Archaeoentomological Research in the North Atlantic:
Past, Present, and Future
Véronique Forbes1, *, Frédéric Dussault2, and Allison Bain3
Abstract - This paper reviews archaeoentomolgical research in the North Atlantic region, which until relatively recently,
was focused mainly on Norse and later farms in Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroes, providing insights into many aspects
of daily life on these settlements as well as their impacts on the local environment. Conversely, little research had been
undertaken on insect fossils from hunter-gatherer settlements, save a handful of investigations from deposits associated
with Saqqaq sites in Western Greenland. Over the past decade, the scope of these studies has extended to encompass new
territories, time periods, and research questions. Insect remains from Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo sites in the eastern Canadian
Arctic were examined for the first time, and previously unexamined Norse and later sites have revealed new applications
for archaeoentomology. This emerging body of work demonstrates the potential and importance of the continued integration
of archaeoentomology in archaeological projects.
1Department of Archaeology, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, St. Mary’s Building, Elphinstone Road,
Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK. 2Department of Archaeology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL A1C 5S7,
Canada. 3Université Laval, CELAT, Pavillon De Koninck, 1030 avenue des Sciences humaines, Quebec City, QC G1V 0A6,
Canada. *Corresponding author - v.forbes@abdn.ac.uk.
Introduction
The lands bordering the North Atlantic region
are the homes of distinct cultural groups who have
subsisted in these territories through diverse economic
adaptations. Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo huntergatherers,
who exploited the array of sea mammals
and fish provided by the subarctic and arctic waters
as well as terrestrial animal and plant resources
available in the Tundra, migrated from coastal areas
along the North Pacific Ocean to the western North
Atlantic region from ca. 2500 B.C. (Grønnow and
Sørensen 2006, Labrèche 2001). From the eighth
century A.D., seafaring northern European pastoralists
(the Norse) sailed westward to establish farming
colonies on the North Atlantic islands (Fitzhugh and
Ward 2000). This establishment of human settlements
in these fragile and “pristine” environments
had a profound effect on the local fauna and flora of
these regions (Amorosi et al. 1997, Dugmore et al.
2005). Existing ecological niches were expanded, or
diminished, while new ecosystems emerged inside
the newcomers’ homes. Quaternary entomology, the
study of preserved insect remains, has significantly
contributed to our understanding of past subsistence
and economic strategies and their impacts on North
Atlantic landscapes, notably by highlighting the crucial
roles human migrations and trade activities have
played in reconfiguring the North Atlantic biota over
the last millennium (Sadler 1991, Sadler and Skidmore
1995). Until recently, this body of work has
largely concentrated on the study of Norse and later
agro-pastoral settlements, revealing major ecological
changes induced and/or exacerbated by human
activity (Amorosi et al. 1997, Simpson et al. 2001).
In contrast, the hunting, fishing, and gathering practices
of First Nations peoples and their ancestors,
including Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo cultural groups,
have been assumed to have had a limited impact on
the environment (e.g., Billington 1981; Dickason
1996, 1997).
This paper provides a review of the contribution
of Quaternary entomology to North Atlantic
archaeology. All Quaternary-entomological studies
use the ecological preferences of identified insects
as proxies for past ecological conditions, and the approach
can be applied to a diverse set of questions,
from the study of natural climatic and environmental
changes to the reconstruction of everyday household
practices (Elias 2010). Since this paper focuses on
studies that contributed to questions of archaeological
importance, the term “archaeoentomology” is
employed in the text to refer to all studies concerned
with the reconstruction of human activities and cultural
environments.
For the purposes of this paper, the North Atlantic
region includes the islands of Newfoundland,
Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroes as well as the
eastern Canadian Arctic and extends southwards to
where Labrador meets the St. Lawrence River. This
review focuses on insect fossil assemblages associated
with sites that have been occupied by Palaeo-
Eskimos, Neo-Eskimos, Norse people, and their descendants.
Research related to European settlements
unrelated to the Norse expansion is considered another
body of scholarship. Insect assemblages from
Norse settlements have previously been reviewed
2014 Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26:1–24
2014 Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
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elsewhere (Buckland 2000, Buckland and Panagiotakopulu
2005), and although these contributions
will also be summarized here, this paper emphasizes
work conducted over the past decade.
Four Decades of Archaeoentomological Research
in the North Atlantic
The human history of the North Atlantic region
The Palaeo-Eskimos were the first people to
settle the lands north of the tree-line in Canada and
the coasts of Greenland (McGhee 2001). Similarly,
the Norse were the first people to colonize the Faroes
and Iceland during the 9th century, although historical
(Dicuil 1967) and more recent palaeoecological
evidence (Church et al. 2013) suggests an earlier,
limited human presence in the Faroes. Figure 1 provides
a chronology of cultural developments and
major events that took place in the North Atlantic
region over the past 4000 years.
The peopling of the eastern Canadian Arctic
and Greenland occurred in a series of independent
migrations over a period of more than 3000 years.
Palaeo-Eskimos were seasonally mobile huntergatherer
groups able to exploit wild animal and
plant resources from the land and the sea, whereas
Neo-Eskimos were better adapted to the hunting of
marine mammals. They dwelt in sod, ice, or snow
houses in winter and in tents or other types of temporary
shelters in the warmer seasons (Fagan 2000,
McGhee 2001). This mode of living contrasts with
that of the Norse farmers, who lived in turf and stone
buildings on farmsteads occupied year-long. Norse
subsistence was generally based on pastoral farming
and the secondary products of sheep and cattle
husbandry supplemented by fishing, hunting, and, in
the Faroes and some parts of Iceland, the cultivation
of cereals (Arge et al. 2005, Buckland 2000, Sveinbjarnardóttir
et al. 2007). The Norse expansion into
the North Atlantic began during the 9th century A.D.,
although Norsemen did not come into contact with
Palaeo-Eskimo (Dorset) and Neo-Eskimo (Thule)
people in Greenland until approximately four centuries
later (Gulløv 2008). The establishment of Norse
temporary outposts from ca. A.D. 1000 in eastern
North America (e.g., L’Anse-aux-Meadows; Wallace
2000) possibly led to interactions with Palaeoand
Neo-Eskimo groups (Sutherland 2009), while
the presence of European whalers and fisherman on
the coasts of the St. Lawrence Gulf and the Labrador
Sea from the late 15th century (Jordan 1978, Pope
2008) would have created opportunities for further
exchanges. Encounters between Neo-Eskimos and
Europeans in Arctic Canada certainly occurred with
Martin Frobisher’s travels to Labrador and Baffin
Island in 1576, but may have remained sporadic
until the arrival of Moravian missionaries in the
mid-18th century (Pope and Lewis-Simpson 2013).
In Greenland, the Norse colonies were extant for
≈500 years until abandonment sometime after A.D.
1408 (Seaver 2010), and thereafter, Eskimo groups
lived away from further European influences until
Figure 1. Chronology of Palaeo/Neo-Eskimos cultural groups and Norse and later settlements in the North Atlantic region,
modified from the Arctic Chronology of the Avataq Cultural Institute (2011) with added information from Gad (1973), Karlsson
(2000), and Pope and Lewis-Simpson (2013). The Scandinavian chronology is based on Hedeager and Kristiansen (1985).
Journal of the North Atlantic
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V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
the Danish colonization began in the 18th century
(Gad 1973). On Faroese and Icelandic farmsteads,
the descendants of the Norse people continued to
live in turf buildings off the products of farming
until the 19th century (Karlsson 2000).
A brief history of North Atlantic archaeoentomology
Archeoentomological research in the North
Atlantic was largely pioneered by Buckland et al.
(1983, 1986a) and Skidmore (1996), whose work
on beetle (Coleoptera), external parasite (e.g.,
Phthiraptera and Siphonaptera), and fly (Diptera)
fossils preserved in archaeological deposits from
Norse Greenland and Iceland established the value
of insect remains for reconstructing past activity
and living conditions on North Atlantic farmsteads.
