Hank's House 1

During the excavations, we spent a lot of time pondering the question, "How was Hank's house built?" We were able to figure out some things while we were digging, like the pattern of the posts along the walls, but other facts remained elusive until long after the excavation was over. It was not until the analysis phase that many of the important details, such as what types of trees and grass used in construction, became known. When all of the archeological data are considered together, we can reconstruct the story of how Hank's house was built with a fair degree of accuracy. While we cannot be sure of the exact sequence of events, the overall picture of what had to be done to build such a house is clear.

The story of building Hank's house, a sort of "construction reconstruction," is based on four types of data: (1) the archeological details; (2) information learned from other archeological investigations of similar houses; (3) construction techniques learned by archeologists making full-sized or scale model reconstructions of ancient houses; and (4) ethnohistoric accounts of how other peoples built similar types of houses.

One written account of how the Hidatsa Indians who lived in the Northern Plains (South Dakota area) built their houses was particularly informative. From 1906 to 1918, Gilbert L. Wilson observed how the Hidatsa constructed earth lodges at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and he interviewed elders who remembered what life was like before the reservation. This information was published in 1934 in a study called "The Hidatsa Earthlodge." Although the Hidatsa earth lodges were basically surface houses (with only a foot or so of fill removed) that were round and much larger than the pithouse at Hank's site, there are many similarities and Hank's house was undoubtedly built using many of the same techniques. Illustrations from Wilson's study accompany this section.

The first step in building a pithouse like Hank's began long before the actual house construction. The juniper trees to be used in building the house were probably selected, cut down, and trimmed to form posts many months, perhaps a year or more, before the house was to be built so the posts would be cured (completely dried). To build a pithouse like Hank's, you would need to cut, trim, and cure the following posts:

When you were ready to start construction, many people were needed to help and someone had to be in charge of the entire operation. In modern terms, this person functioned as the general contractor to oversee all phases of the house building and direct the work. Among the Hidatsa, lodge building was a community effort, and a respected elder woman was put in charge. The family who would live in the lodge was expected to throw a feast for everyone when the house building was completed (the same practice was followed by the Caddo, the Wichita and other Caddoan groups). But before you could feast, you had to build the house. The steps in the construction process are outlined below: