What Did Viking Town Houses Look Like? And Where Did They Poop?

[@SAOS451316]

Imagine the only archaeological evidence of your life being the largest human coprolite ever found.

[@FennecTheRabbit]

It took so much self control not to scream laugh at this.

[@naurrr]

incredible

[@lynn858]

Imagine that by using toilets and waste treatment systems, we'll never have a chance to beat that record. 😂

[@michellecornum5856]

Literally known for the shit you left behind.

[@michellethiesen7972]

The only archeological evidence that will be left of us if we keep going will be all the trash

[@Katherine_The_Okay]

When I was in college, the archaeology club had t-shirts printed "Coprolitic analysis: it's a shitty job but someone has to do it" ... The Dean was not amused, but the professors loved them, and so did our fellow students when they asked what the shirts meant and we told them. You can learn so much from a person's poo.

[@CapriUni]

I was just thinking about that person, whoever they were, and will probably make a silent toast to them on the next "remember your ancestors" day... I mean, imagine being remembered more than 1,000 years after your death, by probably your most uncomfortable and embarrassing moments (and thinking at the time: 'at least no one will ever know'). For their sake, I will remember them as a skilled craftsman who knew how to tell a good joke.

[@marggarg2778]

Reminds me of my favorite way to troll my students. I have them pass around some cut and polished dinosaur coprolites and ask them what type of fossil they think they are. Then I show them a full one. Some brave soul eventually says it looks like poop. My excuse is it drives home the process of mineralization transforming what was once there.

[@GooberFace32]

Coprolite: why yes, you can polish a turd.

[@euansmith3699]

What do you do with a constipated Mathematician? Give them a pencil and let them work it out themself.

[@chippychick6261]

Speech Therapist T Shirt : SLPs do it orally.

[@keephurn1159]

I remain astounded how much stuff remains, but also at the boundary setting that persisted through the centuries. Someone lays out the property boundaries, builds a house and living space, and gets on with life. Over time, people continue to build new buildings on top of what was there, but still "color within the lines" architecturally. "Yeah, this is an adequate amount of space to live and craft in. No need to adjust. Thanks people who came before me for setting the template!" Maybe people wanted to change it up, so they purchased the lots around them and expanded, but still kept to the predefined boundaries. People are fascinating.

[@anna_in_aotearoa3166]

Agreed! That is something I especially enjoy about the Time Team episodes too, how Stewart Ainsworth is able to deduce former abbey boundaries from where the oldest roads run, or how the names of fields in continuous use since pre-Roman times may reflect a religious pilgrimage route, or how the former presence of a mill or fishpond can be deduced from the lay of the land & where the streams run? It's very Sherlockian & so fascinating to watch!

[@mayanscaper]

I’m learning more and more about the study of landscape archaeology and how those markers of field and farm/tenement boundaries persist. I had no idea that they found such things in cities such as York and Dublin. I do have a question. There was much Roman trade in the Iron Age. We visited Caernavon and the legionnaire quarters and there were what seems like the same toilets arrangements as what you’re drawings showed in the Your Viking tenements. How much technology was traded to Germanic tribes in the Roman civitas trading hubs on the northern Danube that made it into Viking homes eventually?

[@Greye13]

@@anna_in_aotearoa3166 I agree completely. I live in the U.S., and I haven't seen any of the new 'Team's' episodes yet, but I love watching the Time Team's older episodes, with Tony, Phil, Mick, and the others. From Time Team, I've learned quite a bit about the processes and everything, that are involved in archaeology/anthropology digs and discoveries. I love learning about the rich history behind the artifacts/ruins that they find. It's all quite amazing, the things they've discovered. Their findings are an absolute treasure. 🙂🌱

[@lucie4185]

​@@mayanscaper the toilets would have been still in use in most of Europe. People still needed to poop when the Romans dispersed.

[@weerwolfproductions]

@@Greye13 Last weekend the latest episode was released in 3 parts on KZbin, Anglo-Saxon Cemetery is the title. They set out to preserve a cemetery in danger of disappearing due to agriculture and they find.... something completely different - mostly thanks to Stewart's walking! Other than the ones that passed away, the only ones missing were Phil and Tony. Even Pottery Paul was back! And they had a Mick Aston doll on the table in the tent... This was by far the best of the newer episodes, although i found them all interesting - this one definately had that old Time Team vibe.

[@lenabreijer1311]

Turf houses were built by the first Ukrainians in the Canadian prairies in the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. I have visited them at the living museum near Edmonton. There was a hole dug and the turfs were kept to make the roof. They were remarkably cozy. I wonder if the long viking hearth was used for heat retention. All those stones when they got hot would continue to radiate heat for hours.

[@maryanneslater9675]

Ah, yes, like a forerunner of a Russian stove. Many vikings settled in the Kiev region of Ukraine because it was on their trade route to Constantinople.

