Native American Keyhole Structures:

Are they really sweat lodges?

by KatyBeth Kauffman,  The Londonderry School, Harrisburg, PA   Grade 7

In this experiment, an attempt was made to prove that Native Americans used Keyhole Structures as sweat lodges more during the cold Winter months than in the warmer Fall months, due to the greater heat change in the Keyhole Structure during the Winter.  This experiment began in the Fall with a simulated sweat in the keyhole structure during the City Island Excavation. A wood fire was started earlier in the day, 20-25 Susquehanna river cobbles were added to the fire and left until the fire burnt down to coals. The hot Fire cracked rocks were shoveled into the reconstructed Keyhole structure, water was poured over the hot rocks to create a steam. A Vernier extra long Temperature probe and interfacing device were combined with a Apple Emate computer to measure the temperature change in the structure. The number of Calories of heat were calculated from the change in the temperature, the amount of water used to create the steam and the specific heat capacity of water. This procedure was repeated on a cold Winter day and the hypothesis was proven to be correct, a greater amount of heat was created in the Keyhole structure on the Winter day as compared to the Fall day, therefore it is possible that the Native American would have chosen to use the structure as a sweat lodge during the Winter rather than during the Fall.

   The completed Keyhole Structure    Using Emate computer and Vernier Probe         Fire Cracked Rocks

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