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32-507: There are several bridges across the river in Pyongyang, including one at its mouth called the "Pothong Bridge"; however, the largest is the one known as "Ansan Bridge", 39°02′02″N 125°42′15″E  /  39.03389°N 125.70417°E  / 39.03389; 125.70417 , which supports the main east–west divided highway. Prior to 1946, the arable land west of Pyongyang alongside the river (the flood plain), down to where it entered

64-508: A pantry , a larder , or a root cellar ) and for cultural activities like the telling of stories, dancing, singing and celebrations. General dictionaries also describe a pit-house as a dugout , and it has similarities to a half-dugout. In archaeology , a pit-house is frequently called a sunken-featured building and occasionally ( grub- ) hut or grubhouse , after the German name Grubenhaus . They are found in numerous cultures around

96-611: A siege . Various American Indian tribes used hides in the construction of tepees and wigwams , moccasins , and buckskins . They were sometimes used as window coverings. Until the invention of plastic drum heads in the 1950s, animal hides or metal was used. Parchment and vellum —a kind of paper made from processed skins—was introduced to the Eastern Mediterranean during the Iron Age , supposedly at Pergamon . The Assize of Weights and Measures —one of

128-802: A fireplace. In most settlements there have been no features of buildings at ground level. There are reconstructions of pit-houses in several open-air museums, e.g. in the Hitzacker Archaeological Centre , the Kalkriese Museum and Park, the Oerlinghausen Archaeological Open Air Museum, and the Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave . To compare with the Swedish Backstuga that were very poor peoples homes until

160-531: A hill on the left (east) bank of the river, the government erected a monument for the "Pothong River Improvement Project", 39°02′38″N 125°42′34″E  /  39.04389°N 125.70944°E  / 39.04389; 125.70944 . It commemorates Kim Il Sung 's 1945 visit to Tosongrang and the 1946 channelization. In 1976 the North Korean postal service (DPRK) issued a stamp commemorating Kim Il Sung's 1945 visit to Tosongrang . In 1998, they issued

192-491: A stamp souvenir sheet showing Kim Il Sung breaking ground for the construction of the channelization project. 37°00′07″N 125°41′54″E  /  37.00194°N 125.69833°E  / 37.00194; 125.69833 Pit-house A pit-house (or pit house , pithouse ) is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions , this type of earth shelter may also be used to store food (just like

224-523: A suspended floor) was removed. Grubenhäuser are often understood to have been domestic dwellings. However, their use may have varied, especially on a regional basis. In Western Europe their small size and the fact that they can be found near other buildings and associated finds of loom weights has led to theories that they had a specialised purpose such as for weaving sheds. In the Slavonic regions of Eastern Europe, Grubenhäuser are larger and often have

256-928: Is also used in cars , upholstery , interior decorating , horse tack and harnesses . Skins are sometimes still gathered from hunting and processed at a domestic or artisanal level but most leather making is now industrialized and large-scale. Various tannins are used for this purpose. Hides are also used as processed chews for dogs or other pets. The term "skin" is sometimes expanded to include furs , which are harvested from various species, including cats , mustelids , and bears . Archaeologists believe that animal hides provided an important source of clothing and shelter for all prehistoric humans and their use continued among non-agricultural societies into modern times. The Inuit , for example, used animal hides for summer tents , waterproof clothes, and kayaks . In early medieval ages hides were used to protect wooden castles and defense buildings from setting alight during

288-546: Is an animal skin treated for human use. The word "hide" is related to the German word Haut , which means skin . The industry defines hides as "skins" of large animals e.g . cow, buffalo; while skins refer to "skins" of smaller animals: goat , sheep , deer , pig , fish , alligator , snake , etc. Common commercial hides include leather from cattle and other livestock animals, buckskin , alligator skin and snake skin . All are used for shoes , clothes , leather bags, belts, or other fashion accessories . Leather

320-421: Is now often synthetic. "Hides" is used as a slang term to refer to a drumset. Kangaroo leather is the most common material for the construction of bullwhips . Stingray rawhide is a common material for the grips of Chinese , Japanese , and Scottish swords . Pig skins are processed as pork rinds . Rabbit fur is popular for hats, coats, and glove linings. Animal rights activists generally protest

