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== Europe == [[File:Borg Vestvågøy LC0165.jpg|thumb|A reconstructed Viking chieftain's longhouse at the [[Lofotr Viking Museum]] in [[Lofoten]], Norway]]The [[Neolithic long house]] type was introduced with the first farmers of [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Western Europe]] around 5000 BCE, 7,000 years ago. These were farming settlements built in groups of six to twelve longhouses; they were home to large extended families and kin.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Worlds Together, Worlds Apart concise edition vol.1|last = Pollard|first = Elizabeth|publisher = W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.|year = 2015|isbn = 9780393250930|location = New York|pages = 34}}</ref> The Germanic cattle-farmer longhouses emerged along the southwestern [[North Sea]] coast in the third or fourth century BCE and may be the ancestors of several medieval house types such as the Scandinavian ''langhus''; the English,<ref>Description of a [http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.19883 Medieval Peasant Long-house] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230714115319/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.19883 |date=2023-07-14 }} at the English Heritage website.</ref> Welsh, and Scottish longhouse variants; and the German and Dutch [[Low German house]]. The longhouse is a traditional form of shelter. [[File:Viking house Ale Sweden.jpg|thumb|Reconstructed Viking longhouse in [[Ale Municipality|Ale]], north of [[Gothenburg]], [[Sweden]]]] Some of the [[Medieval architecture|medieval longhouse types of Europe]] that have survived are the following: [[File:Sanders, Lettaford - geograph.org.uk - 134003.jpg|thumb|Dartmoor granite longhouse]] === Dartmoor longhouse === The Western [[Celtic Britons|Brittonic]] "[[Dartmoor longhouse]]" variants in [[Devon]], [[Cornwall]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/flyingpast/medieval.html#top|title=Flying Past – The Historic Environment of Cornwall: The Medieval Countryside|website=www.historic-cornwall.org.uk|access-date=16 March 2018|archive-date=15 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515002946/http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/flyingpast/medieval.html#top|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Wales]], where it is known as the ''Tŷ Hir'',<ref>[http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/41585/lab-longpost.pdf The Dartmoor Longhouse Poster (pdf)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529223612/http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/41585/lab-longpost.pdf |date=2012-05-29 }} See also ''The Welsh House, A Study In Folk Culture'', Y Cymmrodor XLVII, London 1940, Iorwerth C Peate</ref> are often typified by the use of [[cruck]] construction.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cruck Database |url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/vag_cruck/index.cfm |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=Archaeology Data Service |archive-date=2022-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221109170127/https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/vag_cruck/index.cfm |url-status=live }}</ref> It is built along a slope, and a single passage gives access to both human and animal shelter under a single roof. There are dozens of pre-1600 longhouses remaining on [[Exmoor]] and the surrounding area.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Listed Buildings Map |url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/listed-buildings-map#.Y20-i8vP2Cg |access-date=2022-11-10 |website=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk |archive-date=2022-11-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110182146/https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/listed-buildings-map#.Y20-i8vP2Cg |url-status=live }}</ref> Some can be dated using dendrochronology to before 1400, but sites can be much older and have names with a Saxon origin. Longhouses on Exmoor are typically a single-story building, one room deep, laid out as two crucked bays a cross passage and two crucked bays. As glass was not available until the middle of the 16th century,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harrison |first=Rev. William |title=A Description of England |year=1577}}</ref> they were oriented loosely East West with openings (for a door and latticed unglazed windows) only in the south wall to provide the maximum shelter from the worst weather and catch the sun. They are often dug into the hillside, the lower parts of the walls are formed from rough stone in mud pointing with cob above, as before the 17th century lime cement was virtually unknown.The floors were not made a true level. Livestock used the lower end. A hole is often provided in the base of the end wall for mucking out. The cross passage (often misnamed as a breezeway did not pass right through the building) establishes distinct areas for people in one half of the house and livestock in the other, but would only be needed for a couple of months at most in the winter. There was a fire pit, sometimes with a stone [[reredos]] (as in Hendre’r-ywydd Uchaf Farmhouse, Denbighshire), behind which the smoke rose to the eaves and passed through the thatch. As skills and wealth increased, after 1500 many had built in settles,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chinnery |first=Victor |title=Oak Furniture – The British Tradition |publisher=Antique Collectors' Club |year=1979}}</ref> most by 1700 would have been adapted and have: separate buildings for livestock, a second storey, stairways, a chimney with bread oven, an outshut (pantry/larder/dairy which was only accessible from inside the house), glazed windows, lime screed floors and at least some decorative plasterwork. === Other European longhouses === Other European longhouse types include the northwest England type in [[Cumbria]],<ref>[http://www.vag.org.uk/VAarticles/clay-dabbins.htm Longhouse in Cumbria] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002234550/http://www.vag.org.uk/VAarticles/clay-dabbins.htm |date=2011-10-02 }}</ref> the Scottish longhouse, "[[blackhouse]]" or ''taighean-dubha,''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dualchas.com/index.php/Heritage/History.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091231144510/http://www.dualchas.com/index.php/Heritage/History.html|url-status=dead|title=Blackhouse in Scotland|archive-date=December 31, 2009}}</ref> and the Scandinavian or [[Vikings|Viking]] ''Langhus/Långhus'' and [[mead hall]]. The Western French longhouse<ref>[http://www.pierreseche.com/VAFrance.html L'Architecture Vernaculaire de la France] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311024901/http://www.pierreseche.com/VAFrance.html |date=2009-03-11 }} by Christian Lassure, with a translation in English [http://www.pierreseche.com/VAFranceEnglish.html here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081116202211/http://www.pierreseche.com/VAFranceEnglish.html |date=2008-11-16 }}.</ref> or ''maison longue'' from [[Lower Brittany]], [[Normandy]], [[Mayenne]], [[Duchy of Anjou|Anjou]] (also in the [[Cantal]], [[Lozère]] and the [[Ariège (department)|Pyrenees Ariège]]), is very similar to the western British type with shared livestock quarters and central drain. The [[Old Frisian longhouse]] or ''Langhuis'' developed into the [[Frisian farmhouse]] by integrating a large barn, typical of the [[Gulf house]] (German: ''Gulfhaus''), which spread since the 16th century from the Southern Netherlands along the North Sea coast to the east and north. === Medieval development of the Germanic longhouse === Further developments of the Germanic longhouse during the [[Middle Ages]] were the Low German house in northern and especially northwestern Germany and its northern neighbour, the [[Geestharden house]] in [[Jutland]] including [[Duchy of Schleswig|Schleswig]], with its variant, the Frisian house. With these house types the wooden posts originally rammed into the ground were replaced by posts supported on a base. The large and well-supported attic enabled large quantities of [[hay]] or grain to be stored in dry conditions. This development may have been driven because the weather became wetter over time. Good examples of these houses have been preserved, some dating back to the 16th century. The longhouse was 50 to 60 feet long.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}
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