#longhouses

Archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar have detected five longhouses in Østfold county, Norway. One of the ancient buildings is approximately 60 m (197 feet) long, making it one of the largest in Scandinavia.

The five Viking longhouses were found at the archaeological site of Gjellestad, where the same team discovered a Viking ship in 2018.

“We found several buildings, all typical Iron Age longhouses, north of the Gjellestad ship,” said Dr. Lars Gustavsen, an archaeologist at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research.

“The most striking discovery is a 60 m (197 feet) long and 15 m (49 feet) wide longhouse, a size that makes it one of the largest we know of in Scandinavia.”

a sketch i like better of a longhouse. showing it in all its, one room, iron age loooong glory.

From the Bronze Age until the Viking Age, burial mounds could be placed on top of the remains of three-aisled longhouses. The internal posts that served as roof-supporting beams were sometimes removed before the house was set on fire. Once the house had burned to the ground, one or more burial mounds were placed on top of its remains.

Marianne Hem Eriksen is a postdoc at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History. In an article in the European Journal of Archaeology, she investigates the causes of this practice.

'I studied seven different house burials from the Iron Age in Scandinavia, in five different locations: Högom in Sweden; Ullandhaug in Rogaland; Brista in Uppland, Sweden; Jarlsberg in Vestfold; and Engelaug in Hedmark,' Eriksen tells us.

Ryedale folk museum in the picuresque village of Hutton-le-Hole inNorth Yorkshire has some fabulous houses and exhibits. I visited a couple of weeks ago in the pouring rain, as can be seen from the mist on these photos.  This medieval longhouse, originally at Stang End, Danby, is very atmospheric, and has contains a post by the fireplace with marks to protect the family against witches. Probably just as well, there were lots of (supposed) witches about in 17th century Yorkshire.