In Iceland and the Faroe Islands, samples from offsite
locations such as peat bogs and mires provided
insights into biogeographic changes and the impact
of human activity on the native insect fauna (Buckland
and Dinnin 1998, Buckland and Dugmore 1991,
Buckland et al. 1986b). This early work was underpinned
by contemporary revisions and surveys of the
modern invertebrate fauna of the region (Bengston
1981, Böcher 1988, Dugmore 1981, Ólafsson 1991),
which clarified the status and ecology of many species
and thus provided the backbone for archaeoentomological
interpretations.
With the development of the BugsCEP database
(Buckland and Buckland 2006), which compiles
beetle fossil records as well as species’ biological
and distributional information, it became easier to
tackle broad research questions. Concurrent with the
generation of new datasets from the Faroes, Iceland,
and Greenland (e.g., Forbes et al. 2010, Panagiotakopulu
and Buckland 2013, Vickers 2006, Vickers et
al. 2005), Quaternary entomologists made progress
towards resolving questions regarding the origin
and biogeography of the North Atlantic insect fauna
(Böcher 2012, Böcher et al. 2012, Buckland and
Panagiotakopulu 2010, Panagiotakopulu 2014) and
the possibility of a pre-Norse European presence in
the region (Buckland and Panagiotakopulu 2008).
One study of insect remains associated with
Palaeo-Eskimo occupations pre-dates the first archaeoentomological
analyses on Norse sites (Haarløv
1967). However, apart from the identification
of lice from Greenlandic mummies (Bresciani et al.
1983, 1989; Hansen et al. 1991), the archaeoentomology
of Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo groups in the
North Atlantic halted until the 1990s (Böcher 1998,
Böcher and Fredskild 1993). This work developed
independently from research on North Atlantic farmsteads
until a renewed interest in Norse-indigenous
interactions (Edwards et al. 2009) resulted in new
datasets from both Norse and Palaeo/Neo-Eskimo
sites in southern Greenland (e.g., Panagiotakopulu
et al. 2012, Vickers 2012, Vickers and Panagiotakopulu
2011). Concurrently, research in northern
Greenland and Labrador provided opportunities to
examine insect fossils from floors and middens on
hunter-gatherer sites (e.g., Dussault 2011, Dussault
and Bain 2010).
In addition to providing further insights into the
timing and nature of human environmental impacts
in the North Atlantic (e.g., Panagiotakopulu 2014,
Panagiotakopulu and Buckland 2013), recent archaeoentomological
research has explored new issues.
Assemblages from Norse and later farmsteads
have provided evidence about past land-use (Buckland
et al. 2009a, Panagiotakopulu and Buckland
2012), transhumance (Vickers and Sveinbjarnadóttir
2013), and eiderdown production (Forbes et al.
2013). Studies on Neo-Eskimo sites have begun to
reveal insights into practices and attitudes regarding
hygiene and the impacts of hunter-gatherers subsistence
activities on their environments (Bain 2000,
2001; Dussault 2011).
Overview of the sites and contexts investigated
North Atlantic archaeoentomology has focused
on a diverse array of contexts ranging from archaeological
features such as houses or middens to natural
deposits such as peat bogs associated with human
occupation sites. On farm settlements, anthrosols
(soils modified through long-term human activity
such as irrigation and manuring) have also been
examined for insect remains. Most archaeological
research on Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo sites has focused
on occupational, midden, and peat deposits
associated with winter dwellings.
Tables 1–3 detail the sites discussed in this paper,
the locations of which are shown on Figure 2. These
tables and maps provide an overview of archaeoentomological
work in the North Atlantic region and
facilitate access to the relevant publications and grey
literature. For the most up-to-date and exhaustive
information on Quaternary-entomological research,
readers should refer to the BugsCEP database (Buckland
and Buckland 2006) and the Bibliography of
Quaternary Entomology (Buckland et al. 2013), both
of which are regularly updated.
The Archaeoentomology of Norse and Later
Farmsteads
The timing and impacts of Landnám
The Norse colonization of the North Atlantic
islands, often termed Landnám (old Norse for ‘‘land2014
Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
4
Table 1. List of North Atlantic sites associated with Palaeo-Eskimo occupations that were investigated for insect remains.
No. Site Types of deposits sampled Dating of sampled contexts References
1 Asummiut, Greenland Occupations layers 2nd millenium BC Böcher 1998
from Saqqaq houses
2 Qeqertasussuk, Greenland Midden and occupation 2nd millenium BC Bennike et al. 2000; Böcher and
layers from Saqqaq houses Fredskild 1993; Buckland et al.
1996; Skidmore 1996; unpubl.
data in BugsCEP database
(Buckland and Buckland 2006)
3 Nanook, Baffin Island, Canada Midden and occupation ca. 12th–15th centuries AD Bain 2003
layers from Dorset houses
4 Sermermiut, Greenland Peat deposits close to 2nd millenium BC Haarløv 1967
Saqqaq occupation sites
5 Willows Island, Baffin Island, Midden layers associated 3rd century BC – Bain 1994
Canada with a Dorset occupation site 7th century AD
Table 2. List of North Atlantic sites associated with Neo-Eskimo occupations that were investigated for insect remains.
No. Site Types of deposits sampled Dating of sampled context References
6 Cape Grinnell, Greenland Occupation layers associated 13th–15th centuries AD Dussault 2011
with Inughuit houses
7 Great Caribou Island, Labrador, Occupation layers from Inuit 17th–18th centuries AD Dussault and Bain 2010
Canada houses
8 Iita, Greenland Occupation layers from Early 20th century AD Dussault 2011
Inughuit houses
9 Kamaiyuk, Baffin Island, Occupation layers from Inuit 15–20th centuries AD Smith 1992, 1994
Canada houses
10 Kuyait, Baffin Island, Canada Occupation layers from Inuit Mid-19th–early 20th centuries Smith 1992, 1994
houses AD
11 Mallikjuak Island, Baffin Occupation layers from Inuit 10th–16th centuries AD Bain 1997
Island, Canada houses
12 North Island, Labrador, Canada Occupation layers from Inuit 17th–18th centuries AD Dussault and Bain 2010
houses
13 Peterhead Inlet, Baffin Island, Fill layer in Inuit house 16th century AD Bain 1997
Canada
14 Qaqaitsut, Greenland Occupation layers from Inuit 14th–17th centuries AD Dussault 2011
houses
15 Qilakitsoq, Greenland Ectoparasites from Thule 15th century AD Bresciani et al. 1983,
mummies 1989; Hansen et al. 1991
16 Uivak Point, Labrador, Canada Midden and occupation layers 18th–19th centuries AD Bain 2000, 2001
from Inuit houses
taking’’) led to the establishment of a European
farming system based on livestock husbandry in
largely pristine landscapes. Norse settlers introduced
sheep, horses, cattle, goats, and pigs as well
as other resources they would need for their subsistence
(Buckland 2000). One of the most striking
impacts of the Norse colonization was the accidental
introduction of new flora and fauna (Dugmore et
al. 2005), including a number of insect pests and
‘‘hitch-hikers’’ that exploited microhabitats provided
by shipboard provisions, ballast, and dunnage,
but also by the settlers and the animals themselves
(Sadler 1991, Sadler and Skidmore 1995). Indeed,
ectoparasites of humans and sheep, including the
human louse Pediculus humanus L., the sheep lice
Bovicola (=Damalinia) ovis (L.), and the sheep ked
Melophagus ovinus (L.), are common in contexts
dated from just after Landnám (Buckland 2000).
Many predacious and mold-feeding beetles, including
Omalium excavatum Stephens, Xylodromus
concinnus (Marsham), Latridius minutus (grp) (L.),
Cryptophagus spp., and Atomaria spp., also traveled
onboard ships and found ideal habitats in domestic
waste, animal manure, and stored hay in the Norse
Journal of the North Atlantic
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2014 No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
Table 3. List of North Atlantic sites associated with Norse and later occupations that were investigated for insect remains.
