Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
C to 750
C,
with a 20-minute soak at that temperature.
Prior to initiating the rst set of experiments, all of the
containers were lled with water to ensure that they were
waterproof. All three of the Puebloan-style vessels held wa-
ter without leaking. The basket and the three Thule-style
pots, however, were found to badly leak. Accordingly, addi-
tional steps were taken to waterproof these containers. We
elected to coat the interior of the basket with commercially
purchased roong tar, a procedure that we believed approx-
imated the waterproong techniques used by Native Amer-
icans, who were known to coat their baskets with pinyon
pitch or asphaltum (Braje et al. 2005; Buskirk 1986:186;
Frisbie 2001:35). To waterproof the Thule-style vessels, we
lled the vessels with water to which a few tablespoons of
seal oil had been added. The pots were then placed in an
oven and the contents brought to a low simmer. Although
the liquid initially leaked out, after only a few minutes the
pores became plugged and the leaking stopped. Again, this
technique was selected because we believed it likely mim-
icked what happened to actual Thule pots during the Arctic
cooking process.
Experiment 1
In the rst experiment, commercially purchased rewood
(in this case, pine logs) was used to determine the length
of time needed to bring water to a boil using both the
direct-boiling method and the stone-boiling technique.
Both the Thule-style jars and the Puebloan-style jars were
used in the direct-boiling method; for the stone-boiling
techniques, the Thule-style vessels and waterproofed bas-
ket were used. The direct-boiling experiments were carried
out by building a re and, once the re was determined to
be burning well, by placing the water-lled vessel directly
within the re. All vessels were lled with one liter of water,
and all vessels were capped with a ceramic lid to improve
the cooking efciency. In all cases, the lids were briey re-
moved rst at three minutes, and then every minute there-
after to determine when the water began to boil. In the
stone-boiling experiments, res were again lit and, once
they were burning strongly, small (ranging from ve to
eight cm in diameter) river-rounded basalt cobbles were
buried within them. As in the direct-boiling experiments,
the containers to be used were each lled with one liter of
FIGURE 5. Stone-boiling experiments. Upper frame shows the
basalt cobbles after being uncovered in the re. Bottom frame
shows a student placing a hot cobble into the waterproofed basket.
water, but in this case they were set off to the side, rather
than in, the re. After 15 minutes, the rocks were removed
from the re and placed in the vessels (see Figure 5), and
it was recorded whether or not the water was brought to a
boil.
4
The results of these experiments are presented in
Tables 2 and 3. The results of the direct-boiling experiments
indicate that it took an average of 4.7 minutes to bring wa-
ter to a boil in the Puebloan-style jars and 10.2 minutes
in the Thule-style jars. The increased heating time needed
for the latter jars is not surprising, given their thicker walls
and higher porosity as compared to the former vessels. The
data presented in Table 3 indicate that it took an average
TABLE 2. Results of Direct-Boiling Experiments Using Regular Fire-
wood.
Vessel Minutes to boil (100
C)
Puebloan-style jar
Vessel A 5
Vessel B 5
Vessel C 4
Thule-style jar
Vessel A 9.5
Vessel B 10
Vessel C 11
Harry and Frink Alaskan Cooking Pot 339
TABLE 3. Results of Stone-Boiling Experiments Using Regular Fire-
wood.
Number of stones Water brought
Vessel used/time stones heated to a boil?
Thule-style vessel 3 stone/13 minutes No
Water-proofed basket 3 stones/12 minutes No
Water-proofed basket 3 stones/13 minutes Yes
Thule-style vessel 3 stones/15 minutes Yes
Thule-style vessel 3 stones/15 minutes Yes
of 14 minutes to bring the same amount of water to a boil
using the stone-boiling method. Clearly, the stone-boiling
method does require a lengthier heating time to achieve
the same result, although the relatively small difference
and overall short period of time needed for stone boiling
suggests that the differences in time may not have been
behaviorally meaningful to the Arctic people.
Experiment 2
Following completion of the rst experiment, we con-
ducted a second set of experiments using smaller pieces
of wood. This second experiment was designed to more
closely mimic the res that we thought were likely to have
been used indoors; the large pieces of rewood used in the
rst set of experiments are likely larger than those used in
most indoor hearths. Accordingly, we conducted the sec-
ond set of experiments using small pieces of commercially
purchased starter rewood. The pieces of wood were of a
fairly standard size, with the typical piece measuring about
25 centimeters long by two centimeters in diameter. The
starter wood, known as fatwood (see Figure 6), was har-
vested from the heart of old pine stumps and contains sub-
stantial quantities of pine pitch, which makes the wood
light very easily. The fatwood was considered a reasonable
proxy for wood soaked in seal oil, a material observed to
have been used as rewood by the junior author (Frink).
The second set of experiments was conducted by the
senior author (Harry) and involved only the Thule-style
pots. In the rst part of the experiment, three different
Thule-style pots were lled with one liter of water, covered
with a ceramic lid, and set directly on the re built from
the fatwood pieces. Pieces of wood were added as necessary
until the water was brought to a boil, and in all cases the
fewest pieces of wood were used as possible. Once the water
reached a boil, the experiment was halted and the number
of pieces of wood used was recorded as well as the time
taken to bring the water to a boil. In all three instances, the
amount of wood used and time taken to bring the water
to a boil was remarkably consistent. On average, the direct
re-boiling method using the starter wood required about
15 minutes and 20 pieces of wood to bring the water to a
boil (Table 4).
5
In the second part of the experiment, a small re of
starter wood was built and stones placed in or under the
FIGURE 6. Experiments conducted with the small pieces of fat-
wood. Upper frame shows the size and quantity of fatwood used
to bring the Thule-style pots to a boil. Bottomframe shows a lidded
Thule-style pot on the re.
re. Wood was added as necessary to keep the re burning,
and at a predetermined point, the stones were removed and
placed into the container of water. Three different trials
were carried out (Table 5). In the rst trial, 18 pieces of
starter wood were used, an amount similar to that needed
to bring the water to boil in the direct re-boiling tests.
After ten minutes, when the starter wood was beginning
to die down, the rocks were removed and placed into the
water-lled pot. Although the rocks heated the water, they
did not bring the water to a boil. In the second and third
trials, increasing amounts of starter wood were used in an
attempt to determine how much wood might be needed
to sufciently heat the rocks to bring the water to a boil.
During the third trial, 88 pieces of wood were used, an
amount more than four times of that which was used in
the direct re-boiling tests. Despite these greater amounts
TABLE 4. Results of Direct-Boiling Experiments with Small Starter
Wood.
Pieces of wood Minutes to
Vessel needed to bring to boil boil (100
C)
Thule-style Jar A 19 14
Thule-style Jar B 18 16
Thule-style Jar C 22 16
340 American Anthropologist Vol. 111, No. 3 September 2009
TABLE 5. Results of Stone-Boiling Experiments with Small Starter
Wood.
Pieces of Ending
Vessel wood used Minutes temperature
Thule-style jar A 18 10 56
C
Thule-style jar B 52 23 61
C
Thule-style jar C 88 33 61
C
of fuel wood, we were still unable to bring the water to a
boil. In fact, the highest temperature achieved was 61
C,
well below the 100