[@karladenton5034]

Here in Kansas, many of the settlers started with "dugout" houses, partially (usually three sides) cut into the side of a hill and then turfed over with a sod roof. They are a very practical sort of house where there is a lack of large structural timber. The low profile is also wonderful in a land plagued by tornadoes. Unfortunately, most family groups replaced the 'soddies' with a frame built house as soon as financially possible. On my grandparent's farm, the original dugout was still there, converted to livestock housing, but it was still so nice to go in and cool off in the summer.

[@sarahwatts7152]

This is fascinating! Were the settlers copying the indigenous people? I'm sure many of them were using tipis, but I'm wondering if they left stockpiles in these sorts of structures

[@karladenton5034]

@@sarahwatts7152 The Native American tribes in this area were semi-nomadic, but their winter villages often were earth dome extended family houses. The settlers tended to more rectangle shaped houses and lived in them year round. Same materials, but different architecture.

[@pufthemajicdragon]

I've been to Kansas, there are no hills! :P

[@karladenton5034]

​@@pufthemajicdragon Compared to the mountains, yes. and I see the little emoji 😃 But you really only need about six feet of elevation, which you can find along streams even in the western part of the state, where it really IS flat.

[@gnostic268]

@@sarahwatts7152 Most of the Native tribes in the area now known as Kansas, were semi nomadic. They used Earth lodges for winter wherever they had wind protection such as an area of woods. Of course, the land used for corporate farming at present so there's no way to see what they land looked like pre-colonization. The different tribes followed the Buffalo herds seasonally so I the summer they used semi permanent lodges that basically provided shelter from rain and sun but allowed air to freely circulate. They were mostly hunter gatherers.

[@tjbren576]

You have such a relaxing, comfortable sounding voice. Your story-telling history lessons are excellent! Thank you for being you!

[@j3tztbassman123]

Jimmy narrates an audio book, when???

[@chrisball3778]

For anyone who hasn't been to Jorvik Viking Centre, it's really good, especially for kids. You get to see the original archaeological dig, then ride on a little ghost train thing around a reconstruction of what it might have been like, complete with the sounds and smells (yes really). When you get off there's a museum full of stuff they found there. It's really well presented and the staff are really knowledgeable and enthusiastic. If you were a British child during the 80's or 90's, there's a good chance you went on a school trip there, or at least saw it on Blue Peter.

[@michellebyrom6551]

I visited it in the 80s when it's presentation style was pioneering and awardwinning. No train rides then. We walked round, which meant that there were spots of congestion. I suppose that's why they introduced the transport - also keeping excited children off the exhibits.

[@dianeshelton9592]

When you were describing dirt houses, they sound exactly like a Devon cobb longhouse. Made entirely of mud and horse hair. They have rounded corners to the houses and this makes for a very soft appearance to the house but makes it difficult for furniture placement. These days they are often painted, and for,preference with lime wash as it allows the house to breathe where as you sometimes get sweaty interior walls if the outside is painted in a waterproof paint. If limewash is applied the whole house will be dry inside and out. The chimney is often stuck on the outside of the house. One for each room often. They look like round bumps on the outside of the house. Called longhouses as they are often one room front to back with a back connecting corridor. There are indeed second floors and a thatched roof though many are now tiled. Have lived in a couple in my life time. They are indeed very cozy with the walls being 3 to 4 foot think warm in winter and cool in summer. . Not wonderful for mobile reception, and you often have to stand in the window for any reception at all. Originally the had mud floors but now have all sorts, wood, tiles, carpets. . The one thing you learn very quickly is if there is anything like wall paper or tile stuck on the inside wall, never under any circumstances try to take them off just add to them tiling over or papering over. If you try to take a tile off you will often make huge holes in the interior walls , sometimes all the way through to the exterior. As I found out to my horror when I didn’t like the tiles over the bathroom sink and decided to remove them . A massive hole appeared all the way to the,outside and once the builder arrived , he tutted and said no never do that. The rooms just get smaller and walls thicker in cobb houses. 😀 Basically if you want to live in a Viking house , try a Devon cobb longhouse 😀

[@thatcactusboi]

Architecture is always interesting to me because you can get such a good understanding of how daily life might have been by having a look at how they're built, where the cooking fire was settled, the materials, etc. Super hype about this vid!

[@anna_in_aotearoa3166]

Sometimes provides some intrresting clues or confirmations of their metaphysical beliefs too, in terms of aligning entrances with certain cardinal directions/the sunrise, burying apotropaic fetishes under thresholds, indications of veneration of the communal hearth etc...? I'm a big fan of material archaeology as a way of learning more about the past, not relying solely on written records, which can be scant, missing or severely biased? Any items found generally still require a fair degree of interpretation, but their orientation in the landscape & proximity to certain centres of activity etc can really tell one so much!