No. Site Types of deposits sampled Dating of sampled contexts References
17 Alþingisreitur, Iceland Midden and floor layers from 9th–16th centuries AD Konráðsdóttir 2010a
houses and workshops
18 Bessastaðir, Iceland Midden and floor layers from 9th–17th centuries AD Amorosi et al. 1992; Skidmore
residential and farm buildings 1996, 2013; unpublished data in
BugsCEP database (Buckland
and Buckland 2006)
19 Breiðuvík, Iceland Floor layersfrom pit houses 10th–11th centuries AD Hellqvist 2001
20 Dettifossvegur, Iceland Floor layers from residential 11th century AD Konráðsdóttir 2010c
and farm buildings
21 Engihlíð, Iceland Peat deposits close to a 14th century AD Buckland and Sadler 1991
Medieval site, possibly a
shieling
22 Eiríksstaðir, Iceland Floor layers from residential 9th–11th centuries AD Analyses by M. Hellqvist
and farm buildings
23 Eqalugialik, Greenland Peat deposits close to a Norse 10th–14th centuries AD Sadler 1987, Skidmore 1996
farmstead
24 Garðar, Greenland Drainage ditch section close to 10th–15th centuries AD Buckland et al. 2009a,
a Norse farmstead Panagiotakopulu and Buckland
2012, Panagiotakopulu et al. 2012
25 Gården under Sandet Floor andabandonment layers 10th–14th century AD Buckland et al. 1998a;
(GUS), Greenland from a Norse farmstead Buckland P.I. 2000, 2007b; Panagiotakopulu
2004; Panagiotakopulu
et al. 2007; unpubl. data in
BugsCEP database (Buckland and
Buckland 2006)
26 Gásir, Iceland Occupation and midden layers 12th–14th centuries AD Konráðsdóttir 2009a, 2010b
from a Medieval trading post
27 Glaumbær, Iceland Midden layers from Norse and 9th–14th centuries AD Analyses by M. Hellqvist
Medieval farmsteads
28 Grænaborg, Iceland Floor layers from residential 19th century AD Konráðsdóttir 2012b
and farm buildings
29 Hofsstaðir , Iceland Floor layers from Norse 9th–11th centuries AD Analyses by M. Hellqvist
residential and farm buildings
30 Hólar, Iceland Midden and floor layers from 10th century AD to the Hellqvist 2002, 2003, 2013
buildings from a present
bishopric/farm complex
31 Holt, Iceland Midden layers associated with 9th–16th centuries AD Buckland et al. 1991a
the occupation of a farmstead
32 Hornbrekka, Iceland Floor layers and pit fills from 19th–20th centuries AD Forbes 2013b
a Postmedieval farmhouse
33 Hrísbrú, Iceland Floor layers from a Norse 9th–11th centuries AD Forbes 2009a, Hellqvist 2005
longhouse
34 Keldudalur, Iceland Floor layers from Norse and 9th–15th centuries AD Analyses by M. Hellqvist
Medieval farmsteads
35 Keldur, Iceland Floor layers from a Medieval 12th–15th centuries AD Analyses by M. Hellqvist
farmstead
36 Ketilsstaðir, Iceland Peat deposits close to Norse 7th–16th centuries AD Buckland et al. 1986a
and Medieval farmsteads
37 Kolkuós, Iceland Floor layers from booths used 9th–15th centuries AD Analyses by M. Hellqvist
as dwelling and workshops
(harbor site)
38 Mjóeyri, Iceland Floor layers from a Medieval 12th–13th centuries AD Konráðsdóttir 2008b
farmstead
39 Möðruvellir, Iceland Midden layers from a monastic 13th–20th centuries AD Forbes 2013c
center/farm
40 Mykines (Lambi and Deposits from an erosion face 6th–9th centuries AD Buckland 1992, Buckland et al.
Uldalið), Faroe Islands 1998c
2014 Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
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Table 3, continued.
No. Site Types of deposits sampled Dating of sampled contexts References
41 Nesstofa, Iceland Midden layers associated with 9th–18th centuries AD Amorosi et al. 1994
the occupation of a farmstead
42 Niaqussat, Greenland Midden layers associated with 10th–14th centuries AD McGovern et al. 1983,
the occupation of a Norse Panagiotakopulu 2004,
farmstead Sadler 1987, Skidmore 1996
43 Nipaítsoq, Greenland Midden layers associated with 10th–14th centuries AD Barlow et al. 1997, Buckland et al.
the occupation of a Norse 1983; McGovern et al. 1983,
farmstead Panagiotakopulu et al. 2007, Skidmore
1996
44 Pálstóftir, Iceland Midden layers associated with 10th–11th centuries AD Buckland P.I. 2007a, Lucas 2008
the occupation of a Medieval
shieling
45 Papey (Undir Hellisbargi Peat deposits close to a Norse 8th–13th centuries AD Buckland et al. 1995
and Goðatættur), Iceland farmstead
46 Reykholt (and Faxadalur), Midden and floor layers from 9th–19th centuries AD Buckland et al. 1992, 2009b,
Iceland residential and farm buildings, 2012;Sveinbjarnadóttir et al.
peat deposits and enclosed areas 2007; Vickers and Sveinbjarnardóttir
2013
47 Sandhavn, Greenland Peat deposits close to a Norse 14th–15th centuries AD Vickers and Panagiotakopulu 2011
farmstead
48 Sandnes (Kilaersavik), Midden layers associated with 10th–14th centuries AD Buckland et al. 1994, 1996; Pan-
Greenland the occupation of a Norse agiotakopulu 2004; Skidmore
farmstead 1996; Sveinbjarnadóttir and
Buckland 1983
49 Skálholt, Iceland Floor layers from buildings 17th–18th centuries AD Konráðsdóttir 2007
from a bishopric/farm complex
50 Skriðuklaustur, Iceland Floor layers from buildings 15th–16th centuries AD Konráðsdóttir 2008a, 2009b,
from a monastery/hospital 2012a
complex
51 Skútústaðir, Iceland Midden layers associated with 9th–19th centuries AD King and Forbes 2010
the occupation of a farmstead
52 Stóraborg, Iceland Midden, floor layers and drain 17th century AD Buckland and Perry 1989, Perry
fills from a Postmedieval et al. 1985, Sveinbjarnadóttir et
farmhouse al. 1980
53 Svalbarðshreppur (Svalbarð Midden layers associated with 11th–19th centuries AD Forbes 2013a; unpubl. data in
and Hjálmarsvík), Iceland the occupation of farm BugsCEP database (Buckland
buildings and shielings and Buckland 2006)
54 Sveigakot, Iceland Floor layers and hearth fills 9th–12th centuries AD Analyses by H. Konráðsdóttir
from residential and farm
buildings
55 Tasiusaq, Greenland Peat deposits close to a Norse 11th–14th centuries AD Edwards et al. 2008,
farmstead Panagiotakopulu and Buckland
2013
56 Tatsip Ataa, Greenland Midden layers associated with 10th–12th centuries AD Dussault et al. 2014
a Norse occupation
57 Tjørnuvík, Faroe Islands Peat deposits close to a Norse 7th–11th centuries AD Buckland 1992, Buckland and
farmstead Dinnin 1998
58 Toftanes, Faroe Islands Floor layers and drain fills 9th–10th centuries AD Edwards et al. 1998, Vickers
from a Norse farmstead and and Buckland 2013, Vickers
peat deposits et al. 2005
59 Þjótandi, Iceland Floor layers from a Norse 10th century AD Konráðsdóttir 2008c, 2009c
farmstead
60 Þverá, Iceland Floor layers and drain fills 20th century AD Forbes 2013b, Forbes and
from a still-standing Milek 2013
farmhouse and associated
outbuildings
61 Vatnsfjörður, Iceland Floor, midden and 10th–20th centuries AD Forbes 2007, 2008, 2009b,
abandonments layers from 2009c, 2013b; Forbes et al.
a farmstead 2010, 2013
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2014 No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
Figure 2. Location of the sites listed in Tables 1–3.
2014 Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
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homes (Dugmore et al. 2005, Sadler and Skidmore
1995). The scarabaeid Aphodius lapponum Gyll., associated
with the dung of large herbivores, has been
identified as another Norse introduction to the faunas
of Iceland and the Faroes (op. cit.). The species
has not been recovered from the Norse Greenlandic
settlements despite the introduction of livestock and
the presence of native caribou herds, and it was recently
suggested that the length of the journey and
the harsher climate of Greenland may account for its
absence (Panagiotakopulu 2014, Panagiotakopulu
and Buckland 2013).
