As preparation for this trip, we had read Michener's book Poland so we would have a better feel for the history.  It was not uncommon for the land owner to restrict the common people from cutting any trees or using any of the natural resources without special permission, therefore, the common people would build out of whatever worked.  In this case, it appeared the building material was a combination of sand, fire ashes and small stones/gravel.  It crumbled when touched.

The size of these rooms, deteriorating walls of ashes and stone sent us a message of the meager existence of those who had once inhabited these walls.

 We had never seen a building constucted of this type of material.  It was so unique that we not only took pictures, but took a small sample that we could later have analyzed for age.

It made sense to us that these buildings could very well have been there for more than a 200 years. If one considers what life was like for the settlers in America in the early 1700's, it is resonable to assume these structures were from that period, if not earlier.