578 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



there was not one common typical form of " German antiquity " or 

 of the " primitive Aryans," but several forms which were not marked 

 by national or ethnic characteristics, but merely presented diverse 

 forms of adaptation to the ground, the climate, the economic condi- 

 tions, etc. ; of these the Megaron type appeared very early in south- 

 ern Europe and Asia Minor; in Troy of Hissarlik as early as the 

 third century B. C, while in northern and central Europe much 

 later — ^not before the beginning of our era. More than this at pres- 

 ent can not be asserted. The connection assumed by Schuchhardt 

 and others may hold good, but it can not yet be demonstrated, and 

 we should rather search for another origin for the Megaron type 

 than north Germany or Scandinavia. 



There is no lack in other parts of the world of similarities with 

 the Megaron form of construction, which are not inferior to the house 

 of the age of the Vikings of xA^ugerum. The Mandans of North 

 America had round houses, raised upon a slight excavation, with a 

 central hearth surrounded by posts, and letting out the smoke through 

 an opening in the roof. There again the door had a horizontal pro- 

 jecting roof supported by pillars. The neighboring races of the 

 Missouri adopted this type of house. 



The opening in the roof resting on posts above the hearth is also 

 found elsewhere in North America, in the Hinterland of the North- 

 west, and even serves as an entrance into the subterranean house. 

 This is merely to show that similar forms may be met with every- 

 where under certain conditions, and no attempt is made to establish 

 any relation whatever between the Old and the New World. Accord- 

 ing to the results of excavations in Boeotia and Thessaly, the evolu- 

 tion of the habitation in northern Greece advanced from the round 

 hut to the oblong quadrangular construction through the interme- 

 diary of the oval. At Orchomenes the neolithic huts were round, 

 those of the second century, B. C., elliptic, while those of the middle 

 of the same century were rectangular. But in southern Thessaly 

 there were already in the neolithic age houses similar to the " Mega- 

 ron." ^ It is probable that the Megaron type developed spontaneously 

 in northern Greece as analogous forms did in other regions near and 

 distant. Its characteristic elements — opening in the roof and the 

 penthouse — may have already appeared in the circular form, as is 

 shown by the instance of the Mandans. 



1 The house of Mandares (according to Morgan) in W. Krickeberg, Illustrierte Volk- 

 orkunde, edited by G. Buschan, p. 34, fig. 4. Orchomenes : Bulle. Abhandlungen der 

 Bayrischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, 1907, XXIV, 

 2. Megaron of Northern Thessaly : Tsuntas, Athens, 1908. 



