The Nebelivka experimental house construction and house-burning, 2014–2015

摘要

One of the research goals of the AHRC-funded “Early urbanism in Europe?: the case of the Trypillia mega-sites, Ukraine” Project was the better understanding of how Trypillia houses burned down in order to aid our understanding of the taphonomy of house remains excavated at the Trypillia BII mega-site of Nebelivka. For that reason, the Project decided to build two 2/3 size Trypillia experimental houses – one single-storey and one two-storey – in order to compare the burnt remains of the two types of houses. In the first part of this article, we explain the construction methods of the two 4 x 3m houses and the resources utilized to build them. In the second part, we provide an account of the burning of the two-storey house and explain the principal results of the experiment. In conclusion, we seek to define the specific contribution of the Nebelivka experiment not only to the history of Trypillia house-burning but the wider debate of deliberate house-burning.