The Enormous Longhouses of the Linear Pottery Culture

They were the largest structures humanity had ever erected. These longhouses could be 50 meters or 160 feet long, housing entire extended families, their livestock, and stores of grain under a single, massive roof. So what motivated the Linear Pottery culture to suddenly start building such grand structures? What do these longhouses reveal about the people who lived in them and how they organised their daily lives and their societies? And what happened to longhouses, when this society declined and collapsed in violence?