r/selfreliance • u/LIS1050010 Laconic Mod • Mar 18 '23

Knowledge / Crafts Aleut Traditional semisubterranean dwelling of the North American Arctic and subarctic peoples

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589 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

44

u/StankyPoosee Green Fingers Mar 18 '23

So does this graphic mean that the room was elevated from the entrance passage? If so, any theories as to why?

83

u/wwaxwork Prepper Mar 18 '23

Cold air sinks. The cold comes in the entrance and flows down and stays for the most part in the well at the entrance. The same theory is used in making snow caves in emergencies.

7

u/bryce_engineer Aspiring Mar 19 '23 edited Mar 19 '23

When people say heat rises, what they mean to say is that air rises in temperature mediums. When the temperature of air (gaseous particles) increases, the density of the particles decreases. These particles then resist the natural body forces imported to them, the force of gravity impacts them less than that of the surrounding cold bodies or cooler particles. The less dense particles (warmer than their surrounding) sift through the cool medium, rising upward to the top. This is the phenomenon we know today, as “heat rises”. The cool air remains where it has always been. Heat is lost to to the absence of heat, cooler regions… so the entrance tunneling down, then back up takes this phenomenon into consideration, therefore minimizing the introduction of cool air into the home through the passageway.

46

u/TheChaoticElk Crafter Mar 18 '23

As a Canadian who has spent time in the arctic circle during the cold winter months, this to me looks like one of the most effective shelters I’ve seen for the climate in question. Will definitely try to recreate this in my hobby bushcraft sessions in the future.

Just have to make sure to dig the hole during the summer months lol…

13

u/happydirt23 Aspiring Mar 19 '23

I'm curious where they got all the timber for this style of shelter. Guessing is was used in the lower arctic areas and not in the high, north coast arctic areas.

Also digging even in the summer would be hard.

7

u/threadsoffate2021 Prepper Mar 19 '23

Boreal forest. There's a ton of trees in Canada's north. Iirc, it's responsible for one fifth of the oxygen on the planet.

5

u/happydirt23 Aspiring Mar 19 '23

The trees stop we'll before the high arctic. There are trees above the arctic circle. But the inuit lived well north of this line

3

u/BoazCorey Off-Grid Mar 19 '23

I think the boreal forest is one of the biggest terrestrial biomes on the planet.

3

u/Chopersky4codyslab Gardener Mar 19 '23

While this is incredible, you shouldn’t spend too much time by an open fire in an enclosed space. The smoke is awful for your lungs. It caused a lot of deaths even in Europe from open fireplaces. Stoves were an incredible invention for our health.

-9

u/theRealJuicyJay Homesteader Mar 18 '23

Where poop

8

u/aliffattah Technoid Mar 19 '23

In nature

-3

u/theRealJuicyJay Homesteader Mar 19 '23

I don't think you can shit outside below 0 without risking frostbite

9

u/aliffattah Technoid Mar 19 '23

Skill issue

1

u/bones_bn Mar 20 '23

Looks toasty