 To start with, cattle were kept outside overnight in "Hürden" or pens.With the transition of agriculture to permanent fields the cattle were brought into the house, which then became a so-called "Wohnstallhaus" or byre-dwelling.Later the centre posts were omitted to form a triple-aisled longhouse ("dreischiffigen Langhaus", often a "dreischiffigen Wohnstallhaus") that could be found in almost all of northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages.