Hidden bushcraft shelter

[Janne]

No birch bark?

That roof design is very common in old Scandinavian, Finnish, and northern Russian buildings.
But on top of the logs they had a layer of birch bark to prevent water ingress.

 

[Erbswurst]

@Janne , do you mean the Sami Kotta as wel as the Icelandic Viking houses, which look pretty similar, had been constructed of round logs, birch bark to make them waterproof and on top of it several centimeters of soil to keep the bark in place and to insulate the building?

Did the scandinavians cut out of the grass some kind of bricks, like the Inuit did it with the snow to built an Igloo, and constructed a wall out of that?

I guess with the roots in between that's better from the first beginning.

 

[Janne]

In Iceland, from the Norse times until 1800', they had a lack of wood. Same in Arctic north, specially the Norwegian coast, including the Lofotens. again, lack of timber.

In Sweden and southern Norway ( plus Finland and Russia) they used timber for everything, plus made the roofs of timber - birch bark - cut out turf ( grass with soil)

Such roofs lasted well over 100 years. Birch bark rots very very slowly.

A shelter like Gckoka hows were constructed by a few units in northern Sweden, to house plutoon supplies in case our Russian friends decided to come and visit.

 

[Erbswurst]

And how did they waterproof the roofs in Iceland for example???

Did they use the skin of theyr delicate sharks, or what?

What did the Sami use in the Tundra?

 

[Robson Valley]

There's no mention that I've found for any sort of membrane (bison hide, birch bark, etc) between the logs and the soil.
The soil stays dry. The house fire helps a lot as well, so do the living grasses.

 

[Janne]

The ’mountain’ Sami were a moving people, they followed the reindeer herds.
They lived in tents.
The coastal Sami also moved around, and lived in tents.

The difference between those two groups was that the coastal Sami fished the coast, in addition to the lakes, rivers and reindeer husbandry.

A common material for the walls was blocks of peat.
Iceland, the Arctic. Just a few supporting wood pieces.
No clue about the roof construction in detail.

 

[Erbswurst]

I thought they would have lived during the winter in earth kottas, during the summer in tents.
Is that wrong? Are that different tribes?

 

[Robson Valley]

In western Canada, the First Nations lived in TiPi of bison hide, near their best places to kill lots of bison and various fishes.
That was mostly for very thin sliced and smoke-dried winter meat.
Then they moved to their winter camps of pit houses. The old RiPi bison hide was soft enough each year for clothing and shoes.

On the west coast, the FN always moved from season to season for food harvesting.
They made 40' - 60' seaworthy cedar log boats to move camps.
They had salmon weirs and clam gardens that you can only fish for a few weeks each year.
They still do. And it all tastes just as good.

Don't forget that neolithic paleo is only 150 - 200 years ago here.

 

[Janne]

As far as I know, they covered / build up the walls using birch bark and peat blocks, or vertical timbers ( in forested areas) in the same shape as the goahti ( kåta in Swedish).

Latest DNA testing of prehistoric human remains show that northern Scandinavia was populated by two different people groups, one remains if hunter gatherer from western Europe and a more agriculture based group from southern- eastern Europe.

 

[Erbswurst]

Interesting!

I thought the blond tribes would be more or less original over there, perhaps coming from Denmark or living in the ice age between the glaciers of Skandinavia and the alpine mountains in the middle of Germany.

 

[Gcckoka]

No birch bark?

That roof design is very common in old Scandinavian, Finnish, and northern Russian buildings.
But on top of the logs they had a layer of birch bark to prevent water ingress.

No birch here... at least not this part of the country , if I had birch bark that would help me make awesome things

 

[Janne]

You can always make shingles from your local wood. Oak? Beech?

Yes, Birch bark is hugely useful.