[@k80_]

“Vernacular architecture” is what you’re talking about. It’s such a fascinating rabbit hole to go down, and it makes you realize how un-suited our modern western style houses are to most of the environments we build them in.

[@johannageisel5390]

I really want to build a Viking age settlement in Minecraft now.

[@euansmith3699]

I like to see how small the doors were in ancient buildings, as it hints at the size of our ancestors; unless they were built small to keep the heat in.

[@faithlesshound5621]

@@euansmith3699 That's something I noted on visiting the oldest house in Scotland (Traquair) as its front door, which you would expect to be grand in the home of a Stuart family, was about the height of mine (made in 1975). It only made sense after seeing upstairs. The people had to have been much shorter to have got through doorways with hats or bonnets on.

[@melissamybubbles6139]

My brother and I were talking about how Viking characters are often dressed as modern bikers in movies. He said that he wanted to open a shop called the Biking Viking.

[@cathyrogers9276]

Hello Jimmy! In Canada turf houses were built when people were "settling" the prairie provinces. They were called soddies because they were built from the sod.

[@CapriUni]

In my Alternate-Universe daydreams (if I had the opportunity to take a different path at a different fork in the proverbial road), my dream home would be pit house: protected from hurricanes, a constant temperature of ~13 C/55 F year-round, before adding any additional heating, And as a wheelchair user, I could have a spiral ramp going around the outside walls, that could be a lot of fun. ...Also, I could play a TARDIS-like trick on folks ;-)

[@SonsOfLorgar]

As a Scandinavian, I'd suspect that any house where the owners could afford it would have had at least a half floor loft for storage if not a full second floor.

[@SuperFunkmachine]

That does neatly solve the "where did they put stuff?" question and its a good use for roof space.

[@Trassel242]

One of my favourite weird archaeology facts is that only an archaeologist will be excited about finding a Stone Age rubbish dump (a midden, in other words). You can learn a lot from a person from their rubbish, so what they valued and what they threw away, what they ate, etc. When I was a kid and didn’t clean my room, my mum would say “go clean your room, it looks like a midden!”

[@karlahovde]

14:10 I got a bit of a shiver when you talked about the crafting materials left behind. Just makes the people come alive as real individuals. There was a real person who could have said, "Yeah, one of my neighbors carves amber and the lady two doors down does plant dyeing." I just love those personal details that remain in the archaeology.

[@carrielovesfanta]

I wonder why those materials were left there? Surely they would have been valuable and salvaged?

[@elisabethm9655]

Textile tools and equipment are highly portable. Even a full sized vertical loom is pretty easily moved about, even when dressed. Yes, it would probably take two or three people to lug it out into a yard or light exterior sheltered space. The basic activities of fibre prep, combing, spinning and even the use of a vertical loom could have been accomplished either outside or near a door because decent lighting is really important. However, it’s only natural to always find the items in the remains in an interior location, because that’s where it was probably stored when not in use. As a spinner, I much prefer to work with the best lighting I can get, but when I’m not working, everything is tucked away. My loom is by a window. Of course in the winter months, I work indoors, but decent lighting is always a premium part of textile work, because you really need to see what you’re doing.

[@DoinItforNewCommTech]

I think turf houses and pit houses are due for a comeback; they seem like they'd be really great for natural insulation, which would be a good way of adapting to climate change. Higher temperatures are gonna require more air conditioning, which will lead to more power consumption, which leads to more carbon emissions, so why not build a house that doesn't NEED aircon? Plus, they'd look nice, who doesn't want to live in a real-life Hobbit house? Cozy af

[@PaladinGrant-sl5yp]

Pit houses in particular have a fairly large number of people trying to get them to be used, except they have a few issues. Ventilation tends to be poor, they have little natural light, and they tend to be very damp. Now, all of these are issues you can address, but a house above ground it easier, cheaper, and safer. I personally have always wanted a Hobbit hole.

[@paulwhite6745]

Damp, and also prone to flooding I would imagine.

[@charlymicky1722]

In northwestern Germany the nowadays old farmhouses are kind of longhouses. But humans living on one end and the animals on the other. Excavations there show that similar houses have been build there for thousands of years. Not to say that they are the same as the viking longhouses, just something your video reminded me of.

[@codename495]

It goes to show that a good design will be long lasting and widespread. Materials aside many things today are still recognizable in ancient items.

[@ragnkja]

Viking longhouses had one end for people and the other for livestock as well, so that’s definitely a similarity rather than a difference. And Scandinavian farmhouses remained elongated even after separate barns became the standard.

[@Rhaifha]

Yeah, I'm from the Netherlands and it sure sounds like our historical farm houses! Though he didn't mention anything about having the animals inside. Which definitely happened in my area.

