Tikchik village: a nineteenth century riverine community in ... - Cluster

236 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 56form a more substantial and waterproof protective cover. In sixhouses (H-1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10) there was evidence that at least some of theconstruction timbers had been removed prior to the collapse of thedwelling. Timbers from an abandoned house would, of course, providea ready supply of firewood or seasoned construction timbers.The removal of logs from some of the houses is one indication thatnot all the dwellings were occupied simultaneously. The removal oflogs naturally increases the difficulties in determining certain featuresof house construction.theyEntrance tunnels are common features of Eskimo dwellings andare found in all the Tikchik houses. The tunnels of seven houses(H-1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9) opened directly toward the river bank, whileone (H-10) faced slightly downstream and two (H-5, 6) slightly upstream.The floors of the tunnels of all houses were lower than thehouse floors, thus forming a cold trap and necessitating a step upinto the residential area. The tunnels are projected into the mainbody of the house, although the amount of projection varied considerably.At the inner ends of the tunnels there were usually plankswhich served to shore up the end and at the same time formed anentrance. In six houses (H-1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8) this took the form of arow of horizontal planks and in two cases (H-2, 3) the top planksformed a rounded sill at the floor level. A row of vertically placedplanks served a similar purpose in one house (H-5), the top of theplanks forming the sill. In three houses (H-6, 9, 10) so little woodremained that it was impossible to determine the construction at theinner end of the tunnel. However, in one of these (H-6) the presenceof small rocks in the area suggests that these might have been used.Tunnel construction in seven houses (H-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8) consistedof a series of parallel horizontal logs held in place by shortvertical supports, while in three (H-6, 9, 10) there was no wood preservationin the tunnels at all. Short, split logs were consistentlyplaced horizontally on top of the tunnel wall logs and at right anglesto these to form the tunnel roofs. As a rule, the tunnels do not seemto have been robbed of logs prior to their collapse except possibly inthree structures (H-2, 3, 6) .In all houses with tunnel log preservation,from the earth.the tunnel walls had been compressed somewhat by pressureFive of the Tikchik houses had entryrooms or stormsheds at theouter end of the tunnels (H-1, 2, 4, 7, 8) With one exception (H-7),.most of the logs had been removed before the structures collapsedand therefore it is possible to make only general remarks about their