What does a longhouse look like?

Asked by: Jenni Martinez

What did the longhouse look like?

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 was the purpose of a longhouse?

Function and Purpose



A primary use of the longhouse was to serve as a place of residence. Several families, numbering about six to eight members each, likely resided in the same home. Prior to 1300, longhouses housed about 20 to 30 people. Later, they housed as many as 100 people, as their size doubled.

What is inside a long house?

Inside the Longhouse



The house would be sectioned, ether to the sides of, or including, the corridor. Fires for cooking and heating would be lit in this corridor. Some houses had a central fire pit that served the whole house while others would have had small individual fires in each room or section.

What does an Iroquois longhouse look like?

Longhouses were almost always about 20 feet wide and 20 feet high despite differences in their length. Seen from one end, the roof line of a typical Iroquois longhouse was rounded rather than peaked. There were two doors for the entire building, one at each end. There were no other doors in the building.

How many rooms are in a longhouse?

two rooms

From front to back, such a house, called an “uma”, regularly consists of an open platform serving as the main entrance place, followed by a covered gallery. The inside is divided into two rooms, one behind the other.

How big is a longhouse?

Iroquois longhouses ranged in length from 30 to several hundred feet. Archeologists have found the post hole patterns of two longhouses that were 364 feet and 400 feet long: longer than a football field, and even longer than a city block! However, a typical Iroquois longhouse was 180 to 220 feet long.

Did longhouses have windows?

On either side of the central corridor (between the roof support columns and the walls), raised wooden benches topped with wooden planks ran the length of the longhouse. They provided a surface for sitting, eating, working, and sleeping. Typically, no windows were used in the house.

What natives lived in longhouses?

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.

How long did it take to build a longhouse?

It is determined by the resources and materials available. One to two years is a feasible estimate (the rebuilding took one year to complete), but we must also consider that the home appears to have been constantly added to and maintained.

How were longhouses different from teepees?

Teepees were easy to dismantle and take to another location. Furs and hides were used to make the walls of a teepee weather-proof. Longhouses were built by the natives in the northeast part of the continent. The walls and roof of a longhouse was made of pieces of overlapping bark.

What does a plank house look like?

The Plank House was a typical structure used as a house style that was built by many tribes of the Pacific Northwest Coast cultural group who made them their homes. The windowless Plank Houses varied in size but were built in a rectangular shape using planks of wood from red cedar trees.

How do you build a long house?

Like i said i use the diaper box and when we have twins you end up using a lot of diapers. So we have a lot of diaper boxes uh to use definitely save your stuff.

Did longhouses have windows?

On either side of the central corridor (between the roof support columns and the walls), raised wooden benches topped with wooden planks ran the length of the longhouse. They provided a surface for sitting, eating, working, and sleeping. Typically, no windows were used in the house.

What were Iroquois longhouses made of?

elm bark

The Iroquois lived in longhouses, large houses up to 100 feet in length usually made of elm bark. As many as 20 families shared the longhouse, with dozens of individuals and their dogs occupying the space.

What does a plank house look like?

The Plank House was a typical structure used as a house style that was built by many tribes of the Pacific Northwest Coast cultural group who made them their homes. The windowless Plank Houses varied in size but were built in a rectangular shape using planks of wood from red cedar trees.

How were Viking longhouses built?

The longhouse on the farm



Viking houses were built of wood. The longhouses had bowed walls in plan, forming a ship-like outline. The walls were lined with clay or consisted of wooden planks placed vertically into the ground, which supported the roof, along with two rows of internal posts.

How long did it take to build a longhouse?

It is determined by the resources and materials available. One to two years is a feasible estimate (the rebuilding took one year to complete), but we must also consider that the home appears to have been constantly added to and maintained.

How many families lived in a longhouse?

An average size longhouse was too big for one family to live in. There were usually two families that shared each fire in the longhouse. The longhouse in the pictures has three fires, so six families could have lived here.

How many rooms did a Viking longhouse have?

Animals and people lived in the same building. The animals lived in a byre at one end of the house, and the people lived at the other. There was no separation between home and workplace. A typical Norse longhouse had 16 rooms.

How did Vikings keep warm?

Vikings wore long, warm, wool cloaks over their clothes for warmth outside. Hats were made of wool, leather or fur. Woolen socks kept the feet warm under the shoes or boots, and leather belts pulled the outfits together.

Who lived in longhouses?

Longhouses were the traditional homes for many of the farming tribes of American Indians that lived in southern New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The Iroquois people of upstate New York were among them. To the Iroquois people, the longhouse meant much more than the building where they lived.

What did the Vikings eat and drink?

Vikings drank ale, mead or buttermilk daily. Feasts would include the same foods—meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, wild greens, bread and fruit, but in a greater variety than usual meal and more of it. Vikings enjoyed drinking ale and mead at feasts.

What did Vikings do for fun?

Vikings engaged in running, swimming, tug-of-war called toga-honk and wrestling. Vikings also played a ball game with stick and ball. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to get hurt or even killed, as Vikings played rough. Women did not participate in these games, but they would gather to watch the men.

How many meals did Vikings eat a day?

two meals

Unlike modern Norwegians, Vikings tended to only eat two meals per day. These were known as dagmal and nattmal, which meant a day meal and night meal.

Did Vikings get drunk a lot?

For the ancient Norsemen, drinking was much more than just consuming alcoholic beverages. Drinking ale and mead was instead part of their ancestral lifestyle and had deep cultural and religious significance.

Did the Vikings have tattoos?

Did they actually have tattoos though? It is widely considered fact that the Vikings and Northmen in general, were heavily tattooed. However, historically, there is only one piece of evidence that mentions them actually being covered in ink.

What race were the first Vikings?

“A lot of the Vikings are mixed individuals” with ancestry from both Southern Europe and Scandinavia, for example, or even a mix of Sami (Indigenous Scandinavian) and European ancestry. A mass grave of around 50 headless Vikings from a site in Dorset, UK.