I found it very interesting to learn about the buildings from around the 1500's. The ones built for storing food and other resources were the tallest and placed in the middle so that they could be seen from far away since at that time, Norwegians did not live in villages and people were spread out. The storage building would also have decorative wood work because it was seen as a status symbol. When building in a valley, the living quarters were made at a higher elevation than the barns so that fresh water would run down to the humans first and then to the animals rather than the other way around. I think it was very cool how their rooftops were constructed. At the bottom, there would be a layer of birch bark for its water proofing properties. A layer of sod (grass and dirt) was placed grass-side down on the bark and then another layer of sod was placed on top of that, this time facing grass-side up. The way that it worked was the grass on the bottom would decompose and become nutrients for the grass on the top. Having grass on the roof was beneficial because it absorbed the excess water that would have been detrimental to the rest of the wooden structure. Shown bellow are pictures of the wooden details of a door to a storage building, a house displaying the grass roof, and the storage building next to it.
- Jesse M.
I also found the storage house interesting in how they were so intricately decorated and were raised higher relative to the nearby buildings which made them stand out from a distance. If I recall correctly, the storage rooms would also be a sort of hang out spot for young people on the weekends with father’s approval; additional social interactions would occur during church services as well. I never really considered the population density and layout of any sort of living establishments or communities of Norwegian villages before our visit to the museum, especially when I think about an urban city like Oslo, but our tour and the exhibits provided excellent insight into how people lived.
ReplyDelete-Michael Beadle
I think it was amazing how they were able to construct their roof to help the building last longer. They were really able to utilize all of there resources back then! I also like how they used the food tower to be a “street sign” so that people would be able to see where they were located!
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