Online Activities: Iroquoian Longhouse
Clues to Structural Use
Post moulds were placed in very specific locations in order to build the longhouse according to Iroquoian needs. It is for this reason that the location of a post mould within a long house is very important to archaeologists. Post moulds were placed to fulfill many different structural needs.
One of the problems archaeologists have is in the difficult task of sorting out which posts represent which structural needs.
Where were the walls of the longhouse?
The first step in our analysis is to figure out where the walls of the longhouse were. The walls were made of small posts in single, and in some places double, staggered rows. Larger posts were sometimes used in some areas along the wall for added support.
There are also some places where there are posts that would have been located outside of the longhouse. These may be the remains of posts used to shore up the walls of the house. As the wall posts decayed, extra work was done to keep the house standing. The shoring and strengthening of walls, by bracing posts against them from outside, was done frequently.
Look at the floor plan below. All of the post moulds on this plan have been highlighted in green. See if you can figure out where the walls of the longhouse would have been.
When you are finished, check your interpretation of the information with the archaeologist's.
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