A burdei or bordei ( ro, bordei, uk, бурдей) is a type of
pit-house or half-
dugout shelter, somewhat between a
sod house and a
log cabin. This style is native to the
Carpathian Mountains and
forest steppe
A forest steppe is a temperate-climate ecotone and habitat type composed of grassland interspersed with areas of woodland or forest.
Locations
Forest steppe primarily occurs in a belt of forest steppes across northern Eurasia from the eastern ...
s of
Eastern Europe.
History
Neolithic
In the
Cucuteni-Trypillian culture burdei houses were characterized by elliptical shapes. These houses would typically have a wooden floor that was about 1.5 meters (5 feet) below ground, which would place the roof at just above ground level.
Early middle ages
The term used by western historians, for burdei-type housing on the Lower Danube and in the Carpathians during the 6th–7th centuries AD, is ''
Grubenhaus''. ''
Poluzemlianki'' is used by Russian researchers. The Russian term refers to a structure partially dug into the ground, often less than 1 m deep.
The ''Grubenhaus'' was erected over a rectangular pit, ranging in size from four square meters to twenty-five square meters of floor area. During the 6th and 7th centuries the sunken buildings east and south of the Carpathians, were under 15 square meters in floor surface.
[Florin Curta The Making of Slavs p. 282]
The experiments of the Archeological Open-Air Museum in Březno near Louny have reconstructed the living and temperature conditions in the dug houses.
The building experiment consisted of two houses, which were exact replicas of two sunken buildings excavated on the site, one of the late sixth or early seventh century, the other of the ninth. The sixth- to seventh-century feature was relatively large (4.20 x 4.60 m) and deep (80 cm under the original ground). The excavation of the rectangular pit represented some fifteen cubic meters of earth. The excavation, as well as other, more complex, operations, such as binding horizontal sticks on the truss or felling and transport of trees, required a minimum of two persons. The building of the house took 860 hours, which included the felling of trees for rafters and the overall preparation of the wood. Building the actual house required 2.2 cubic meters of wood (ash, oak, and beech). In itself, the superstructure swallowed two cubic meters of wood. Three to four cubic meters of clay were necessary for daubing the walls and reeds harvested from some 1,000 square meters, for the covering of the superstructure. Assuming sixty to seventy working hours per week and a lot more experience and skills for the early medieval builders, the house may have been built in three to four weeks.59 -Florin Curta.
Eastern Europe
In countries like
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
or
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, the burdei was built to constitute a permanent housing place and could accommodate a whole family. Thus, a burdei could have multiple rooms, typically a fire-room where the stove was installed, a cellar, and a living room.
North America
This type of shelter was created by many of the earliest
Ukrainian Canadian
Ukrainian Canadians ( uk, Українські канадці, Україноканадці, translit=Ukrayins'ki kanadtsi, Ukrayinokanadtsi; french: Canadiens d'origine ukrainienne) are Canadian citizens of Ukrainian descent or Ukrainian-born p ...
settlers as their first home in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
at the end of the 19th century. The first step was to peel back and save the sod, then excavate the earth to a depth of approximately a metre. A
poplar roof frame was then created, over which the saved sod would be laid. Then a window, a door, a wood stove, and a bed platform would be installed. A typical burdei measured no more than two by four metres. The burdei was a temporary refuge until a "proper" home of poplar logs and mud/straw plaster could be built.
Mennonites from
Imperial Russia settled in the
Hillsboro region of Kansas, and also built burdei housings as temporary shelters. This type of shelter was also called a ''
zemlyanka
Zemlyanka (Russian, Belarusian, uk, землянка. cz, zemljanka, pl, ziemianka, sk, zemľanka) is a North Slavic name for a dugout or ''earth-house'' which was used to provide shelter for humans or domestic animals as well as for food sto ...
'' or a ''saraj'' (a
Low German spelling for a Russian word meaning "shed"). The March 20, 1875, issue of the national weekly newspaper ''Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper'' described the structures:
See also
*
ASTRA National Museum Complex
*
Culture of Romania
*
Cucuteni-Trypillian culture
*
Dugout (shelter)
A dugout or dug-out, also known as a pit-house or earth lodge, is a shelter for humans or domesticated animals and livestock based on a hole or depression dug into the ground. Dugouts can be fully recessed into the earth, with a flat roof cover ...
*
Earth sheltering
An earth shelter, also called an earth house, earth bermed house, or underground house, is a structure (usually a house) with earth (soil) against the walls, on the roof, or that is entirely buried underground.
Earth acts as thermal mass, making ...
*
Pit-house
*
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village
The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village ( uk, Село спадщини української культури, Selo spadshchyny ukrains’koi kul’tury) is an open-air museum that uses costumed historical interpreters to recreate pioneer set ...
*
Vernacular architecture of the Carpathians
*
Village Museum
*
Vernacular architecture
Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...
*
Zemlyanka
Zemlyanka (Russian, Belarusian, uk, землянка. cz, zemljanka, pl, ziemianka, sk, zemľanka) is a North Slavic name for a dugout or ''earth-house'' which was used to provide shelter for humans or domestic animals as well as for food sto ...
Notes
External links
Shelter from the RainArticle and pictures of Ukrainian burdeis in Canada.
{{Prehistoric technology
House types
Huts
Canadian architectural styles
Housing in Canada
Ukrainian-Canadian culture
Architecture in Ukraine
Architecture in Romania
Mennonitism
Semi-subterranean structures
Vernacular architecture