While the continuity of settlement in Iceland and
the Faroes ensured the long-term establishment of
many introduced species, the eventual abandonment
of the Greenlandic colonies led to a few hundred
years interruption in the availability of suitable
habitats for many synanthropic beetles (Sadler 1991,
Sadler and Skidmore 1995). Indeed, Vickers and
Panagiotakopulu (2011) did not identify a single
anthropochorous species in post-abandonment peat
layers at the former Norse settlement of Sandhavn
in Greenland. Böcher (1997) has suggested that
Quedius mesomelinus (Marsham) and Xylodromus
coninnus (Marsham) may have survived in Thule or
Dorset sod houses, as these are the only Norse introductions
that were frequently recorded in the early
20th century. Nevertheless, this hypothesis has yet to
be substantiated through archaeoentomological data.
The introduction of beetle species strongly dependent
on the artificially heated habitats available
in houses and ancillary buildings to North Atlantic
faunas was a direct consequence of the Norse colonization.
There is little doubt that the arrival of the
Norse settlers also played a role in modifying the
distribution and frequency of some native species, as
settlement sites provided a mosaic of microhabitats
that “mimicked” particularly nutrient-rich natural
settings. The beetles Corticaria linearis (Payk.) and
Catops borealis Krog., respectively found in moss
and luxuriant vegetation in Greenland (C. linearis)
and in bird’s nests and burrows in the Faroes (C.
borealis) (Bengston 1981, Böcher 1988), expanded
from their original niches to colonize accumulations
of rotten hay and domestic waste on farms
(Buckland et al. 1998c, Sadler and Skidmore 1995),
whereas the range of other indigenous insects declined
as woodland and scrub was cleared to make
room for pastures and hayfields. For example, the
willow-associated weevils Dorytomus imbecillus
Faust and Rutidosoma globulus (Hbst.), as well as
the psyllid bug Cacopsylla groenlandica (Sulc.),
seem to disappear from certain areas of southwest
Greenland after Landnám as a consequence of
vegetation clearance and the stripping off turf for
building construction (Panagiotakopulu and Buckland
2013). In Iceland, the aquatic beetle Hydraena
britteni Joy, recorded in pre- and post- Landnám layers
at Holt and Ketilsstaðir, became locally extinct
sometime in the 14th or 15th century (Buckland et al.
1991a). Whether this extirpation is to be ascribed to
the introduction of pastoral agriculture or to climate
change is unclear; a combination of those factors is
more likely (Erlendsson et al. 2009). Cooling related
to the Little Ice Age and agricultural impacts may
have influenced not only the fate of H. britenni in
Iceland, but also that of other native North Atlantic
insects including: Euasthetus laeviusculus Mann. in
Greenland (Buckland and Wagner 2001); Calathus
micropterus (Duft.), Coelostoma orbiculare (F.), and
Ochthephilus omalinus (Er.) in the Faroes (Buckland
and Dinnin 1998, Buckland et al. 1998b, Vickers and
Buckland 2013); and the rove beetle Lathrobium
brunnipes (F.) in both Iceland and the Faroes (Buckland
et al. 1991b, 1998b).
Recent palaeoecological work in the region has
shown that the impacts of Landnám on North Atlantic
environments were neither simultaneous nor
spatially homogeneous. At Stóra-Mörk in southern
Iceland, evidence for large-scale environmental
change only becomes apparent in layers deposited
after the eruption of the volcano Katla in A.D. 920,
which was 50 years after the area was colonized by
the Norse (Vickers et al. 2011). Insect remains and
other proxies are indicative of an intensification of
land-use, which is likely to have involved drainage
and the fertilization of fields with animal manure and
domestic waste. Such activities are also apparent
in a profile from the former farm and ecclesiastical
center of Garðar (modern-day Igaliku) in the Norse
Eastern Settlement in Greenland (Buckland et al.
2009a, Panagiotakopulu and Buckland 2012). Insect
specimens such as the spider beetle Tipnus unicolor
(Pill. and Mitt.), sheep keds, and human lice, all of
which ought to have originated within built structures,
likely ended up in the hayfield as a result of
their transport in material used as fertilizer (Buckland
et al. 2009a, Panagiotakopulu et al. 2012). A
contrasting reconstruction of land-use practices
comes from the nearby farm of Tasiusaq, where no
synanthropes were recovered (Panagiotakopulu and
Buckland 2013). In this instance, the sampled peats
were ≈500 m away from the main farm’s ruins, and it
is therefore likely that strongly synanthropic insects
were present in farm buildings but were not able to
reach the sampled area of the hayfield by their own
locomotive means (op. cit.). The contrasting nature
of these findings stresses the variability of land-use
practices and associated environmental change in
Greenland. The latest palaeoecological work in the
Journal of the North Atlantic
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2014 No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
Eastern Settlement (e.g., Ledger et al. 2013, 2014)
also depicts a more heterogeneous cultural landscape
than illustrated in earlier studies (e.g., Fredskild
1973).
Insects and the North Atlantic farm
One of archaeoentomology’s most important
contributions to North Atlantic archaeology was
the formulation of a conceptual model for the provenance
and origin of insect remains on Norse farms
(Buckland et al. 1993). Subsequent research (e.g.,
Forbes and Milek 2013; Smith 1996a, b) has confirmed
many aspects of the initial model while also
highlighting potential pitfalls. We summarize below
various aspects of past subsistence and economies
on North Atlantic farms as examined through the
study of insect remains.
Local resource exploitation. Building with turf
was once widespread in the North Atlantic region
(Ólafsson and Ágústsson 2000). Turf, the active
growing layer of grass which was collected in
blocks from meadows or wetlands for building purposes,
contains fossils of outdoor insects generally
representative of these environments (Kenward et
al. 2012). Its role as a transport agent for outdoor
beetles and bugs into North Atlantic houses, byres,
and barns has long been recognized (e.g., Buckland
et al. 1992, Forbes et al. 2010, Vickers et al. 2005).
Peat is another similar resource that was once commonly
used, although in this instance for fuel and
litter. Separating the insect component of peat and
turf is often difficult, due to the similar ground
beetles and phytophagous insects found in both substrates
(e.g., Amorosi et al. 1992, 1994; Buckland et
al. 1992). Use of peat is likely to introduce aquatic
taxa such as water beetles (Dysticidae), larval caddis
flies (Trichoptera), and non-biting midges (Chironomidae)
as well as mosses and plants common in
wetland environments into archaeological deposits.
Early records of aquatic insects and moss-dwelling
beetles, such as Byrrhus fasciatus (Forst.) and Simplocaria
metallica/elongate Sturm/Sahl, from archaeological
floors on Norse farms were interpreted
as having resulted from the transport and use of peat
as litter (e.g., Buckland et al. 1994). Nevertheless,
more recent work has shown that turf collected from
wetlands can also contain these insects (Forbes and
Milek 2013), stressing the need for caution when interpreting
the provenance of remains of aquatic and
wetland taxa.
As Norse subsistence was largely based on the
products of livestock husbandry, the most important
task of farmers was the cultivation of enough fodder
to overwinter domestic animals (Amorosi et al.
1998). Cattle were normally fed and housed for the
whole winter, but sheep would have been kept outside,
weather permitting (Ogilvie 2000). The buildings
and rooms which served to house them would
have provided ideal ecological conditions for beetle
species feeding on spores, molds, and fungi growing
on decaying plant matter, as well as for species
thriving in foul conditions such as in stable manure.
Most insect assemblages recovered from farm sites
are dominated by species which fall into these ecological
groups and are commonly referred to as the
‘‘barn beetles’’ (e.g., Buckland et al. 1991a, 1992;
Vickers et al. 2005). In Iceland, the insect record
from Norse and later farms commonly include Cryptophagus
spp., Atomaria spp., Latridius minutus
(grp.), Corticaria elongata (Gyll.), and Xylodromus
concinnus (e.g., Buckland et al. 1991a, Forbes et al.
