Pit-house

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A pit-house, sunken floored building or sunken feature building is a dwelling where the floor level lies below the level of the natural ground outside.

In archaeology, pit-houses are found in numerous cultures around the world such as the Fremont culture in North America, the Grubenhausen of northern Europe, and the Mumun Pottery Period of the Korean Peninsula.

Usually, all that remains of the pit-house is a dug out hollow in the ground and any postholes used to support the roof. In the nineteenth century, it was formally considered that most prehistoric peoples lived in pit-houses although it has since been proved that many of the features thought of as houses were in fact food storage pits or served another purpose.

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