[@rimerdijkstra5826]

a very interesting example of the evolution of our perspective towards early iron age homes are the reconstructed iron age farms in Norway Stavanger (which are totally worth checking out) part of the reconstructed houses are still from the 1980s while some of them have had a makeover. the newer houses are higher and the interior walls have been whitewashed, creating a much more humane and more livable environment compared to the much lower darker almost cave like reconstructions of the 1980s. they even experimented with some paint on the white walls and have lots of woven blankets and other decorative things hanging from the wall. thanks to this makeover the farms went from cold dark and damp holes in the ground to comfortable warm and cozy farmsteads.

[@knutanderswik7562]

Thank you, I have been wondering about this! People in rural Norway could be found living in what were literally called smoke parlors ("røykstuer", with a sort of enclosed oven whose thick walls retained and radiated heat) or hearth parlors ("årestuer", with simply an open hearth) heated in this manner and vented through a hole in the roof well into the 19th century. I believe the absence of a chimney precludes an upper story as this would be entirely smoke-filled.

[@m.maclellan7147]

I DO wonder if the smoke kept flies & similar pests out, though ?! Especially if you were living very close to your Livestock & toilets !?

[@knutanderswik7562]

@@m.maclellan7147 Oh certainly, to say nothing of hanging dried or cured meat and flatbread up there for similar reasons.

[@ragnkja]

@@knutanderswik7562 I bet that was the origin of smoked food: hanging it up where the smoke kept insects away, and eventually realising that food that had been smoked kept longer even after it was taken down, and that the flavour could actually be rather nice.

[@StraylightWintermute]

Salish longhouses in North America were designed to use the rafters to smoke their fish supply for the winter, makes sense to have a similar idea for a similar set of natural resources!

[@codename495]

I’m a great giant of a woman ( I’m 183cm or 6ft, my husband is 193cm or 6’4”) and I have always wanted a hobbit house, perhaps a pit house is more my style. I would just love to build one in the woods on our property just to visit or go camp in when it’s not boiling hot.

[@thederpstate3330]

For other americans like myself.....UK town houses dont nessesity include shared party wall, unlike american town houses.....i got super excited by the idea of multifamily structures from the title but nope its just excedingly cool close packed simgle family houses..... on the other hand, having a bunch of houses with shared walls probably increaded the risk of large fires so it makes more sence this way. Really cool video though

[@anthonyhayes1267]

The temptation to build a longhouse in the woods in my area is unbearable.

[@krysab6125]

I remember being shown the Lloyd's Bank Coprolite when we went on a school trip to York as a kid. Strangely enough, the Viking Poo was the highlight of the day for most 10-year-olds, irrespective of its archaeological significance

[@CoachAlexandreChamberland]

I'm surprised to hear you speak of half a dozen people living in a longhouse. To me 6 people sounds like parents with children, not an extended family with grand-parents, their kids and their grand-kids.

[@TheWelshViking]

Ok. More then. 37 people.

[@CoachAlexandreChamberland]

@@TheWelshViking I never said it was inaccurate - you certainly know more than I do about the topic - just that I'm surprised. I honestly know nothing about the sizes of families at the time, and I have a hard time imagining how many people lived in an average village, small town or large city at the time. Is a typical village a dozen houses with an average of 6 people in each? Or is it like 50 houses? Just looking to learn.

[@fionaanderson5796]

Yes, I was surprised by that. I was expecting 10-15.

[@antiquitywright3533]

Dublinia is a very fun and affordable museum. I think I've gone 3 or 4 times and still never boring. It has life size Viking dwellings and markets to walk through, lots of hands on things for kids or adults who like to learn kinesthetically...also a life size Medieval quay to walk through. And as if that wasn't enough, it has a great view of the city from the tower and you can walk across the arch over the street to Christ Church Cathedral and see the resting place of Strongbow and the crypt museum! 10/10 recommend!

[@elewysoffinchingefeld3066]

I had the great thrill to go to Pompeii a couple weeks ago and while the dozens of visitors were all "what a lovely pillar" in the square, I was the only geek who turned around and said "what's in this little closet?" And I saw the trays and trays of finds all locked away! Wish I had been able to get a tour of that stuff! I also chatted with a lovely Irish archeologist who looked to be uncovering a bone in a trench. Thanks for all the information--this is perfect for a project I'm working on right now. Hope to make it to York one day. It's a long flight....

[@Greye13]

I enjoyed the video, Jimmy. This is a great topic of discussion. I always love the places you choose to record your videos. They're really quite lovely. Best wishes.🌱

[@cherylstraub5970]

They also might have been processing flax into linen. The comb would be used to clear the rough hard inner core of the flax plant. There are some very good videos out there on how that is done if you are interested

[@robintheparttimesewer6798]

Thanks it’s always nice to learn something cool during coffee break!

[@BennyLlama39]

Those turf houses are giving me flashbacks to my time living in Iceland. Never lived in one, but I've been inside one or two. 😀

[@loonyrune]

They have started recreating a pithouse in Eiríksstaðir, Iceland. The people behind it did a deep dive into pithouses in Iceland an believe that they were often focused on textile manufacturing and the recreation is gonna focus on that 😊

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

I've heard that association, the idea being that apparently the higher humidity of an earth-sheltered workspace keeps the fibers of the yarns more flexible and elastic for easier spinning and weaving.

