Tugurium
Tugurium a peasant's hut or cottage (Varro, R. R. 3.1, 3; Cic. pro Sest. 43, 93). It is probable that these dwellings in country districts long retained the primitive material for the walls of wooden planks, or sometimes wattles, stuffed with turf. (For the same material generally in ancient times, see Fest. Ep. p. 12; cf. TABERNACULUM) The roof was of thatch (Vitr. 2.1, 5; Isid. Orig. 15.8, 4 cf. Ov. Fast. 3.184); sometimes of bark (Plin. Nat. 16.35). As regards shape, in the earliest times there is no doubt that the hut was circular [for the origin of this shape, see DOMUS Vol. 1. p. 654], with a conical roof covered with thatch, turf, or skins, and kept in place by branches or logs slung over it, as is. seen in the pottery hut-urns,
of which an example is given. From this shape was derived that of the Tholos at Athens and the Aedes. Vestae at Rome [PRYTANEUM p. 514 a]. How long it was retained for the huts in Italian rural districts it is impossible to say, but we may assume that it was gradually superseded by a rectangular form, though the rude material for the walls and roofs was in the poorer districts unchanged. (Cf. Verg. Ecl. 1.69; Marquardt, Privatleben, 216.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.