The Formation of the three-compartment rural house in medieval Central Europe
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-01-15

A new house form represented by a three-compartment rural dwelling was formed in Central Europe during the 12th – 14th century. Consisting of a central entrance room, a living room and a storage room/granary (mostly in Eastern Central Europe) or a byre (mostly in Western Central Europe) it has remained the most common type of traditional village house until the 20th century. Identical house forms appeared in areas of fundamentally different early medieval building traditions of “Germanic” and “Slavic” culture spheres. A comparison of the formal attributes of this new house form with earlier house types provides evidence of a formation process which can be characterized as a synthesis or type of cultural hybridity based on the mutual influences.

Author - Associate Prof. Vareka, Pavel, University of West Bohemia, Plzen, Czech Republic (Presenting author)