2010, Konráðsdóttir 2007). In Greenland, assemblages
are typically less diverse, and C. elongata
seems to be replaced by C. linearis (Payk.) (Buckland
et al. 1996, McGovern et al. 1983). Today the
“barn beetles” tend to be confined to barns and byres
in the region (Larsson 1959). Yet, this would not
have been the case in the past, when people used
materials such as hay, straw, turf, and peat for a
variety of purposes, from bedding to insulation and
littering in human and animal dwellings (Annandale
1905, Ólafsson and Pálsson 1805). This caveat is
borne out in comparative work on modern faunas
from hay and leaf fodder, thatch roofs, and abandoned
floor deposits in the UK (Smith 1996a, 1996b,
1998, 2000) and in Iceland (Forbes 2013b), which
highlighted the possible flaws in the interpretation
of faunas commonly associated with molding hay.
Insect assemblages from vegetal material used for
flooring and roofing were found to contain species
that might also find suitable ecological conditions in
stored hay.
Terrestrial plants were not the only vegetal matter
to find their way into Norse buildings. Ethnographic
records suggest that seaweed was also utilized on
North Atlantic farms as a source of salt, animal fodder,
bedding, fuel, and fertilizer (Annandale 1905,
Fenton 1978, Hallsson 1964, Ólafsson and Pálsson
1805). Seaweed does not preserve easily, but charred
remains and small mussel shells associated with marine
environments have been recovered from a number
of sites (e.g., Mooney 2008, Vickers et al. 2005,
Zutter 2000). Furthermore, numerous rove beetles,
such as Omalium laeviusculum Gyll. and O. riparium
Thoms., and fragments of the epizootic hydroid
Dynamena pumila (L.) have been recovered from
Icelandic and Greenlandic sites and imply resource
exploitation in the littoral zone (Amorosi et al. 1992,
1994; Buckland et al. 1996; Skidmore 1996).While
it may be difficult to identify the purpose for which
2014 Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
10
seaweed was used, the presence of insects associated
with beached algae may indicate the collection, use,
and possible storage of this material.
Eiderdown was once an important source of
wealth in Scandinavia and northern Europe, but
this natural resource has largely been overlooked in
archaeology (Berglund 2009). Recent examination
of insects from modern eiderdown stores in Iceland
has revealed that this production can be detectable
in the archaeoentomological record through the
identification of bird fleas, including the duck flea
Ceratophyllus garei Rothschild (Forbes 2013b,
Forbes et al. 2013). This species infests groundnesting
birds including plovers and Eider ducks in
Iceland (Brinck-Lindroth and Smit 2007, Henriksen
1939), and like all other Ceratophyllus species,
it spends the largest part of its lifecycle in nests
rather than on the body of its host (Brinck-Lindroth
and Smit 2007). Birds other than Eider ducks are
known to have been exploited for their feathers and
down on Icelandic farms, but these were obtained
through the collection of flight feathers fallen to the
ground or by plucking birds (Beck 2013), which are
unlikely to introduce large numbers of bird fleas in
the archaeological record. The recovery of more
than a hundred Ceratophyllus fleas alongside egg
shell fragments, feathers, and plant debris likely to
have originated from nests in a floor layer at 19thcentury
Vatnsfjörður in northwest Iceland allowed
the first archaeological identification of eiderdown
production activities (Forbes 2013b, Forbes et al.
2013).
Foodstuff imports and trade. The subarctic
climate, which limits the growing season in much
of the North Atlantic region, was a severe impediment
to the cultivation of cereals. Nevertheless,
grain was successfully grown in the Faroes and in
Iceland (Church et al. 2005, Guðmundsson et al.
2012) and perhaps even in the early years of settlement
in Greenland (Henriksen 2012), but production
was never large scale. To complement their largely
meat- and dairy-based diets, the Norse and their
descendants imported grain from abroad. This fact
is evidenced in archaeoentomological studies by
finds of grain pests, the most common including
the grain weevil Sitophilus granarius (L.) and the
saw-toothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis
(L.) (e.g., Amorosi et al. 1992, 1994; Buckland et
al. 1991a, 1992; Vickers and Buckland 2013). In
modern situations, S. granarius has been recorded
from wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats, buckwheat,
millet, and chick peas, and O. surinamensis is
known to attack damaged grain and processed cereals
(Bousquet 1990, Buckland 1990). The former
requires temperatures above 15 °C to complete its
developmental cycle, but as the latter requires at
least 21 °C (Howe 1965), it is unlikely that intermittent
and small stores of locally grown barley
would have provided suitable ecological conditions
to support breeding populations. Therefore, it has
been assumed that most specimens recovered from
archaeological sites arrived along with food cargoes.
Buckland et al. (2009b) recovered 80 specimens of
Aglenus brunneus (Gyll.), a blind and flightless beetle
able to exploit moldy cereals, compost, hay, and
manure (Fogliazza and Pagani 1993, Koch 1989),
in one sample dating from the Medieval Period at
Reykholt in western Iceland. They suggested that
such a large number was indicative of a breeding
population, but that, like S. granarius and O. surinamensis,
the species had no doubt been introduced
with imported grain or other products (Buckland et
al. 2009b, Sveinbjarnardóttir et al. 2007). A. brunneus
is extremely rare today in Iceland (Larsson and
Gígja 1959), which indicates that the species failed
to establish permanent populations in the country
(Buckland et al. 2009b). The analyses of samples
from Postmedieval and Modern phases of occupation
on Icelandic farms yielded additional records of
obligate pest species, some of which were not recovered
from older sites. These finds include the cowpea
weevil Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) from Skálholt
(Konráðsdóttir 2007), the flat grain beetle Cryptolestes
sp. from Þverá (Forbes and Milek 2013),
and the rice/maize weevil Sitophilus oryzae/zeamais
(L.)/Mots. from Vatnsfjörður (Forbes 2013b, Forbes
et al. 2010). The recovery of the non-indigenous ant
species Hypoponera punctatissima and Leptothorax
sp. from Postmedieval Reykholt were also suggested
as indicative of products imported from Europe
(Buckland et al. 2012).
Insect as indicators for specific activities and
room functions. Insects preserved in floors or from
materials derived from floors may provide insights
into specific activities. Human ectoparasites such as
Pediculus humanus L., the human louse, are common
to both Icelandic and Greenlandic farms (Amorosi
et al. 1992, 1994; Buckland et al. 1992; Forbes
et al. 2010; Sveinbjarnadóttir and Buckland 1983);
the latter also yielded records of Pulex irritans L.,
the human flea (Buckland et al. 1998a). Sometimes,
such insect remains are charred, suggesting that the
parasites were discarded into the hearth following
their removal (e.g., Buckland et al. 1992, 1998a). In
some cases, the high quantity of human ectoparasites
has been used to make inferences about the hygiene
of former inhabitants (e.g., Buckland et al. 1992).
However, it must be stressed that poor preservation
conditions may have “sanitized” the archaeoentomological
record, and any interpretation of past
Journal of the North Atlantic
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2014 No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
means. In recent studies from northwest Iceland,
archaeoentomological and archaeobotanical evidence
for down and seaweed were identified in deposits
from storage rooms (e.g., Forbes et al. 2013;
Mooney 2008, 2009).
To test some of the assumptions of the aforementioned
“insect indicator for specific activities”
approach, Forbes and Milek (2013) investigated
insect assemblages from the extant 19th- and early
20th-century turf buildings at Þverá in northeast
Iceland. At this site, the function of each room/building
and the cultural practices that took place inside
them are well documented (Milek 2012) and used to
assist the interpretation of insect remains. Although
all the samples were dominated by mold-feeders
and their predators (the “barn beetles”), statistical
analyses revealed differences in the synanthropic
component of beetle assemblages from the different
rooms and outbuildings. Animal houses were dominated
by mold-feeders more or less tolerant to damp
and unsavory materials and conditions, while the
near-absence of beetles preferring rotting manure
was reminiscent of results obtained from modern
stable manure on British farms (Smith 1998, 2000).
Whether this is attributable to the practice of removing
stable manure from animal buildings for use as
fertilizer, or to other taphonomic factors (see Smith
1998, 2000) is unclear. Pantry floors contained species
preferring drier conditions and facultative pests
in stored products, including Cryptophagus spp. and
Mycetaea subterranea (Marsham), while the bedroom,
kitchen, corridors, and fuel store comprised a
more mixed component, incorporating outdoor species,
synanthropes, and eurytopic taxa. The results
from Þverá identified varying ecological conditions
prevalent in the different rooms, but suggested that
elucidating room functions on archaeoentomological
evidence alone is perhaps unfeasible. Nevertheless,
it may be achieved where entomological data is
well-integrated with other archaeological and proxy
data.
