Page 256 - The Lost Ways

Building the Semi-Subterranean Roundhouse

The first step in building a roundhouse is to dig out the pit that will become its floor.

It’s a labor-intensive task that’s hard work even today, but it was even more difficult in
the days when there were no shovels or metal tools and all digging had to be done using
fire-hardened digging sticks and abalone shells.

The original roundhouse at Kule Loklo was constructed this way by dedicated volunteers
in the 1970s, but most work on the current roundhouse has been done using modern
tools.

When the pit is dug, the sides are tapered so that the floor is smaller than at ground level.

Traditional roundhouses ranged from about 30 feet to about 60 feet in diameter. Barrett
states that in the Yosemite region, the diameter of the pit to be dug for the roundhouse
was measured by four men lying on the ground head to foot, which he estimates to be
about 44 feet.

At Kule Loklo, the roundhouse has a 40-foot floor diameter. The walls of the roundhouse

are below ground and taper inward and have rocks laid into them.

The roundhouse’s floor is earthen. Merriam reports that traditionally some villages mixed
acorn flour—and later sometimes wheat flour—into the wet earth to form a hard surface
when it dried. This reduced the dust kicked up into the air when people were dancing.

Supporting Poles

Selecting the poles that support the roundhouse is the most challenging task. They need
to be sturdy, of course, and ideally a wye (naturally forked). If not a wye, then the top end
will have be notched to support the cross beams. They will support the roundhouse for

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