Brush hut
Cabaña de ramas y matorral (choza)
- Date
- c. 23 ka · confidence high
- Place
- Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, Israel
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens (Kebaran)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Six oval huts of tamarisk and oak branches with grass floors and outdoor hearths, preserved by flooding. The earliest dwellings with a documented floor plan and furnishings.
Terra Amata (Nice, c. 380 ka) was proposed as the oldest hut, but its interpretation is highly disputed. The hut is undoubtedly much earlier than Ohalo II; this is the best-preserved example.
What it led to
- A base camp with domestic life differentiated by space
- Incipient settlement around aquatic resources
- A village model anticipating the Natufian settlements
Built on
- Structured central hearth and domestic spacec. 300 ka
- Cordage (twisted fibre string)c. 50 ka
- Ground-edge axec. 47 ka
- Structured central hearth and domestic space
- Cordage (twisted fibre string)
Made possible
- Storage pitsc. 27 ka
- Mammoth-bone dwellingc. 17 ka
- Dog domesticationc. 14.5 ka
- Mammoth-bone dwelling
- Storage pits