Sanitation and living conditions. The advent
of better cleaning and building technologies and
of a better awareness of the role of insects in the
transmission of plant and animal diseases had the
effect of reducing the overall number of insect
pests in homes, especially in the past 50–60 years
(Busvine 1976, Kenward and Allison 1994). Despite
this, insects are still common in houses today,
and when recovered from old houses, they can be
used as proxies to evaluate past living conditions.
A classic example comes from Norse Greenland,
where the retrieval of many human lice and fleas
from floors believed to have formed in animals
stalls have been used to suggest that farmers lived
hygiene levels undoubtedly reflects our modern-day
prejudices (cf. Buckland et al. 1992, 1993).
Sheep ectoparasites, including sheep keds Melophagus
ovinus (L.) and lice Bovicola ovis (L.), are
also prevalent on Icelandic and Greenlandic farms,
sometimes in large numbers. One example comes
from Stóraborg in Iceland where over 200 sheep
ectoparasites were recovered from a drain, raising
the question of how these insects were deposited in a
closed conduit. Both the mature and immature stages
of these insects tend to remain on the fleece of the
animal during its life (Marshall 1981), and thus casual
losses from stalled animals are unlikely to have
resulted in such an accumulation. By integrating
archaeological, ethnographical, and entomological
evidence, Buckland and Perry (1989) proposed that
high concentrations of sheep ectoparasites were deposited
with the stale urine used as a cleansing agent
in wool processing. When found in small numbers
and scattered throughout samples, sheep keds and
lice have been interpreted as either resulting from
the final preparation of wool or to casual losses from
the animals (e.g., Buckland et al. 1992, Forbes et al.
2010, Panagiotakopulu et al. 2007).
Buckland et al. (1993) suggested that the entomological
record can be used to discriminate rooms
and buildings used by the human occupants from
those employed to house animals. At Postmedieval
Reykholt, ectoparasites from sheep and humans
were found together and interpreted as evidence for
delousing and wool spinning and/or combing. Since
such activities traditionally occured in the stofa
(main living room), the combination of sheep and
human ectoparasites was interpreted as fingerprinting
such an activity area (Buckland et al. 1992:163).
At Nipáitsoq in the Western Settlement in Greenland,
insect remains have also been used to attempt
to identify sleeping quarters. Here, in a sample
matrix containing feathers and down, marine littoral
and moss-dwelling insects were recovered (Buckland
et al. 1983:93–94, McGovern et al. 1983:104),
suggesting that down, mosses, and perhaps seaweed
were used in this room. Henderson (1818), a British
visitor to Iceland during the years 1814–1815,
noted these materials being employed for bedding,
and therefore this assemblage was interpreted as an
indicator of sleeping quarters (Buckland et al. 1983,
McGovern et al. 1983). Whether this approach can
always be defended is debatable. Down, feathers,
seaweed, and moss were used not only as bedding
but also as trade products (down and feathers), fuel
(seaweed), and litter (moss and/or peat) (e.g., Annandale
1905, Beck 2013, Boucher 1989, Hallsson
1964). They could therefore have been incorporated
into occupation deposits through a wide variety of
2014 Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
12
Buckland and Sadler (1991) were the first to explore
the potential of archaeoentomology as a means
of distinguishing shielings from permanent farms.
They argued that the small-sized, remote, and seasonally
occupied buildings could not sustain breeding
populations of mold-feeders and their predators
commonly encountered on permanent farms. For example,
Engihlíð, in eastern Iceland, was interpreted
as a shieling due to the absence of “barn beetle”
fauna and the presence of the dung beetle Aphodius
lapponum Gyll., indicative of the presence of
livestock dung (Buckland and Sadler 1991). Lucas
(2008) also used the absence of synanthropic insects
associated with decaying vegetal matter in samples
from Pálstóftir to support his interpretation of the
site as a shieling. In both these cases, differential
preservation was evident (Buckland 2007a, Buckland
and Sadler 1991), implying that the absence of
thermophilous synanthropes was perhaps an artifact
of taphonomical processes rather than an evidence
for the activities conducted on the sites. Moreover, a
recent study at the known shieling site of Faxadalur,
associated with the larger farm of Reykholt, did recover
taxa commonly associated with organic waste
such as Latridius minutus (grp.), Cryptophagus spp.,
Omalium excavatum Steph. and Aleochara sparsa
Heer (Vickers and Sveinbjarnadóttir 2013). Contrary
to the assumptions of Buckland and Sadler (1991),
the presence of anthropochorous insects at Faxadalur
indicates that synanthropic decomposers can
be transported to shieling sites. As pointed out by
Vickers and Sveinbjarnadóttir (2013), a more careful
consideration of the taphonomy and mechanisms of
dispersal of synanthropes is needed if archaeoentomology
is to help in distinguishing shielings from
permanent farms.
Fossil insect faunas and farm-abandonment
scenarios. An important contribution of archaeoentomology
to North Atlantic archaeology has been in
reconstructing events preceding the abandonment of
Norse Greenland. For example, results of the analysis
of preserved fly remains from the farm of GUS
in the Western Settlement suggested intermittent
phases of temporal abandonments and re-occupation
(Buckland et al. 1998a, Panagiotakopulu 2004,
Panagiotakopulu et al. 2007). Occupation layers at
the site are dominated by remains of the primarily
necrophagous species Heleomyza borealis Bohe and
T. flavipes, a thermophilous synanthrope associated
with protein-rich decaying organic matter. Samples
from abandonment phases were largely devoid of
synanthropic species, and one of these, collected
from the remains of the collapsed roof, contained
many sheep lice and caddis fly larvae. This find
was interpreted as evidence for the formation of a
in close proximity with animals (Buckland et al.
1998a, Panagiotakopulu et al. 2007). Indeed Buckland
et al. (1998a) advanced the theory that this
was a necessity if people had to force-feed the animals
with hardly palatable fodder when hay crops
had failed. The presence of the fly Telomarina
flavipes (Meig.)., whose puparia feed on proteinrich
material, in an alcove containing sheep dung
at Gården under Sandet (GUS), supports the interpretation
of sheep having had a diverse diet that
may have included pounded fish (Panagiotakopulu
et al. 2007). There are several other cases where
insect assemblages were interpreted as evidence for
squalid conditions in human dwellings. The species
Catops borealis Krog. and Quedius mesomelinus
(Marsham) have been used to suggest the presence
of foul residues on floors at Stóraborg (Perry et al.
1985), where the presence of fish bones, mammal
bones fragments, and wood chips also suggested
the deposition of waste and rotting plant materials
on dwelling floors (Sveinbjarnadóttir et al. 1980).
At Nipaítsoq in Greenland, high numbers of Heleomyza
serrata (L.), a fly which breeds mainly
in feces, were recovered in some of the living
rooms and have been used to argue for unsanitary,
squalid conditions (Buckland et al. 1983). The
predominance of decomposer species in the 18thcentury
floors of the Faroese farm at Toftanes was
interpreted as evidence for unsavory indoor conditions
as well (Vickers and Buckland 2013). These
archaeoentomological reconstructions of living
conditions paint a picture of life on North Atlantic
farms which concurs with contemporary descriptions
(e.g., Henderson 1818, Mackenzie 1811).
Yet, such interpretations conflict with studies that
recovered clear evidence for cleaning and floormaintenance
practices and rather salubrious living
environments (Forbes 2013b, Forbes and Milek
2013, Milek 2012). Certainly there is a need for
additional data from across time periods and geographical
areas before we can really start appreciating
how living conditions in turf buildings varied
across time, space, and social classes in the North
Atlantic region.
Transhumance and the identification of shieling
sites. Transhumance, a system whereby animals are
moved for the summer to remote pastures to reduce
pressure on infield pastures, has long been assumed in
the Norse world (Sveinbjarnadóttir 1991). Nevertheless,
the temporary nature of shieling sites makes them
difficult to identify. A variety of methods have been
employed for this purpose, including the study of written
sources and place-names, landscape archaeology,
and pollen analysis (e.g., Albrethsen and Keller 1986,
Ledger et al. 2013, Sveinbjarnadóttir 1991).
