HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURES

HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURES, traditional for Bashkirs, include summer kitchen, barn, pantry, dugout shelter, bath‑house, smoke‑house, etc. The key construction materials were wood, osier, etc; the roof was covered with straw, bark, wooden lath, etc, later — with boards and iron. With the transition to sedentary lifestyle, temporary dwellings began to play the role of H.s. Open hearths with boilers and bread stoves were also built in the yard. Pantries were built to store food, household implements and horse equipment. In the north., west. and mountain‑forest (in the middle reaches of the Belaya River) areas of Bashkortostan, cellars were built to store dairy and meat products, later — to store potatoes. Canopies of poles and boards, used to store household things, were erected above the cellar. Smoke‑houses were built for manufacture of leather implements; steam rooms of semi‑dugout shelter type with a stove furnace – for manufacture of wooden implements, means of transport, etc. Part of the yard was allocated for animal‑drawn and riding transport, agricultural tools; a special place was fenced off for cattle. Poultry and pets were kept in the barns in winter; the ceiling was built from logs, boards, poles, leaving a hole for hay descent. H.s. in the north. and mountain-forest areas of Bashkortostan mostly had double‑pitch roofs; in the west. and central areas — hip roofs; in the southern areas and in Trans‑Urals — flat roofs. Summer‑type open and covered pens were fenced off in the barn. Drying barns and barnyards began to be built with the development of arable farming. Similar structures were common among Maris, Russians, Tatars, Udmurts, Chuvashes and other peoples of the Volga Region.