It is common to spot thatched buildings in rural areas of the Yucatán Peninsula as well as many settlements in other parts of Latin America, which closely resemble the method of construction from distant ancestors. Many indigenous people of the Americas, such as the former Maya civilization, Mesoamerica, the Inca empire, and the Triple Alliance (Aztec), lived in thatched buildings. People probably began to use straw in the Neolithic period when they first grew cereals-but once again, no direct archaeological evidence of straw for thatching in Europe prior to the early medieval period survives. and Schoenoplectus lacustris) was probably used to cover shelters and primitive dwellings in Europe in the late Palaeolithic period, but so far no direct archaeological evidence for this has been recovered. Wild vegetation such as water reed ( Phragmites australis), bulrush/cat tail ( Typha spp.), broom ( Cytisus scoparius), heather ( Calluna vulgaris), and rushes ( Juncus spp. Sugar cane leaf roofs are used in Kikuyu tribal homes in Kenya. In Bali, Indonesia, the black fibres of the sugar palm, called ijuk, is also used as thatching material, usually in temple roofs and meru towers. In Southeast Asia, mangrove nipa palm leaves are used as thatched roof material known as attap dwelling. Alang-alang ( Imperata cylindrica) thatched roofs are used in Hawaii and Bali.

Feathered palm leaf roofs are used in Dominica. For example, in Na Bure, Fiji, thatchers combine fan palm leaf roofs with layered reed walls. The multi-tiered Meru towers of the Besakih temple in Bali are thatched with black ijuk fibres.

New construction with thatched roofs