Journal of the North Atlantic
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2014 No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
The Archaeoentomology of Palaeo- and Neo-
Eskimo Sites
Hunter-gatherer subsistence activities and their
ecological impacts
Early Quaternary-entomological investigations
in Greenland tended to focus on environmental
changes and the biogeography of insect faunas
(e.g., Böcher 1995, 1997). Some of these studies
were conducted on samples collected from Palaeo-
Eskimo occupation sites or in peat deposits adjacent
to such settlements (e.g., Böcher 1998, Böcher and
Fredskild 1993, Haarløv 1967) and therefore helped
contextualize these sites in contemporary environments.
In peat deposits close to Saqqaq occupation
layers at Sermermiut in Western Greenland, Haarlov
(1967) noted fly puparia and mites (Acarina) associated
with natural habitats ranging from moist or
semi-dry heathlands and beaches to wet meadows.
More than 30 years later, Böcher and Fredskild
(1993) examined insect fossils from midden and occupation
layers at the nearby site of Qeqertasussuk,
also attributed to the Saqaqq culture. They remarked
that several of the identified species were well north
of their present-day geographical ranges, suggesting
that climate was warmer at the time of the Palaeo-
Eskimo occupation than at present (Ibid.).
In addition to providing an environmental context
to archaeological studies, analyses of entomological
fossils from Palaeo-Eskimo and Neo-Eskimo sites
in Greenland and the eastern Canadian Arctic have
begun to illustrate how insects can help reconstruct
certain aspects of hunter-gatherers’ life-ways and
how these may have affected local environments.
Resource exploitation. Material culture and
zooarchaeological studies testify to the utmost
importance of wild terrestrial and marine animal
resources in the subsistence of hunter-gatherer
cultures (e.g., Betts 2008, Sørensen 2012, Woollett
1999). Archaeoentomology has also contributed to
the understanding of these practices. Insects from
cultural layers associated with Palaeo- and Neo-
Eskimo occupations have demonstrated the presence
of carrion on some sites—for example through the
identification of blowfly (Calliphoridae) puparia at
Qeqertasussuk (Böcher and Fredskild 1993) and of
the carrion beetle Thanatophilus lapponicus (Hbst.)
at the 18th-century Thule site of Uivak Point in
Labrador (Bain 2000). Finds of ectoparasites have
also contributed to a better understanding of how
these animals were exploited, processed, and used.
Bird fleas of the genus Ceratophyllus have been
recovered from Qeqertasussuk and were suggested
to be evidence of seabird hunting by Saqaqq people
(Böcher and Freskild 1993). However, since bird
temporary pool and perhaps the return of stray sheep
to the farm. A mummified goat found under the collapsed
roof did not contain any synanthropic flies,
suggesting that the goat died in the ruins post-abandonment,
when the farm was no longer an island of
warmth able to support T. flavipes. Archaeological
evidence indicates that the room was later rebuilt
on top of the animal’s body as the farm was subsequently
re-occupied, prior to final abandonment.
According to the archaeoentomological data, the
inhabitants of GUS may have left the farm during
particularly harsh years (op. cit.).
A different abandonment scenario is suggested
for the farm of Nipaítsoq. Samples interpreted as
the penultimate occupation layers in the presumed
bedroom and living room were strongly dominated
by T. flavipes (Meig.), which was interpreted as indicative
of exceptionally squalid conditions in the
living rooms, “more similar to a latrine than living
quarters” (Panagiotakopulu et al. 2007:304). In the
larder, where there were abundant faunal remains,
the carrion-associated fly species, H. borealis and
Scoliocentra fraterna Loew were also present.
A sharp decrease in T. flavipes and their replacement
by more cold-tolerant species was considered
indicative of an acute temperature change in the
rooms, reflecting the rapid abandonment of the
farm (Panagiotakopulu et al. 2007). In conjunction
with zooarchaeological and palaeoecological
evidence, it was suggested that these fly faunas indicated
that the occupants of Nipaítsoq were clearly
under stress during the last phase of occupation
and that, following a long and harsh winter, they
slaughtered all their cattle and even consumed their
dogs in an attempt for survival (Buckland et al.
1983, McGovern et al. 1983, Panagiotakopulu et al.
2007). The presence of two sarcophagid fly species
in post-abandonment layers is also suggested as
evidence for the death of the farm’s inhabitants in
situ (Panagiotakopulu et al. 2007:304). This rather
dramatic scenario relies heavily on the exceptional
character of the fossil fly data recovered from the
site, especially the abundance of T. flavipes in the
living rooms, but there is limited comparative data
from other North Atlantic farms (Panagiotakopulu
2004, Skidmore 1996).
The archaeoentomological record has certainly
clarified the processes by which two of the farms
came to be abandoned; nevertheless, whether the
demise of the Norse Greenlandic Settlements happened
as a result of its occupants having moved back
to Iceland, or having died in situ following conflicts
and harsh living conditions, still remains a mystery.
2014 Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
14
1994, 1997, 2003; Smith 1992, 1994). These results
imply that hunter-gatherer settlements, with their accumulations
of domestic organic waste and decaying
vegetation from structural sods and flooring material,
undoubtedly created ideal living conditions for
rove beetles normally associated with the upper tidal
zone or other damp settings. Thus, even though true
synanthropic beetles have so far been absent from
such contexts (see below), it is possible to envisage
the house floors and middens of Palaeo- and
Neo-Eskimos settlements as having been similar to
those of Norse and later farmsteads, at least from an
insect’s perspective.
So far, the only synanthropic beetle species to
have been identified from a hunter-gatherer site
in the region is the minute brown fungus beetle
Latridius minutus (grp.), which was recovered from
16th- and 17th-century deposits in Labrador and is
therefore likely to have been introduced through
direct or indirect contact with Europeans (Dussault
and Bain 2010). As discussed by Kenward (1997),
the ability of synanthropic species to colonize
and establish populations in habitats provided by
buildings in northern latitudes is dependent on the
size, permanency, and proximity of such habitats
and on the frequency and/or volume of trade and
contact between settlements. Given the isolation of
Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo settlements and their shortlived
nature, the low diversity of anthropochorous
insects on such sites is unsurprising. The only truly
synanthropic insects recovered from Palaeo/Neo-Eskimo
sites are human ectoparasites. The oldest record
of the human louse Pediculus humanus L. in the
region came from Qeqertasussuk in western Greenland,
in deposits dated from the 2nd millennium B.C.
(E. Panagiotakopulu, unpubl. data in BugsCEP),
long before the arrival of the Norse.
Ectoparasites and hygiene studies in Greenland
The hygiene practices of Palaeo and Neo-Eskimo
groups have long been a focus of interest in the
North Atlantic. Ever since the publication of travelers
and explorers’ accounts of the Polar Inuit, the
perception has been of a dirty, filthy, and unmannerly
people (Henson and Peary 1912, Peary and Peary
1893). This view contrasts with those expressed by
anthropologists and ethnologists who observed and
described daily hygienic practices (Birket-Smith
1976, Rasmussen and Ostermann 1976, Rasmussen
et al. 1994).
The first opportunity to scrutinize such prejudices
came with the discovery of eight Neo-Eskimo
mummies in western Greenland. Adult specimens
and nits (eggs) of human lice were recovered from
the hair and stomachs of these mummies, suggesting
fleas live in nests rather than on their hosts (Brinck-
Lindroth and Smit 2007, Marshall 1981), these fleas
could equally have ended up in the archaeological
record as a result of down or feather collection (see
Forbes et al. 2013).
Plant resources were also integral to Palaeo- and
Neo-Eskimo life, used as food, fuel, flooring, and
bedding (e.g., Böcher and Fredskild 1993, Zutter
2009). Similar to the Norse, many of these cultural
groups also used turf for construction. The influence
of these materials is clearly evident in insect
faunas from occupation deposits and from midden
layers on Eskimo sites. Outdoor insect taxa,
including ground beetles (fam. Carabidae), water
beetles (fam. Dysticidae), moss-feeding pill beetles
(fam. Byrrhidae), and phytophagous weevils (fam.
