ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

200Anca Ceauşescuspecially, the modifications made on the project of the rooms. Nevertheless, inthe ensemble of the essential elements, the house constitutes an importantidentity in the entire Romanian space.The archeological evidences, the writings of the foreign travelers, thedocuments but also the field testimonies lead us to a complete image about theevolution of the traditional rustic house about the used raw materials, thebuilding techniques and about the organizing of the interior space. Within theframework of the studied settlements, the dwelling places were presented underthe form of the pit houses or above the ground houses, with a rectangular shape.Arranged as a shelter against the bad weather and as a space were thefamily life was carried on, the house has a multilateral past, originating from theEarly Neolithic. I. Simionescu, studying the rural houses in Romania, said thatthey were first temporary shelters and that “the simplest were made from barkcovers, laid on few poles; in the lakes area, the bark was replaced with reed. Betterbuild are the shelters from the steppe sheepfolds, cone-shaped, with the fireplacedug in the ground, similar with the cone-shaped reed cabins from the lake’s area” 4 .In time, they evaluated, were improved, once with the impulse of the populationregarding the shelter and the development of the domestic activities.Within its evolution, the house always depended on the environmentconditions, historical, social and economic condition of one area. Thegeographical elements (the geological structure, the relief, the clime, thehydrography, the soil, the vegetation, the natural resources) could be considereddefining elements of the complex house – household or, as I. Simionescu said,“are suitable for this type of houses” 5 . In the same time, the house is directlyconnected with the continuity of our nation, as a sedentary one, in these regionsand with its occupations (the cultivation of plants, the growth of animals, thefishing, the trades). Regarding this idea, Romulus Vuia said that “The houserepresents the housing where the generations are born, live and die, the peoplefrom which emerges the millenary life of a nation. It represented the shelter andthe permanent testimony of the familial and economic life of the rural people: itconstitutes […] the most significant chapter that regards the researches of ourpopular civilization” 6 .The archaeological discoveries and the evidences from the differentwritten sources show us that, starting from immemorial times and until thesecond half of the 19 th century, more than 86% of our population lived in thecountryside, in small settlements or even in hamlets made by few families.Within these settlements, the house’s position depended on the relief and theywere placed in the most adequate places, where the dwellers dispose of building4 I. Simionescu, Ţara noastră, oamnei, locuri, lucruri, Bucureşti, 1927, p. 28.5 I. Simionescu, Tipuri de case din Vechiul Regat, Iaşi, The Scientific Magazine “V.Adamachi”, 1922, p. 14.6 Romulus Vuia, Satul românesc din Transilvaia şi Banat, in “Studii de etnografie şifolclor”, Bucureşti, Minerva Publishing House, 1979, p. 158.