Mead Hall - Precursor

Precursor

The mead hall developed from European longhouses:

• The unrelated Neolithic long house was introduced with the first farmers of central and western Europe around 5000 BC. Later longhouses did not come into use until more than a thousand years after the neolithic version ceased to be used.
• Germanic cattle-farmer longhouses emerged along the southwestern North Sea coast in the third or fourth century BC and are the predecessors of the German and Dutch Fachhallenhaus or Low German house.

The possibly related medieval longhouse types of Europe of which some examples have survived are among others:

• The Scandinavian or Viking Langhus, with the variants of traditional farm house such as excavated in Vorbasse, a garrison/barracks type for warriors such as found at the Viking ring castles and the sophisticated large banquetting halls such as the mead halls.
• The southwest England variants in Dartmoor and Wales
• The northwest England type in Cumbria
• The Scottish Longhouse, "Black house" or taighean dubha
• The French longère or maison longue (only considering the types similar to the ones described in Dartmoor or Cumbria, possibly of Norman origin)