CHECK OUT WHAT I DISCOVERED- A HOUSE THAT'S OVER 2000yrsold

A pit dwelling , or pit building , is a structure with a floor dug into the ground, posts dug into the ground, beams , rafters , and a roof made of earth and plants (such as reeds ) . Although they were primarily used as residences , there are also examples of them being used for other purposes, and their use cannot be limited to "dwellings." Therefore, there is an increasing number of materials in the Japanese archaeological community today that refer to them as " pit dwellings "
In archaeology , a building with a floor dug below ground level is called a "pit dwelling" [ 4 ] . This is used in contrast to terms such as " flat buildings " which refer to buildings with floors at the same height as the ground level or slightly higher than the ground level at the time of their construction, and "raised -floor buildings " which are built with floors raised above ground level using stilts or other means. In other words, it is an architectural classification based on the "height" of the floor [ 5 ] [ 6 ] . The term "pit dwelling" was created as a contrast to the term "horizontal cave" [ 7 ] .

The main structure is a "pillar-built [ 8 ] " structure, in which multiple pit-dwellings (main pillars) are erected on a floor that is lower than ground level to support the roof and other upper parts. In terms of construction, this is the same as a so-called pit-dwelling , but in the Japanese archaeological community, the distinction between pit-dwellings and pit-dwellings is made by the fact that the floor of the pit-dwelling is lower than ground level . [ 9 ] [ 10 ]

The English term "pit-house" strictly refers to a pit dwelling that consists only of the pit section except for the roof, in other words, a building that has a roof over the pit. However, some researchers also use this term to refer to pit dwellings that have shallow pits and aboveground structures, so to some extent it can be used interchangeably with the Japanese term "pit dwelling" [ citation needed ] .

In the Japanese archipelago, excavations of pit dwellings have usually revealed a depth of about 70 to 80 centimeters, and according to Makoto Sahara , "even though they are called holes, they are not deep enough to be called 'pit'" [ 11 ] ." However, at the Shibetsu Archaeological Site (Ichani Karikariusu Site) in Shibetsu Town, Shibetsu County, Hokkaido , near the Shiretoko Peninsula , numerous mortar-shaped depressions of about 4 to 10 meters in diameter, which are the remains of excavated pit dwellings, are clustered on the present ground surface and were once called "cave dwellings" [ 12 ] . These are 2 to 2.5 meters deep from the surrounding embankments to the floor, and Sahara claims that their existence explains why they are called "pit dwellings" [ 12 ] .

Regarding the roof structure, many school textbooks show imaginary images of reeds or Japanese knotweed roofing, but since the 1990s, many pit dwellings have been restored with earthen roofing (earthen roofs) made by laying bark and covering it with soil. This is because no thatch-derived materials were found in soil and artifact analysis during excavation, and it was assumed that thatch would have been difficult to harvest given the terrain and vegetation at the time. Examples include Irie-Takasago Shell Mound (Hokkaido), Sannai-Maruyama Site (Aomori Prefecture), Goshono Site (Iwate Prefecture), Kitadai Site (Toyama Prefecture), Umenoki Site (Yamanashi Prefecture), and Katsusaka Site (Kanagawa Prefecture) . [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 21 ]

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