The art of the Neolithic reproduce clay house models, beside oven models and figurines, which provide information about the real dwellings used. The small scale models are important because gave us important clues regarding the vital elements of Neolithic real spaces. The house models are present in high percentage most in the Middle Neolithic of Greece and beyond in all Balkan areas till to the Central Europe.

Some authors believe them to be altars or temple models, used in ritual ceremonies. Some scholars came with the hypothesis that in some of them were warehoused the grain seeds for the next year. Other believes that were used as toys.

The size is different, and we have models with or without roof. The models without roof were made specially to observe the interior. Some of them comprise a lot of miniatures as furniture or figurines. Some of the miniatures could be observed in other contexts too, as in pots.

Whatever used was, the information provided for us are huge as architectural ones and either as social representation of society and the internal organisation of private and public spaces. The archaeological excavations were confirmed by model houses.

Thus, a typical scene of a Neolithic house is the floor built of a thick layer of compacted clay on which we find other objects made of it: bed platforms and benches; ovens and fireplaces and lids and different ornaments. Most important, in some of them we have represented the roof. In archaeological excavation, usually, the roof is harder to recover. Windows, doors and chimneys could be seen.

Literature:

A Social Archaeology of Households in Neolithic Greece: An Anthropological Approach, Stella G. Souvatzi, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Fragmentation in archaeology: people, places, and broken objects in the prehistory of south-eastern Europe, John Chapman,  Routledge, 2000

Prehistoric figurines: representation and corporeality in the Neolithic, Douglass Whitfield Bailey, Routledge, 2005

http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/gumelnita/foto/1/7/index.htm