water

The prehistoric canoes that have been found in the Netherlands are dug-out canoes. They were made of hollowed-out trees. In te forest a suitable tree was selected and probably on the spot shortened, debarked and hollowed out...

Roman baths were still used and maintained in some places at the beginning of the early Middle ages. In monasteries there were sometimes baths too...

Because of the rising water table of Lake Biskupin the inhabitants abandoned the settlement.

The Romans didn’t use soap: they cleaned themselves with olive oil and some sand to remove dead skin cells. Soap supposedly is a Gallic or Germanic invention...

Āraiši lake fortress was attacked and destroyed in the late 10th century, and was never rebuilt. When the foundations settled and the water level in the lake rose, the building remains and artefacts ended up underwater, and in these anaerobic conditions they were preserved up to the present day...

There were sleeping places and benches along the walls. Sometimes, in one corner of the room, the in- built structure from horizontal logs was made, where house hold items of bigger size and tools were stored...

Every dwelling house with its auxiliary structures was an independent economic unit. Each house would have been the home of one nuclear family, consisting of parents, children and grandparents...

The 9th century lake fortress consisted of 16 houses, with a habitable area of 10–30 m2. The houses were built of horizontal logs, with gently-sloping roofs, made of spruce or birch bark, as well as turf, and served at the same time as the ceiling...

Āraiši lake fortress was built on a low, frequently inundated islet in the lake, connected to the shore by means of an 80-metre-long natural bank of glacial till. In the 9th century, when the lake fortress was built, the water level in Lake Āraiši was...