Hi Guys;

I live in an area, Mid-Coast Maine, with five-sided ridge beams. I know they are common in the Connecticut river valley too.

I have seen a couple of references for these ridge beams in England, but I do not have much information on their origin or distribution.

As for ancient history, posts supporting a structural ridge beam is one of the fundamental ways structures were built in prehistoric times. They were common and widespread. The name for one type in Danish is a sulehus, sule being a name for a post. Another name for these posts is a gavel from Latin gavala, meaning forked stick, and this is where our word gable comes from!!

In Germany buildings with a structural ridge beam and supporting post are called a Firstsäulenbau, Firstständerbau, Hochsäulenbau, or Hochfirstsäulen sometimes translated as a “Ridge Pillar House”. I am not aware of American examples of this building type.

Here is a web page in Danish with a drawing of an interesting example of a sulehus if you scroll down: http://www.kulturarv.dk/information-om-b...kik-paa-landet/

Here is a German page with good photos of a reconstruction:
http://presse.aoeza.de/2010/06/neuer-hausnachbau-im-steinzeitpark.html

If you use Google you can translate the text and almost understand what it says. There are some other types of historic framing presented on this page.

Take care;
Jim