Built structures · Cellars, caves and ripening rooms
Permafrost cellars
permafrost cellar · frozen-ground cellar
Deep chambers dug into permanently frozen or very cold ground in Indigenous Arctic North America, used to store whale meat and other seasonal harvests.
Cold built into the ground
A permafrost cellar is a chamber dug into ground that stays frozen all year or stays very cold. The ground supplies the cold, so the chamber needs no machinery.
Whale meat and other seasonal harvests were stored in these chambers, carrying food from a short season of plenty into the rest of the year.
Sources for this section
Freezer or cool space
The catalogue notes that some cellars functioned as freezers and others as cool spaces for ageing or fermentation. The difference came from local temperatures, not from a fixed design.
This is why a single cellar cannot be described by one storage temperature.
Sources for this section
What the record does not settle
The catalogue gives no dimensions, temperatures or storage durations. The steps above describe the function the source gives; they are not a construction method for a particular site.
Sources for this section
History
Permafrost cellars used the ground's permanent cold for seasonal harvests. Some functioned as freezers and others as cool spaces, depending on local temperatures.
Site
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
How it is built
Materials
- Permafrost ground — Excavated to form the chamber.
- Seasonal harvest, for example whale meat — Stored in the chamber.
- Dig a chamber into permanently frozen or very cold ground.
- Store the seasonal harvest, such as whale meat, in the chamber.
- Use the chamber as a freezer or as a cool space for ageing or fermentation, depending on its temperature.
Places
Indigenous Arctic North America
Traditional use · Region evidenceThe catalogue names the region; it gives no single locality.
Community
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Sources
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska FairbanksHistory · Method
Visiting the far north ice cellar (Alaska Science Forum)Permafrost cellars storing whale meat; freezers and cool spaces for ageing or fermentation
Cited in: Cold built into the ground; Freezer or cool space; What the record does not settle