Gund hall

A gund hall is a meeting or assembly building that also functions as an everyday place for social gatherings found in Lathadu. Historically, these structures were built within a low ring-shaped earthwork (also called a gund hill or gund mound) where important ceremonies would be conducted and community elders would meet to make decisions. These gradually evolved into permanent buildings, called gund halls, although many gund halls are on relatively new sites within later settlements.

Gund halls today are a kind of function hall, a large room used to hold public meetings or meetings of the members of an organization such as a school, religious congregation, or private group or family.

Function
Gund halls are used for events such as parties, banquets, weddings, funerals, and for hosting many of Lathadu’s annual festivals. They also often house the town’s library and public records. On days where it’s not in use to a specific end, it’s a common place for town members to go and socialize or read. Board games are an especially common pastime for individuals who spend their free time in the community gund house, with many communities even having designated game nights. Community members regularly donate food to be stocked in the hall kitchen - both for others to enjoy casually and for anyone who may be traveling through the area or who might need it. Layouts vary, but most gund halls have three main areas: a large sitting area for events, a library (with some even having computers for public use), and a kitchen or larder for food storage and preparation. Many gund halls divide the sitting area and library into one building and the kitchen and larder into another, in a kind of campus layout near the center of the town or community. They are commonly used as meeting places, both for the town at large as well as private groups and families within the town itself.

Archaic period
The historical predecessors of modern gund halls are believed to have been first built around 2600 BC, in the form of half-buried stone structures atop artificial hills, surrounded by a ring-shaped earthwork. Around 30 archaic sites from this early period have been excavated around the country, beginning in the 1970s. Of these sites, all share certain common traits, implying that they were 1) much more common than these 30 sites by this time, and 2) played a key cultural role that was fairly uniform across the region. In the front of each structure’s curved stone vesad was a forecourt, where people could gather for public ceremonies. Most had a large, east facing entrance leading to a series of three to six lobe-shaped chambers; some evidence exists that these were used to store foodstuffs and functioned as granaries. The main hall and chambers were likely either open from above or had wooden roofs, but the lower halves were made of stone, seeming to almost be partially buried into the mound. At one site, a 3 meter stone and earth ramp was discovered, suggesting that how people approached the hall likely impacted the rituals themselves. The entrances to the halls may have held rods for curtains, to sequester the chamber for parts of different rituals that were conducted.

The walls of the stone sections have been found to be decorated with elaborate fertility-based symbolism, such as carved phalluses and vaginas, as well as the outlines of exaggerated masculine and feminine figures. Remains of both humans and animals have been found within, shedding further light on the nature of ceremonies conducted within. Based on current Lathadun practices and what is known of the period, the halls were likely the ground of regular fertility rituals, as well as rituals related to death when important community members passed away. Newly dead were brought to the central area to be displayed and given proper rites before being left; once their flesh decayed, their bones were gathered and bundled with proper totems and other items before being buried. Bones bundled together have been found in side rooms, perhaps those of the priests who conducted the ceremonies within. Other rites were performed to encourage fertility in crops and a good harvest - clay figures of certain animals and humanoid figures suggest that complex ceremonies once took place there; butchered animal remains in side chambers even suggest animal sacrifice played a role. Through the region’s oral traditions, tales of raucous feasts at harvest time in these halls have been passed down, which are echoed in the modern festivals enjoyed by Lathaduns today. Archaeologists suggest that these early gund hall prototypes functioned as a kind of spiritual portals for these key rituals, namely blessing of crops, death, and possibly even births.

Middle ages and early modern era
These sites evolved over time, remaining centers of the community and the sites for festivals and storage of foodstuffs, but gradually lost their spiritual relevance with the introduction of Ayekism. However, sporadic evidence of rites similar to those of antiquity have been recorded by historical sources from Ordrey and Salia. They remained the location for funerals in most rural places rather than Ayekist temples, and new social roles began to replace the older ones. Chief among these new roles was their usage as meeting halls, middle places between important families or clans within a single community. They also served as rallying points for community militia in times of conflict, notably the infrequent peasant revolts of the eleventh century and beyond. In particular, they were the site where the carrlaadeecaggey, or war wagon, used by each community militia as a rallying point and standard bearer was stored. By the 13th century, many communities also used them as a kind of proto-schoolhouse, educating children at the age of 14 in practical studies relating to farming or handicrafts. By this point, the structure resembles more of a building than the partially buried ritual site of yore. When the printing press was introduced to Lathadu, they became a place for wealthy families to publicly display the books they owned, exhibiting their wealth and generosity of permitting them to be used by any literate member of the community.

As Lathadu entered the modern day, gund halls changed once again, being used for town meetings as well as organizational meetings for any groups present in the town’s population. They were popular pulpits for the Anti-Aristocrat movement in rural areas across Lathadu. For newer towns being built at around this time, the gund hall was typically the first public building built as new communities sprang up. The hall-kitchen split resulting in two separate structures occurred at around this time, due to the prevalence of homes or other buildings having their ovens outside the main area to reduce the risk of fires breaking out. Many older communities have repurposed river house-style structures that have lost their original, agrarian purpose into gund halls in order to preserve the architectural heritage of their community.