Igloo: a spiral dome of snow blocks
Iglú: cúpula de bloques de nieve en espiral
- Date
- c. 1200 · confidence low
- Place
- Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada
- Credited to
- Inuit of the central Arctic
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A dome of compacted snow blocks cut with a knife and laid in a spiral, self-supporting like a compression vault. Snow insulates, and with body heat and a lamp the interior stays tens of degrees above outside.
Snow igloos belong to the central Canadian Arctic; Alaska and Greenland used turf and stone houses. Their age is uncertain because snow leaves no remains; the Dorset may have used them earlier.
What it led to
- winter hunting shelters in the central Arctic
- temporary housing in Inuit sea-ice camps
- a model of compression architecture in an ephemeral material