Stilt houses or
pile dwellings are houses raised on
piles over the surface of the soil or a body of water.
In the
Neolithic and
Bronze Age, stilt houses were common in the
Alpine and
Pianura Padana (
Terramare) region. Remains have been found at the
Mondsee and
Attersee lakes in
Upper Austria, for example. Early
archaeologists like
Ferdinand Keller thought they formed artificial islands, much like the Scottish
Crannogs, but today it is clear that the majority of settlements were located on the shores of lakes and were only inundated later on. Reconstructed stilt houses are shown in
open air museums in
Unteruhldingen and
Zürich (Pfahlbauland). A single
Scandinavian pile dwelling, the
Alvastra stilt houses, has been excavated in
Sweden.
Today, stilt houses are still common in parts of
South East Asia,
Papua New Guinea and
West Africa. In the Alps, similar buildings, known as
raccards, are still in use as granaries. Stilted graneries are also a common feature in West Africa, e.g. in the Malinke language regions of Mali and Guinea.
Stilt houses are also common in the western hemisphere, and appear to have been an indigenous creation by the Amerindians in pre-Columbian times. They are especially widespread along the banks of the tropical river valleys of South America (
Palafito), notably the Amazon and Orinoco river systems. Stilt houses were such a prevalent feature along the shores of
Lake Maracaibo that Amerigo Vespucci was inspired to name the region "Venezuela" (little Venice). As the costs of hurricane damage increase more and more houses along the
Gulf Coast are being built as or converted to stilt houses.
Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding, but also serve to keep out vermin. The shady space under the house can be used for work or storage.
Types of stilt house
- Vietnamese stilt house - similar to the Thai ones, despite having a front door with a smaller height due to religious reasons.
- Palafito - Found throughout South America since Pre-Columbian times.