352-534: The Ethnographic Atlas . Other cultural patterns were common, but not universal across the sample. These commonalities include: cold season of occupation, low population estimates, and simple political and economic systems. The ethnographic sample is based almost entirely on case studies from societies located in northern latitudes. The period of pit structure occupation is generally during the cold season, probably due to their thermal efficiency . Dug into

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384-581: The Upper Paleolithic age, the houses were made of mammoth bones. The base is circular or oval in shape, 12 to 14 feet (3.7 to 4.3 metres) in diameter, with limb bones used for walls and lighter, flat bones used for the roof. Presumably, animal hide was stretched around the exterior for insulation. Each dwelling had a hearth . Groups of houses were arranged around a base camp layout, occupied by families or relatives for weeks or months. Pit-houses were built in many parts of northern Europe between

416-477: The pandeiro , continue to be made using natural skins. The alligator drum was formerly important in Chinese music . The Chinese sanxian and Okinawan sanshin are usually prepared from snakeskin , while their Japanese equivalent, the shamisen , is made from dogskin in the case of students and catskin in the case of professional players. The African-American banjo was originally made from skins but

448-483: The statutes of uncertain date from c.  1300 —mentions rawhide , gloves , parchment , and vellum among the principal items of England 's commerce. A standardized shipload of leather (a last ) consisted of 20 dicker of 10 cowhides. Rabbit and squirrel skins were traded and taxed in timbers of 40 hides each. Skins were also traded in binds of 32 or 33 skins each, while gloves were sold in dickers of 10 pair and dozens of 12 pair. The parchment and vellum

480-594: The 1950s onwards at West Stow in the United Kingdom are 3.7m-4.44m long x 2.72m-3.5m wide x 0.58m-0.97m deep. Within this pit were placed two (but sometimes 0, 4, or 6) substantial wooden posts in postholes at either end of the long axis. Some archaeologists have suggested that a suspended wooden floor lay over the pit and that the cavity beneath was used for storage or to control dampness, although others have disputed this, suggesting that grubenhäuser did not have suspended floors at all. A gabled roof supported by

512-414: The 5th and 12th centuries AD. In Germany they are known as Grubenhäuser , and in the United Kingdom, they are also known as grubhuts, grubhouses or sunken featured buildings. Archaeological evidence indicates they were built in a shallow sub-rectangular pit and vary in depth (often relating to the preservation of the site). Some may measure 0.25m by around 2m by 1.5m, whilst examples from excavations from

544-508: The 862 societies in the sample occupy pit structures as either their primary or secondary dwellings. All but six of the 82 societies live above 32° north latitude, and four of the six cases in this sample that are below 32° north latitude are from "high mountain" regions in east Africa, Paraguay, and eastern Brazil. The last example is from the Yami who occupied a small island south of Taiwan. Three conditions were always present among groups in

576-486: The Taedong River was subject to annual flooding. This area was known as Tosongrang . The farmers there annually rebuilt their homes after the floods subsided, so the construction was, perforce, of a temporary nature, huts and even pit-houses . In 1946 the river was channelized through Tosongrang as the "Pothong River Improvement Project". Tosongrang is now part of Pyongyang. In 1971, in a park on Mount Bonghwa,

608-511: The ancient pit-house is a dug-out hollow in the ground and any postholes used to support the roof. In the nineteenth century, it was believed that most prehistoric peoples lived in pit-houses, although it has since been proved that many of the features thought of as houses were in fact food prehistoric storage pits or served another purpose. The oldest pit dwellings were discovered in Mezhyrich , Central Ukraine . Dating back 15,000 years to

640-470: The arrival of trading posts . Often these houses were located along major rivers and tributaries like the Columbia and Fraser . The houses could vary in shape but were typically round, with wooden frames roofed over with thatch and earth, and ranged in size from a few to greater than twenty meters. A common design featured a central hole in the roof that provided ladder access and ventilation, including for

672-569: The ground, pit structures take advantage to the insulating properties of soil, as well as having a low profile, protecting them from exposure to wind-induced heat loss. Since less heat is lost by transmission than is in above ground structures, less energy is required to maintain stable temperatures inside the structure. Out of the 82 ethnographic cases in the Ethnographic Atlas , 50 societies had population estimates. Of these, 64% had fewer than 100 people per settlement. In only 6% of cases were there more than 400 persons per settlement. The cases with

