Post in ground

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Wikipedia

An earthfast shelter. The posts are buried in the ground so no bracing is necessary.
Some researchers consider sills placed on the ground, rather than on a foundation, to fall under the type earthfast construction. Fishing house without a chimney, circa 1750. The Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia

A post in ground construction, also called earthfast[1] or hole-set posts, is a type of construction in which vertical, roof-bearing timbers, called posts, are in direct contact with the ground. They may be placed into excavated postholes,[2] driven into the ground, or on sills which are set on the ground without a foundation. Earthfast construction is common from the Neolithic period to the present and is used worldwide. Post-in-the-ground construction is sometimes called an "impermanent" form, used for houses which are expected to last a decade or two before a better quality structure can be built.[3]

Post in ground construction can also include sill on grade, wood-lined cellars, and pit houses. Most pre-historic and medieval wooden dwellings worldwide were built post in ground.

History

This type of construction is often believed [by whom?] to be an intermediate form between a palisade construction and a stave construction. Because the postholes are easily detected in archaeological surveys, they can be distinguished from the other two.

The Japanese also used a type of earthfast construction until the eighteenth century, which they call Hottate-bashira (literally "embedded pillars").[4]

The Dogon people in Africa use post in ground construction for their toguna, community gathering places typically located in the center of villages for official and informal meetings.

Poteaux-en-terre

In the historical region of New France in North America, poteaux-en-terre was a historic style of earthfast timber framing. This method is similar to poteaux-sur-sol, but the boulin (hewn posts) are planted in the ground rather than landing on a sill plate. The spaces between the boulin are filled with bousillage (reinforced mud) or pierrotage (stones and mud). One extant example of post in ground construction is the Bequtte-Ribault House in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. There is also archeological evidence of similar houses in St. Louis near the original boat landing.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0). Oxford University Press, 2009
  2. ↑ "Home". stavkirke.org.
  3. ↑ Carson, Cary, Norman F. Barka, William M. Kelso, Garry Wheller Stone, and Dell Upton. "Impermanent Architecture in the Southern American Colonies." Material Life in America, 1600-1860, edited by Robert Blair St. George, 113-158. Boston: Northern University Press, 1988.
  4. ↑ Gina Lee Barnes. Yamato: archaeology of the first Japanese state. googlebooks?id=S-sDAQAAIAAJ
  5. ↑ Ekberg, Carl J.; Person, Sandra K. (2015). St. Louis Rising: The French Regime of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive. University of Illinois Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-252-03897-6. Retrieved December 27, 2025.