The Four room house is the name given to the typical mud brick Israelite

Israelite

According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...

 house in the iron age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 Levant

Levant

The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

. It is so named because its floor plan, the only portion typically remaining in excavated archeological sites, is divided into four sections. It is also called a pillared house because three ground-level "rooms" are separated by two rows of wood pillars holding the second floor.

The house masters lived on the second floor, the ground floor being used as a manger for animals and for storage.

External links

• Archeological remnants: http://www.bibleplaces.com/beersheba.htm, http://www.bibleplaces.com/hazor.htm.