Pit-house

Some may measure 0.25m by around 2m by 1.5m, whilst examples from excavations from the 1950s onwards at West Stow in the United Kingdom are 3.7m-4.44m long x 2.72m-3.5m wide x 0.58m-0.97m deep.

Hearths were also found, which sat partially over the edge of the sunken pits and appeared to have collapsed downwards when the structure supporting their overhanging sections (possibly a suspended floor) was removed.

In Western Europe their small size and the fact that they can be found near other buildings and associated finds of loom weights has led to theories that they had a specialised purpose such as for weaving sheds.

Pit house villages provided community opportunities and assurances over the winter, as well as social gathering space through which local and regional economies, customs, and traditions were practiced and developed through time.

Individual pit houses could vary in shape, but were typically round with wooden frames covered at ground level with thatch and earth, and featured an earthen bench along the circumference used for sitting, sleeping, and storage.

A common design featured a central hole in the roof that provided ladder access and ventilation, including for the smoke of an interior fire, though side-entry pit houses were also used.

[10] In the northwestern Great Plains and the Plateau region located nearby, climate changes and extreme temperature and weather conditions made it difficult to live year-round.

[12][13] A cross-cultural middle range model of pit-house architecture using George Murdock's 1967 Ethnographic Atlas[14] found that 82 of the 862 societies in the sample occupy pit structures as either their primary or secondary dwellings.

These commonalities include: cold season of occupation, low population estimates, and simple political and economic systems.

Dug into the ground, pit structures take advantage to the insulating properties of soil, as well as having a low profile, protecting them from exposure to wind-induced heat loss.

The cases with the highest population densities were the Arikara and Hidatsa of the North American Great Plains and the Konso of Ethiopia.

[22] This is a large fraction of the sample, but is not considered a universally consistent feature like biseasonal settlement and a reliance on stored foods during pit structure occupation.

Large pit house formations have been excavated in British Columbia, Canada, such as at Keatley Creek Archaeological Site.