A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890)
William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin, Ed.

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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

Hut Urn, from Alba. (British Museum.)

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was retained for the huts in Italian rural districts it is impossible to say, but we may assume that it was gradually superseded by a rectangular form, though the rude material for the walls and roofs was in the poorer districts unchanged.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.)

[G.E.M]