[@lissis2303]

I bet York has more than 4 viking houses - they just haven't been excavated (yet). But their remains are still there, below the modern houses ;-)

[@TheWelshViking]

Oh, they found four here. Then there’s Hungate, St Mary’s Square, Skeldergate, Walmgate…

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

@@TheWelshViking Doesn't the use of the suffix "-gate" to name a street in English come from Old Norse? I vaguely remember reading that somewhere after idly wondering whether all these medieval English streets were so-named after gates in city walls, and being subsequently surprised to read that the etymology of the suffix had nothing to do with the English word for an opening in a wall.

[@yensid4294]

I am always impressed by the resourcefulness & efficienct use of resources of ancient/iron age peoples. A central indoor hearth makes perfect sense for heating as well as cooking. In the evening it would be a source of light as well. (Not sure I would want walls made from manure since I'm sure the smell was quite pungent whenever it was damp)

[@SuperFunkmachine]

After a few days it dry's out an stops smelling. But you have to keep it dry so the straw an wood doesn't rot.

[@k80_]

I find the history and material culture of everyday life soooo much more fascinating than the lives of nobles or the history of wars. Maybe that’s why I’m so into the history of clothing and normal peoples lives. Your clothing and home says so much more about you than you think, and seeing what material culture survives shows how normal, everyday people dealt with their own problems, what they thought about the society they lived in, how concerned with conformity or propriety they were, how their home life may have been. It’s just such a great way of humanizing history. I just think it’s neat

[@johannageisel5390]

Indeed! My venture into history also started with clothes and then I expanded into other traditional crafts and aspects of everyday life.

[@faithlesshound5621]

What you describe was originally called "Marxist Archaeology." It was brought to the English-speaking world from mainland Europe by V Gordon Childe, an Australian who was based in Edinburgh and London. As a communist, he was never allowed to go to speak in the United States.

[@johannageisel5390]

@@faithlesshound5621 As a dirty commie, I like that. :)

[@katienewell7350]

Awesome video! I'd love to see you do a series on the York excavations and the different finds!

[@Aswaguespack]

As usual an enjoyable, informative and entertaining presentation History Jimmy. Editing Jimmy gets 👍🏻👍🏻 and Storyteller Jimmy gets 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻. It’s interesting how various peoples of cultures all over the globe engineered their homes to adapt to the various climates in every location in every era. Could the smoke inside some buildings be actually intentional to control insect pests? Some indigenous peoples used smoke and sometimes mud to prevent insect bites in locations where swarms of biting flying insect pests could be a health concern. Maybe you might have some thoughts on this idea? You do a great job educating and explaining the interesting things people did to survive in sometimes rather harsh climates whether it be extreme cold or heat. If these people weren’t clever and practical those cultures would have died out and left nothing behind. Have a great weekend Dr. Jimmy. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@m.maclellan7147]

I just was musing about the same thing in a reply above - smoke, less insects !?

[@Aswaguespack]

@@m.maclellan7147 it kinda would make some sense as for a practical explanation/solution to flying biting insects. Where people keep livestock there will be biting insects and those insects aren’t particular about from which warm blooded mammal they get their blood from whether four legged or two legged and then there’s the possibility of disease being transmitted cross species too. Were Vikings aware of insect borne disease?

[@elfevilkitty]

Just found your channel. Very nice content. Great use of reference materials. Excellent job making history understandable. Keep up the super work. Binging your catalog as we speak.

[@Pippis78]

Properly made "open fire" house isn't _that_ smokey, I'd say. The smoke kinda gets pulled out through the opening up in the roof (when it works properly). You do smell like smoke after staying in a building like this, but it's not like you can't breathe or like there's really even visible smoke. Also this is why you use dry wood. If ever in Finland get in contact with a group called Sommelo, and they might show you a few recreations of iron age (viking age) type buildings typical to Finland and surrounding areas. These are located in the capital, Helsinki. They are a group of non-profit volunteers and history enthusiasts, so if they give you a private tour, give them a small donation to help with keeping the place in shape. If you get very lucky you might get to see them building a new roof, making iron age pottery, cooking authentic dinners "viking" style etc. or participate and learn this stuff yourself. *Oi, Jimmy! If you visit Finland sometime I can set this up!* 😀 There's also a recreation of a viking long house and a "Viking center" in a place called Rosala near Turku.

