La construction de la maison 33 du cap Espenberg, nord-ouest de l'Alaska, au xviiie siècle

Abstract

During the recent archaeological excavation at Cape Espenberg, house 33 (F33) was exposed. Dated to the late 17th/early 18th century, it consists mainly of wood, the preservation of which is excellent in the frozen permafrost layers. Generally, western Arctic houses are semi-subterranean and are entered through an access tunnel, which being located below the rest of the house, serves as a cold trap. The structural elements were analyzed in terms of species and reduction sequence (debitage). A clear difference appears between the tunnel, where species are relatively diverse and logs are mostly unsplit, and the main room where species are less diverse and logs are more extensively split. The “chaîne opératoire” of the construction of F33 - from the collect of logs to applying a sod cover on the wooden frame - was then partially modeled based on the field data and the wood identification and technological analysis. This preliminary data was then compared to ethnographic information from the region, dating as early as the 19th century. In the western Arctic, houses were often grouped into winter villages of varying sizes, generally two to ten houses in the Cape Espenberg area.Based on ethnographic data and the analysis of F33's construction techniques, it is suggested that building a house required more people than the sole nuclear family that would occupy it. It was an activity which brought the village together and contributed to the construction of the group itself; a social activity which consolidated the winter gathering.

Keywords

• Alaska
• wooden architecture
• Thule culture
• construction Techniques
• Inuit village