Architecture of Dwelling 2
Inuit qarmaq (Glenbow archives?)
Magnetometer survey and evidence from excavation suggest that there are two different kinds of dwellings at Agvik: winter houses and qarmat (singular qarmaq). Thule-Inuit winter houses (also called sod houses) were generally large semi-subterranean (partly underground) structures with a flagstone or driftwood floor and a raised sleeping platform at the rear of the structure. The walls were made of stone, whalebone, and sod, which supported a sod roof. Winter houses also had an entrance tunnel [1]. Qarmat are less substantial dwellings with skin roofs and shallower depressions [2]. They were mostly used in spring and fall, while winter houses were (obviously!) used in winter, but both were sometimes used in other seasons. The excavation of Dwelling 2 revealed a collapsed roughly circular sod wall. There was a ring of dirt floor inside the wall at ground level (1-2 m wide), around a central circular depression about 2 m across. Because in most cases the entire interior of winter-houses is semi-subterranean, with a raised stone or driftwood platform at the rear of the structure, we interpret Dwelling 2 as a qarmaq rather than a winter house. The magnetometer survey of Agvik also supports this interpretation.
Interpretation of Dwelling 2.
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Plan and Sections of qarmaq. Taken from Boas, Franz (1888). "The Central Eskimo". Smithsonian Institution, Burreau of Ethnology. Washington: Washington Government Printing Office.
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