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

Very interesting! I've lived in the northeast United States, either in New York or New England, my entire life, and one of the things that really struck me is the similarities between the structures of the Viking settlements and those of Europeans that settled in the northeastern areas of North American in the 17th century -- many centuries later. The earliest houses were built using upright posts, with horizontal clapboards fastened to the exterior as weatherproofing. All of the surviving buildings are on stone foundations, but posts holes at many archeological sites indicate that many, perhaps most, of these buildings had no foundations as such, and the vertical posts were driven directly into the ground. In early buildings the clapboards were exposed on both the interior and exterior, but in all surviving cases they were covered inside with wainscotiing of some sort or wattle-and-daub at a very early date, perhaps a year or two after construction. Plaster was also applied to the interior walls at a later date, but usually within twenty or thirty years of construction. The biggest difference was that all of these houses (except some very early huts) had proper chimneys of stone or brick, usually in the center of the house. Also, thatched roofs were almost never used as they didn't stand up to the climate. The standard was wooden shingles. I find these features to be true of both early Dutch and early English settlers, even though the structures of these buildings are otherwise quite different. It seems that these vernacular building techniques transcended time and culture. A quick aside: a full second floor in the Viking houses would have been impossible with the open central hearth, although loft-like spaces could easily have been built at either end. And a quick question: I remember reading years ago that long houses accommodated both the extended family and their livestock. (Sorry I don't have the reference handy. This was about 60 years ago.) Do you know if this was true of Norse houses or in areas that came under their influence?

[@johannageisel5390]

More modern variants of longhouses have been built into the, I believe, 18th century in northern Germany, so it might have been the same in the Netherlands and Great Britain.

[@ladyliberty417]

Thank you for all this wonderful information and sources for us to dig into!! Urban Vikings conjures up an even more complex society and makes good sense!! Take care Jimmy🥰

[@patpierce4854]

My husband and I were walking those York wall tops a couple months ago on a trip across the Pond to visit his mum - and I recognized your filming location immediately! And a couple years back, we were in Dublin - but Dublinia wasn’t open yet. The Jorvik Viking Centre Museum has been in my bucket list since it was first built; incredibly well done, down to “smell-a-vision” (and yes, we saw The Poo!). My only fuss about the whole trip, was the near total lack of ANYTHING with the white rose badge. For goodness sakes, you’d expect to find those all over the place for American tourists to take back home…..

[@celinainai]

Lovely video, made me smile several times! 😀 It was interesting to hear you mention trelleborgs, in Sweden we have a town called Trelleborg and there they built a quarter of the trelleborg that was excavated and it is open for visitors.The Valheim-picture was also nice to see! 😍

[@iluvhammys]

awesome video!! had a great conversation about this with some of the folk from my house hold in the SCA here :D

[@VictoriaVague]

Lloyds Bank and coprolite is the perfect pairing of words

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

🤣

[@oliverg6864]

This is so cool! I really like learning about how people lived, especially just regular folks.

[@bnhietala]

This video made me really wish I could visit a living history museum that focuses on this historical time period. I live in southern New England, and our closest one portrays rural life from the 1790s to the 1830s. It's absolutely fascinating! This past October we took a tour of the village herb garden, then ended up having a wonderful hour and a half long conversation with the interpreter who gave it. I would absolutely LOVE to check out a viking age version!

[@elven_grandma3138]

I'd imagine that part of the point of such a large hearth (on top from all the "doing different things in different areas" that Jimmy mentioned) was simply as a sort of radiator: earth (or clay), on top of being insulating, stores a lot of heat & then releases it pretty slowly & steadily.

[@lukedaniel7669]

I just came back from a great ringing weekend in York - I'm fairly sure you cycled past me turning right in front of the Minster late Saturday afternoon. You had headphones on or I would have accosted you to say thank you for your channel in person.

[@elven_grandma3138]

Me every time Jimmy describes pit (& turf) houses during this video: Hobbit holes, Hobbit holes, Hobbit holes.... (I wouldn't be surprised if that is actually where Tolkien got his inspiration for them, seeing as he was a historian)

[@maryanneslater9675]

Your mention of the Lloyds Bank turd reminded me of the wonderful interview CBC Radio did with a paleoscatologist. He was was absolutely in raptures about the then recently-discovered piece of poo, which was hilarious on its own. Then the interviewer asked him how he became interested in coprolites and he explained that he had had worms as a child. The interviewer was speechless for a couple of seconds, then blurted the prompt her producer fed her: "Well, every boy needs a pet!"

[@septimus64]

Suburban Vikings sounds like a sitcom.

[@chalupabrain4360]

Sounds like an old cartoon I'd watch as a kid, like the Flintstones. :)

[@MadeleineFjall]

Oh this was super interesting, hadn't heard about those small town houses before. The daily life of those who lived before us, to me, is always much more intriguing than war etc. I do feel like I really have to visit York one day. :)

[@maikvanlommel7573]

Love your stories, Jimmy!

[@darlebalfoort8705]

Cool. Something I haven't thought much about.

