Arbroath smoking barrel
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Built structures · Pits and cavities
Evenki log-lined ground store (saiva)
saiva · saiva · Evenki meat-storage ditch
A saiva is an Evenki log-lined ditch used to hold meat containers at summer reindeer camps. Contemporary fieldwork documents its use in Buryatia and Zabaikal, but gives no standardized plan or food-safety validation.
A ground store in a reindeer camp
Saiva is the Evenki term recorded for a special ditch lined with logs and used for storing meat containers. In the ethnographic account, meat could be placed in an aluminum can and buried in the ground; sometimes those cans were placed in log-lined ditches. The source does not describe a standardized building plan, fixed dimensions or a permanent cellar.
The ditches are reported at summer reindeer-herding camps and near log huts. They are part of a camp landscape rather than a freestanding above-ground store. This record uses saiva only for the specific log-lined meat-storage ditch described here, not for every underground meat pit.
Sources for this section
What the field account records
Field research on contemporary nomadic Evenki foodways in the Zabaikal region and Buriatia took place from 2004 to 2012. Meat was shared among households, and warm-weather transport could require initial preservation. The saiva appears as one storage option alongside other meat-handling practices.
The reported two-to-four-week interval belongs to these specific ethnographic observations. It is not a tested shelf life, food-safety limit or present-day preservation recommendation; no temperature or sanitation records are provided.
Sources for this section
Limits of the record
The documented form is limited to log lining, buried cans, a summer-camp setting and proximity to log huts. No ditch depth, width, soil, drainage, cover, lining pattern or capacity is specified. No construction sequence or safe-entry procedure is documented.
These observations are contemporary, not an excavated archaeological feature. No origin date is established.
Sources for this section
How it is built
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Descriptive ethnography only; the reported storage interval is not food-safety validation or a modern preservation recommendation.
No construction measurements, excavation instructions, safe-entry procedure or temperature records are supplied.
Materials
- Logs — The ethnographic account describes some storage ditches as lined with logs.
- Aluminum can — The account records meat placed in aluminum cans and buried; some cans went into the log-lined ditches.
- Meat — Meat is the stored food. The account discusses initial preservation and transport but does not validate a modern storage method.
- The account describes a meat container buried in the ground, sometimes set in a special ditch lined with logs.
- Such ditches are reported near log huts and at summer reindeer herders’ camps.
- The recorded 2–4 week interval is the author’s ethnographic report for this practice, not a tested shelf-life or current food-safety recommendation.
Places
Buryatia
Documented use · Region evidenceThe ethnographic article locates its fieldwork in Zabaikal and Buriatia but does not identify the named camp containing any particular saiva.
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Sources
Etnografia, 2022, issue 1 (15), pp. 28–55Ethnographic description · Structure · Geography · Storage limits
Good to Eat and Good to Dream About: What Do Nomadic Evenki Eat in Taiga?Describes aluminum cans of meat buried in the ground, sometimes in special ditches lined with logs, identified as Ev. saiva.
Places such ditches in summer reindeer herders' camps near log huts and reports a 2–4 week storage interval for the observed practice.
The article is based on fieldwork among contemporary nomadic Evenki communities in the Zabaikal Region and Buriatia during 2004–2012; it does not date the origin of the structure or give dimensions.
Cited in: A ground store in a reindeer camp; What the field account records; Limits of the record