Scientists have been digging up preserved animals and ancient objects of the weirdest kinds and telling us how people from so many cultures ago survived. From dog mummies to bird-like dinosaurs to milk-based paint, anything can show up from under the earth where they were buried deeper over time.
Archaeologists unearthed another weird addition to the bunch - an entire house.
Researchers from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Sheffield uncovered the remains of a 4,000-year-old home in Lorain County, Ohio.
The researchers have not yet revealed the exact location of the site. The museum's curator for archaeology Dr. Brian Redmond even said that he plans to cover the remains with plastic and dirt to avoid vandals and illegal excavations as well as to preserve the site for future studies.
Redmond's team had gone out to Lorain County to study a former farmland that has long been incorporated into the county's Metroparks system. Here, the discovery of an ancient home from four millennia ago was made.
Studying the remains, the researchers found that the floor of the house, which was most likely cushioned by reeds made of cattail, is about three inches thick and is made of clay from local sources. The family that resided in the unearthed home also had storage areas and basins that were most likely used for cooking and storing sources of food that could be kept over longer periods of time.
Foundations of the house were evidenced by post holes that could have anchored hickory saplings. Redmond also added that the hickory saplings would have been lashed together forming a canopy that served as a roof over the heads of the house dwellers.
Redmond said that the house would have been built for standards of the Late Archaic period, and its builders would have intended to put up a home that would be both comfortable and long-lasting.
The team, however, doesn't really know much about the language that the people who lived there spoke, much less what tribe they were or what they called themselves.
Cleveland.com archaeologists on one hand, speculate that the once inhabitants of the house were likely to spend time in the structuring fall or winter. Then they would migrate back to where they originated in the southeast.
The researchers also dug up deer remains which would have been the main food source for hunters at the time. The dwellers would have also eaten fish, muskrats and squirrels.
2,000 years before the culture of mound-building and pottery flourished, people lived in the region for about 200 to 300 years, according to Redmond.
Redmond said further digging will be done, for his team to learn everything else that needs to be learned.