[@musicandbooklover-p2o]

Brilliant video, thank you. I think it's time I revisited the museum in Dublin again, apparently the Dublin tenements you mention are now under concrete with the DCU headquarters on top. Next time I pass by I'll imagine the tenements that used to be there.

[@BinkyTheElf1]

New sub here.. much enjoyed this. Some of my ancestors are from around Fort William, in the Scottish highlands, and given the closeness to the Hebrides, likely had “interaction” with Norsemen. Greetings from Nova Scotia, Canada! 🇨🇦

[@fortheearth]

A wonderful overview; thank you.

[@I_Willenbrock_I]

Hedeby has a full museum village with lots of houses from the viking age. You can even spend time there and live like a northman.

[@Sienisota]

The houses sound a bit like old time Finnish cellars: you dig a downward sliding hole. Then you line the walls with rocks, and use rocks to build steps down. Make a roof from rocks and wood, and put the ground you dug up, back on top of the roof. They look like small mound of rocks, with grass and moss growing on top.

[@sillyjellyfish2421]

ok, now i legit want a pithouse cottage complete with the floor drain and oak walls. Those look so cozy and nice! People of the past sure knew how to do things effectively even with limited sources. Who cares about glass windows

[@yetanother9127]

"In a hole in the ground there lived a Viking. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Viking-hole, and that means comfort."

[@jrj5893]

I knew when I saw a picture of my favorite Skyrim mod I was going to be in for a ride :D This was absolutely fascinating! And now I want to make a pit house in Valheim lol

[@jaydee4697]

Great video; thank you for sharing!

[@anonymousperson4214]

I remember one of the Laura Ingalls books mentioning that the Norwegian builder of their sod house had whitewashed the interior. It wasn't paneled inside, he'd appearantly just whitewashed the sods themselves. I've always wondered how that worked

[@juia7336]

Thank you for the super interesting video, and the links!

[@darrenramsdale335]

I Spent many happy days livingin a pit style house not far from york at the museum of farming. cozy and a lot less cow poo required for the walls. the stone base of the firepit acts like a giant storage heater, we found it impossible to sleep on the loft in the roof due to the Smoke.

[@kimkohrt377]

I went to the Jorvik Viking Museum last September and saw the giant poo! I'm going to Dublin in December. I plan on taking a walking tour of Viking Dublin. Definitely checking out the archeology museum because it's free.

[@melissagoings1]

In Wisconsin, the first settlers often took their cues from the badgers. Some of the first houses in the state were very much like the pit houses.

[@Fairstarter]

I'm doing a cross country trip this autumn to Prince Edward Island. One of the places I plan to visit is L’Anse aux Meadows where they found like just one Turfhouse lol

[@arwynpalmer1990]

Another great video. Completely unrelated but wondering if you know anything about the battle of Bryn Glas/Pilleth and the Glyndŵr uprising, I drove past the site a few weeks ago and looked it up knowing nothing of it. Everyone knows about William Wallace and the Scottish uprising but I'd imagine no-one knows about the Welsh one, I'd love a video in your informative style

[@CleoHarperReturns]

I subbed your channel without watching a single video. By your name alone I knew your content would interest me. And it does -- but I had no idea you'd also be adorable.😅Even when you make that farty noise. I'll be drawing viking tenement houses all this rainy afternoon thanks to you, and for me there isn't a better way to spend such a day. Thanks for the fascinating lesson and inspiration. I may binge you. Don't be nervous.😉

[@rosemarygilman8718]

Fascinating! Thank you!

[@nieleoya8519]

Hungarians also had these pit houses. They were used in the winter. In the summer they lived in yurts.

[@Loweene_Ancalimon]

Talking of "yep, smokey house" do we have any idea what smoke management might have been like in a two-storey house ? Thank you for the nice vidya :

[@ragnkja]

Upper storey may have been mostly (or even entirely) for storage, perhaps?

[@janetmackinnon3411]

@@ragnkja Which would give more insulation?

[@kathyjohnson2043]

In English medieval halls that were heated by a central fire, there were high, open windows that created an air flow to vent the smoke. When tended by an expert, a fire will give off less smoke and create more heat. Thatch will let smoke out while keeping rain out as well. You hang the pork in the rafters to smoke for preservation. Thus, what we would consider a problem, they saw as an asset.

[@janetmackinnon3411]

@@kathyjohnson2043 Interesting--thank you.

[@Chibihugs]

I can't help but wonder if the turf and pit houses were the inspiration for the hobbit holes?

[@C.R.W]

I had no idea Viking town houses pooped. Learn something new every day.

[@patpierce4854]

😂😂😂

[@nocomment2468]

You had me at “poop”

[@marynimocks6791]

Great content! 🎉

[@elizabethmcglothlin5406]

Thanks

[@fimbulsummer]

Sospan bach is one of my favourites!

[@helenlayley]

Ooh, was the first pit house you showed, against the sea, at Foteviken Viking village in Southern Sweden? One of my summer homes . . .

