Honey fetch me a cool beer from the fridge! Comfortable living in Iron Age Wales

Roundhouse reconstructions are traditionally minimalistic, especially where their construction and furnishing is concerned: they have trampled dirt floors, the huge roof space remains unused, and there are only a few and mostly shabbily constructed furnishings. Even the most basic roundhouses attested in the ethnographic record – often pauper’s dwellings – tend to be at least as, if not much more fancy than that. Comparing the results from our excavations at Meillionydd with evidence recently collected by Harold Mytum during his excavations of ‘his’ roundhouse reconstructions during their rebuilding at Castell Henllys, it is demonstrated that the archaeological record of Iron Age roundhouse differs considerably from that created by these modern ‘minimalistic’ reconstructions. Comfortable Iron Age living in Wales may well have been much more comparable to modern ‘glamping’ (glamorous camping holidays) experiences than to the comfort offered by ‘scientific’ reconstructions.