e-MUSEUM
Architecture
The Trypillian people built their houses
mostly from the wood. They had to cut thousands trees with
stone or copper axes for this purpose. Their first settlements
were not large - from 7 to 14 houses, but later a real cities
with thousands of buildings emerged. The houses they built
had a frame-columnar constriction. The walls were made from
the wood or the reeds and coated with a clay and painted over
with a charcoal mixed with water. This kind of buildings,
which appeared in the Trypillian time, still exists in the
forest-steppes of Ukraine.
Archeologists found models of the Trypillian
houses and temples made from clay. Most of them had a two-story
construction, which shows that Trypillians had a multistory
buildings. The floors were made from the wood and coated with
a clay similar to the wall's construction. The second story
usually was utilized as a living floor, and the first was
used for the household needs, like a storage and for keeping
domesticated animals. The floors and the walls were painted
in red and white colors and decorated with a geometrical ornamental
pattern, which probably had a spiritual meaning and protected
the inhabitants from a bad luck.
The living rooms were heated with an open
fire or a primitive stove. Usually, there was a long clay
bench along one of the inside walls to store products, tools
and personal belongings. Often there was clay or stone mortar
near the bench for grinding harvested grains into flour.
The sole rounded window was located
in a wall opposite to the entrance. Under the the window there
was rounded or cruciform clay altar. The altar was painted
in red color and decorated with a dug-like spiral ornamental
pattern (see our "ornaments and symbols" section
of the museum). The total useful area of a Trypillia house
was from 60 up to 300 sq. meters. It is known that Trypillians
had also a special structures, which were used as public buildings
and temples.
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