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Why nobody's sure what furniture was in a roundhouse (ad-free) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-03-10 06:30:01
Imported:
2026-03
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Helen and Martyn are back with another questions episode and for Time Team member it's ad-free. Archaeologist Helen Geake is answering the queries you've been sending in on Patreon. They include the furniture you might find in a roundhouse, why the Iron Age didn't come before the Bronze Age and what Time Team archaeologist do when they're not filming episodes of the show.

There's also Helen's Find, which looks at an interesting object from the past. You can see Spong Man here:https://www.museumscollections.norfolk.gov.uk/collections-object-page?id=NWHCM%20:%201994.192.1

Comments

Mike Darby

Can you check the link please, as Norfolk Museum doesn't recognise it, and searching the Museum website for Spong Man, offers no links??

JanD

Always a fascinating listen. Thank you for your knowledge and joyful personalities!

Michael Taylor

The Welsh word for table, bwrdd, has cognates in the garlic languages, and is assumed to be protoceltic, ie, approximately iron age. Means table now, also carries ideas of welcome and food

Michael Taylor

The age conversation was interesting. From memory, some parts of the world had a copper age between neolithic and BA

Jane

Re. Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. Some modern knives are made from partially stabilised zirconia which is a ceramic, i.e. artificial stone. These knives can be extremely sharp and durable. So are we returning to a New Stone Age?

Brian Fisher

Around 45 years ago I had the good fortune to be part of a village development project in Maharashtra, India. Their word for table was pronounced tablé. Since it was a loan word, I suspect that they didn't have that kind of furniture until the Europeans arrived, and in the villages, there weren't any tables or chairs in most of the homes. Often, if seats were present, they were less than four inches off the floor. I found another example of simplicity at the St Fagan's National Museum of History in a 700-year-old farm house, which had three rooms consisting of a stable, kitchen and bedroom. The only furniture was a couple of benches in the kitchen along with a wooden chest containing plates and cooking pots. The fire-place was in the centre of the room, but there was no chimney, so the smoke rose through the planks of the ceiling and crept out below the thatched eves I guess. The bedroom had no bed, so I suppose that the residents just slept on the rush covered floor. In the winter they used a ladder to sleep in the attic above the stable to take advantage of the heat rising from their animals. Tables and chairs may only be a few thousand years old and even today there are many places that still do not use them.

David Edmondson

Top typo, the curse of autocorrect no doubt.

David Edmondson

Your description of Spong Man made me think of the Lewis Chessmen, as there are a few gloomy ones with a hand to face. Now I've been able to see the figure it's quite a different style and a few hundred years earlier than the Lewis pieces.

Wessex-Wyvern

I had that problem this morning, but it's working for me this evening. Must have been a temporary glitch in the web site.

Kathy Carlson

What a brilliant episode. I could write forever here, but I'll limit myself to the knitting/weaving question. I used to teach knitting and weaving at the university level. When I found the following book, I knew that I had answers to so many of my students' questions. You may not be able to access this in the UK. https://archive.org/details/womensworkfirst20000barb The title of the book is Women's Work, the first 20, 000 years. It is fascinating on every lever. And I'm with you--knitting is so portable, but weaving is not.

Robert Boudreau

I've felt that the Bronze Age came as a continuation of the Copper Age. Think the copper knife of the Amesbury Archer, or Ötzi the Iceman's copper axe. As Helen said, it's likely someone threw a chunk of copper ore in a fire and was surprised to see the melted result. As time went on people tried other ores, those they could melt they tried combining, leading eventually to bronze. It's probable they tried iron ore early on, but couldn't (or just didn't) reach the required temperature back then.

Fushigi

"Bords" is a modern Norwegian word for "Table", at least in the sense or a meal laid out. The Norwegian table prayer I memorized as a child taught me that much. "I Jesu navn går vi til bords" "In Jesus Name we come to table"

Michael Taylor

Amazing 🤣 gaulish was one word I was looking for🤣🧄🧄🧄

Jaye Arnest

I 2nd the book as an excellent read. And some weaving is more portable! Backstrap weaving is quite easy to roll up and move with you. You might not be able to do it while walking, but you certainly can spin your yarn on a spindle while on the move. You can still find amazing examples of this in the Andes

Kathy Carlson

Yes! And in Sweden (and the rest of Scandinavia), women (some of them just kids) would weave as they tended the sheep, using a kind of backstrap loom with the warp held by a kind of bow arrangement. I've seen paintings of this--but of course, that happened much later.

Rosemarie Gant

The furniture question made me think about Skara Brae and the stone ‘furniture’ that was found there. Is it not possible that if they were making shelves or ‘cup-boards’ there in stone, people were doing the same thing down here in the south but just in wood that hasn’t lasted?

Tina Kreißler

Good evening from Germany where there seem to be very old pieces of furniture. The German word "Tafel" is used for two different things nowadays: A festive table with luxurious food and tableware or the blackboard at school.

Felicity Fields

I agree - Helen would be a fantastic audio book reader!

Mary Lu

A very interesting podcast. You do such a great job with these podcasts, and I look forward to them. I have learned so much from Time Team, and it has become a way for me to vicariously enjoy the work of being an archaeologist. Thanks so much to all of you, and to Martyn and Helen who are wonderful!

Linda

I have to ask, Helen please tell us about the, I assume, painting on your wall. 7 or 8 heads. My eye keeps going to it wanting to know what, who, etc.

Alana Tolstad

I love these, now that I can get used to listening!

Debbie Gerlock

Spong Man is interesting for what’s around the wrists and the holes where the ears are yet there are none for mouth, nose, and eyes. Curious. It’s definitely made by someone who wasn’t a craftsperson. Also wonder if the hat is supposed to be a halo?

Andy Quick

Thank you for the podcast. Thanks for the interesting comments about prehistoric furniture. One could also study First Nations peoples in Canada, who built various structures from the materials available. In my area, there were longhouses, built of logs, with bunk beds and benches around a hearth. There were also work benches/tables for preparing food and making clothing and other items.

Anja Adam

The face of this figure reminds me a little of the stone Time Team found when you were excavating the Roman temples. I don't remember exactly when and where that was, but the stone looked a bit like a face or skull.

Robert Ernest Arthur Harvey

Ambiguities abound. I saw the line about not knowing what furniture is in a roundhouse, and thought "that's easy".. wooden workbenches, probably with an eight inch vice on each, arranged around the perimeter wall, below a glazed window for natural light. Probably one for every two tracks. Portable steps for accessing the locomotives. Racks between the windows for tools, spare parts, and consumables. Stools, probably height adjustable. Portable lights, racks for shovels and barrows. That sort of stuff......

Dennis D Kerkman

Some cultures really don't do chairs, even today. Pillows and bundles of fur are the rule in many places. For trippie chair artefacts, google "kafiristan chairs". Shades of Kipling's "The Man Who Would be King"