MULTIPLICITY OF FUNCTION
The examples of prehistoric, protohistoric, and early medieval
timber houses reviewed on the preceding pages prove
the existence of a tradition of aisled houses in the Germanic
territories of transalpine Europe whose functional organization
bears a striking resemblance to that of the guest and
service buildings of the Plan of St. Gall. The most conspicuous
trait of this house is its multiplicity of functions.
It is a structure which, by simple shifts of assignment, may
be used exclusively for the accommodation of human beings,
as quarters for humans and animals combined, or simply
as storage space for the harvest. It is a house that can carry
out all these functions simultaneously, alternatingly, or
interchangeably—without sustaining the slightest basic
modification. Van Giffen's excavation of the Iron Age Warf
of Ezinge has shown that this multi-purpose function was
already clearly established by the third century B.C. in the
cluster settlement of layer V (figs. 295-297) of this important
site.
