States as well as Eastern Canada (Ontario and Quebec) built and inhabited longhouses.
What did people do in longhouses?
During the winter, the longhouse was central to Iroquoian community life. It was where people assembled to tell stories, conduct sacred ceremonies and socialize. There were fewer people around the longhouse during the summer because villagers were away tending to their crops.
What purpose did the longhouse serve?
Longhouses have another thing in common besides their shape: they were built to serve as a home for a large extended family. An extended family includes a number of family units consisting of parents and children, plus grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
Where did the people of the longhouse come from?
Tribes or ethnic groups in the northeast of North America, south and east of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie that had traditions of building longhouses include the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee which means “people of the longhouse”) originally of the Five Nations Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk and later including the Tuscarora.
What kind of structure was a longhouse made of?
Longhouse structure. A longhouse has a framework built of posts and poles and is covered with sheets of bark. The following description is based on many different sources of information. Archeologists explore sites of old Iroquois villages by digging carefully in the upper layers of the soil.
What are the main areas of a long house?
Long House is perfect for large groups and families to come together and enjoy the substantial space on offer. The ground floor is semi-divided into three main areas, grand central hall, living room and open plan kitchen/dining.
What was the floor like in a Viking longhouse?
Most had timber frames, with walls of wattle and daub and thatched roofs. Where wood was scarce, as in Iceland, longhouses were made of turf and sod. Two rows of high posts supported the roof and ran down the entire length of the building, which could be up to 250 feet long. The floor of the Viking longhouse was pounded earth.