[@georgiarn3915]

I went to Dublinia in 2016. Loved it. Look forward to going to York sometime.

[@eldraque4556]

nice one, our kid lives in York too

[@kfries1282]

Love learning about how material culture teaches us how people lived. And bonus: the references to history in both Canada's east and west coasts!

[@callunas]

Those turf houses are beautiful. I wish we could still live in them.

[@vitapin4622]

Pitthouse roofs are normal in the Alps nowadays, too. I think the steeper a roof is the longer is the durability.

[@Tina06019]

This is brilliant. Thanks.

[@claudeclawsonne4510]

Jimmy, please explain what you mean by a 'metalled' walkway with cobbles. I have never seen a cobbled walkway dissected nor have I read about the process, but it sounds like you have and you know a secret or two about it. Could you please be so kind as to elucidate? My curiosity is gnawing me to a nub here.

[@elizabethford7263]

Several episodes of Time Team refer to grubenhauses.... Is that the pit house you were referring to?

[@TheWelshViking]

Yup! Grübenhaus is the German word, I’m told

[@jop2600]

As a history enthusiast, I love your videos. German here, and may I correct you: it's "Grubenhaus", plural Grubenhäuser, from Grube: pit. Umlaute are tempting;) Some ppl do have "Grübchen" though, these are dimples :D

[@catherinerw1]

Ooops... "where did they poop" is giving me Blackadder II vibes... the "Money" episode :-) IKYK

[@TheWelshViking]

You mean you crap out of a window?

[@TheiaofMeridor]

Textile work happening indoors makes perfect sense to me, because yeah, you don't have natural light, or at least not as much of it, but you also don't have the wind tangling up your work and it's cleaner indoors

[@SuperFunkmachine]

an its not raining. Large windows are normal of weavers houses, lots of light.

[@DipityS]

So fascinating! I keep having questions and thoughts - like the idea of a plot with smaller versions of the long-houses being built on the plot - just like a modern street - and then those plots being used in the same way when the next buildings were put up - the same size plots and divisions were used going on those 'streets' went on to be the streets we know now? So? That sounds so much like what I'm familiar with on an urban or suburban street. And okay, there's only so many ways to build a neighbourhood, I suppose? But, then, look at Çatalhöyük where all the separate dwellings were touching up against each other - so no streets and certainly no backyard and the entryway was from the roof, so there are certainly other ways to build an urban centre and it's just so interesting that our current model matches the Viking model in many ways.

[@MrLigonater]

Has anyone advanced or tested the Hypothesis that the Viking A-Frame tents may have been made to mimic Pit houses? Obviously you wouldn’t dig a pit if you were just stopping overnight, but if you are overwintering, I imagine throwing digging a rectilinear pit and throwing an A-frame tent over it would be like a home away from home.

[@TheWelshViking]

I mean, there’s nothing stopping you from doing so! I’ll see if I cam get permission at an event. I think one of the main theories is that the base allowed it to be pitched on a ship, which seems less likely tbh

[@ann-sofienilsson9400]

As you so carefully described, a Trelleborg is an earthen embankment in a circular formation lined with a wooden palisade. The name probably comes from "trällor" wooden logs and not to be confused with "träl" which is the old norse word for slave.

[@camille_la_chenille]

Turf houses are the real life equivalent of Hobbit holes!

[@Thorned_Rose]

FYI, current-day modern city dwelling people have worms too. It would be more unusual for a person today to NOT have some parasites in our digestive tracts than to have some. What's of note here is the AMOUNT of parasites in someone's poop. A heavy worm burden indicates poor health since 'parasites' population will explode if the host's homeostasis and immune system is out of whack from malnutrition, overwork, poor diet, etc and unable to keep the parasite population in check. But normally, like other microbes part of our microbiome, we have evolved to, and continue to live in balance with them. I guess you could say even worms are nuanced lol.

[@lananieves4595]

Only half a dozen people living in a longhouse? I always imagined it was more like a couple of dozen. Not that I know much about this, at all.

[@fairygrove3928]

Thank you so much for this video! I'm planning on teaching my elementary school class about medieval houses, and having them build their own wattle and daub house with sticks and clay, and I'm trying to make it as historically accurate as possible. This video was super helpful! Do you happen to know how wattle and daub houses were affixed to the ground? Were the walls build on a stone layer, or were the posts just stuck into the ground then the wattle woven around them, or something else?

[@TheWelshViking]

There’s a couple of links that show some nice post holes that held posts that supported wattle walls in many cases. Should be an easy way for the kids to make theirs! :)

[@fairygrove3928]

@@TheWelshViking Thank you!!! Your links are amazing. Some of the terminology went a bit over my head (like "pile-cluster"), but the pictures and descriptions are super helpful (and really cool to see)!

[@LeeAndrew-pk8gd]

Love watching your videos I'm a pagan from England keep up the brilliant work