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704-753: The highest population densities were the Arikara and Hidatsa of the North American Great Plains and the Konso of Ethiopia. Gilman attributes high population densities among the Arikara to the availability of buffalo. Pit structure occupations are generally associated with simple political and economic systems. For 86% of the sample, class stratification or social distinctions based on non-hereditary wealth were reported as absent. However, some pit-dwelling societies are characterized by chiefdom level complexity. In terms of economic organization, 77% of

736-629: The initial exploration of North America , particularly in Canada , and even prompted wars among native tribes competing for the most productive areas. Natural leather continues to be used for many expensive products from limousine upholstery to designer cellular phone cases. There are, however, many forms of artificial leather and fur now available, which are usually cheaper alternatives. Animal hides and skins are usually processed fresh or salted and tanned. Skins sometimes are stretched, dried, and tanned. Most hides are processed from domesticated animals;

768-432: The middle of the 20th century. Throughout the inland Pacific Northwest , indigenous people were nomadic during the summer and gathered resources at different spots according to the season and tradition, but overwintered in permanent semi-subterranean pit houses at lower elevations. The winter was often the only time families saw others—even if they were from the same village and tribe—and congregated in any numbers before

800-468: The most common wild animals used for fur — mink and rabbit —are similarly raised in captivity and farmed. Some others—including lynx and wolves —are still trapped in the wild for their fur. Currently, hides are mainly used for footwear , upholstery , leather goods; skins are used for clothing , particularly as coats , gloves , leather goods and footwear . It is also used for bookbinding . Many traditional drums , especially hand drums like

832-678: The sample from the Ethnographic Atlas , this may be through either hunting and gathering or agricultural activity. Many different prehistoric groups used pit houses. Although generally associated with the American southwest cultures, such as Fremont, Pueblo, Hohokam, and Mogollon, pit houses were used by a wide variety of people in a wide variety of places over the past 12,000 years. Large pit house formations have been excavated in British Columbia, Canada, such as at Keatley Creek Archaeological Site . Hide (skin) A hide or skin

864-482: The sample: 1) non-tropical climate during the season of pit structure habitation; 2) minimally a biseasonal settlement pattern; 3) reliance on stored food during the period of pit structure occupation. These conditions may be related to other factors of society and the presence of any or all of these three elements in society does not pre-condition occupation of pit structures. Nonetheless, these three conditions were present in all cases of pit structure occupation present in

896-609: The smoke of an interior fire. In the northwestern Great Plains and the Plateau region located nearby, climate changes and extreme temperature and weather conditions made it difficult to live year-round. Hot summers led to the building of simple tent-like structures that were portable and could be packed up to move. For cold winter months, pit-houses provided the warm, protected shelter necessary for survival. A cross-cultural middle range model of pit-house architecture using George Murdock 's 1967 Ethnographic Atlas found that 82 of

928-407: The societies who occupy pit structures had a hunting and gathering economy. This is a large fraction of the sample, but is not considered a universally consistent feature like biseasonal settlement and a reliance on stored foods during pit structure occupation. During the part of the year when people are not living in pit structures, activities should be focused on acquiring foods to store. Based on

960-399: The timber posts covered the hut, which likely had no windows and had a single entrance at one end. Excavations at West Stow in the 1970s found preserved evidence of charred planks, suggestive of suspended floors. Hearths were also found, which sat partially over the edge of the sunken pits and appeared to have collapsed downwards when the structure supporting their overhanging sections (possibly

992-1045: The world, including the people of the Southwestern United States , the ancestral Pueblo , the ancient Fremont and Mogollon cultures, the Cherokee , the Inuit , the people of the Plateau, and archaic residents of Wyoming (Smith 2003) in North America; Archaic residents of the Lake Titicaca Basin (Craig 2005) in South America; Anglo-Saxons in Europe; and the Jōmon people in Japan. Some Anglo-Saxon pit-houses may have not been dwellings, but served other purposes. Usually, all that remains of

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1024-415: Was traded based on dozens of the original sheepskins from which they were prepared. Rare furs have been a notable status symbol throughout history. Ermine fur was particularly associated with European nobility, with the black-tipped tails arranged around the edges of the robes to produce a pattern of black diamonds on a white field. Demand for beaver hats in the 17th and 18th century drove some of

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