House Structure

Here's a cutaway that shows the structure of the house. To my eyes, it looked like beams criss-crossing every which way, but Mike made a little more sense of it than I did. :) The wooden slats on the outside of the roof were mainly used for "sewing" 18-inch thick grass mats to the roof. They really did "sew" them on, using rope and fist-thick needles four feet long.

Another interesting thing about these houses is that the floors were not solid above the ground level. There were spaces between the floorboards that allowed the smoke from the ground level to rise to the roof peak, where it collected. You'll notice that there are no chimneys.