Curculionidae), likely originated from sods, limbs,
grass, or other vegetation brought into houses by
the Palaeo/Neo-Eskimos (Bain 2000, 2001; Böcher
1998; Böcher and Fredskild 1993; Dussault and
Bain 2010). Indeed, insect faunas at Uivak Point are
in agreement with botanical analyses (Zutter 2009)
that suggest spruce boughs were used as bedding for
the sleeping platform or floor covering. Numerous
bark beetles (family Scolytidae) including the species
Polygraphus rufipennis (Kirby), which attacks
recently broken, cut, or fallen spruce and pine trees
(Wood 1982), were also identified. Their presence,
combined with evidence for wood having been used
in house construction, suggest that the Inuit were actively
harvesting rather than collecting this local resource
(Bain 2000, 2001). The site today is an open,
deforested area similar to many contemporaneous
coastal locations in Labrador, and these analyses
suggest this lack of trees may be the result of human
agency. These findings contradict the idea of Inuit
people as passively reacting to their environmental
settings; instead, insect analyses suggest they created
cultural landscapes. Further work on such preconceptions
is needed to properly confirm or refute
them for North Atlantic hunter-gatherer cultures.
The insect faunas from hunter-gatherers’ homes.
Archaeoentomological faunas also evidenced the
environmental impact of hunter-gatherer settlements
at the micro-scale. Cultural layers from the Palaeo-
Eskimo site of Qeqertasussuk are dominated by fly
puparia and the rove beetle Micralymma brevilingue
Schoïdte, a salt-tolerant decomposer species often
found on beaches (Böcher 1988, Böcher and Fredskild
1993). These findings are remarkable given
that M. brevilingue is rather scarce in Greenland
nowadays even though widely distributed (Ibid.).
Similarly, studies in Nunavut suggest greater concentrations
of mold-related species in house and
midden samples than in natural environments (Bain
Journal of the North Atlantic
15
2014 No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
Latest trends
The discovery by Bain (2000, 2001) of entomological
evidence for Neo-Eskimos’ having exploited
fresh wood for sod house construction challenges
the view of native North American cultures as living
in harmony with nature and therefore having a
limited, perhaps invisible, impact on the environment
(e.g., Billington 1981; Dickason 1996, 1997;
Wenzel 2004). Similarly, the analyses of lake sediments
at the Port au Choix National Historic Site in
Newfoundland documented vegetation, salinity, and
water pH changes that were interpreted as impacts
of Dorset activities, including the processing of seal
skins near Bass Pond (Bell et al. 2005, Renouf 2011,
Renouf and Bell 2008, Renouf et al. 2009). A forthcoming
doctoral project by F. Dussault will further
explore the idea that hunter-gatherers’ exploitation
of animal and vegetal resources available in their
environment may have left a “footprint” in the landscape
of Newfoundland. Archaeoentomological data
associated with Dorset Palaeo-Eskimo occupations
at Phillip’s Garden will be used to reconstruct the
living conditions in winter sod houses and identify
the natural resources locally available for exploitation
at Port au Choix. As such, the project will complement
lake-sediment proxies studied by Renouf et
al. (2009) with finer-scale reconstructions of living
conditions and activities inside Dorset houses and
in their immediate surroundings. New data from
Neo-Eskimo settlements in southwest Greenland
(Vickers 2012) and ongoing analyses on Inuit sites
in Labrador by Bain also promise to reveal new
insights into the nature and scale of the impact of
hunter-gatherers’ activities on North Atlantic environments.
Since Buckland and Panagiotakopulu’s (2005)
review of archaeological and palaeoecological research
in the North Atlantic, new insect data from
regions that had been largely ignored in Iceland
have been studied (e.g., Forbes 2013a, b, c; Forbes
et al. 2010; Hellqvist 2013). The analysis of insect
remains from 19th-century Vatnsfjörður has established
a link between the presence of duck fleas
Ceratophyllus garei and eiderdown production,
providing a unique means to identify such activities
in the archaeological record (Forbes et al. 2013).
Furthermore, Forbes’ (2013b) doctoral thesis has
revealed the potential for the processes of modernization
to be traced using the archaeoentomological
approach. The recovery of the earliest Icelandic
records of species of subtropical and tropical origin—
Ptinus tectus Boield., Cryptolestes sp., and
Sitophilus oryzae/zaemais (L.)/Mots—from samples
collected at Vatnsfjörður and Þverá indicated that the
occupants of these sites were engaged in worldwide
the consumption of lice as part of delousing practices
(Bresciani et al. 1983, 1989; Hansen et al.
1991). Furthermore, recent research in northwest
Greenland examined insect remains recovered from
four different houses and allowed the recovery of
numerous body and head lice P. humanus and of a
single specimen of pubic lice Phthirus pubis (L.)
from the site of Cape Grinnell (Dussault 2011).
Higher concentrations of human lice were recovered
in entrance tunnels than in the living areas and
sleeping platforms, and Dussault (2011) argued that
these ectoparasite concentrations were the result of
human activity, with spatial distribution of parasites
influenced by delousing practices. The presence of
bird lice of the genus Ricinus (= Nirmus) sp., which
spend their whole lifecycle on the body of their host
(Séguy 1944), in the main living area and the entrance
tunnel, was interpreted as an indication that
birds had been prepared for consumption in these
areas. Dog lice of the species Linognathus setosus
Von Olfers were also identified from the entrance
tunnels and living areas, suggesting that dogs may,
at times, have been permitted in houses. As these
records are from the 13th to 17th century and pre-date
European contact, they rule out the possibility of
the dog louse having been introduced to Greenland
through interactions with Europeans, but it is possible
that Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo groups played
a role in its dispersal. These results indicate that
ectoparasites were a part of the daily lives of the
Polar Inuits and that hygienic practices were known
and undertaken by these people. These findings are
consistent with the Inughuit oral tradition but contradict
19th-century western prejudices (Dussault
2011, Forbes et al. 2013).
The Future of Archaeoentomology in the North
Atlantic
Archaeoentomologists’ work in the North Atlantic
region has contributed new insights into a
wide range of questions, from the reconstruction of
site-scale economic and domestic activities to the
assessment of the nature, timing, and impacts of the
complex interactions between humans and their environment.
Despite the growing numbers of studies,
the archaeoentomological record remains patchy
for many reasons, including variable preservation
conditions, a lack of adequate funding and trained
specialists, limited awareness of the potential of the
methods, and logistical difficulties with working
on sites of remote locations. However, new and
ongoing archaeoentomological projects have started
to explore innovative and promising pathways for
future research.
2014 Journal of the North Atlantic No. 26
V. Forbes, F. Dussault, and A. Bain
16
trade networks at least from the late 19th century.
Additionally, the earliest Icelandic records of the
cattle-biting lice Bovicola bovis (L.) were found at
Hornbrekka and Þverá and are contemporary with
documentary evidence for the import of foreign
cattle as part of efforts to improve Icelandic agriculture
(Thoroddsen 1919). These results suggest the
pursuit of further archaeoentomological analyses
on Postmedieval and Modern sites can not only
enhance our understanding of the history of human
migrations, trade and their role in the dispersal of
pests around the world (e.g., Buckland 1981, King et
al. 2014), but also reveal how globalization and the
implementation of ideas for improvement impacted
people’s lives in the recent past.
Future challenges
The recognition of the value of archaeoentomological
research in the North Atlantic region is
unfortunately not sufficient to ensure its perennity.
Obviously, the possibility of conducting any type of
research is dependent on the availability of funding,
resources, and suitable facilities. Archaeological
excavations are inherently destructive, and only
detailed and robust post-excavation analyses on
finds, sediments, and biological remains can allow
highly detailed reconstructions of past human activity
and living conditions. Ideally, provision for
such analyses should be conditional to undertaking
excavations, but in reality, with limited funding and
the “salvage” nature of many excavations, this ideal
is difficult to achieve. These problems are exacerbated
when undertaking research in remote areas such
as Greenland and Northern Canada, where funding
needs to cover equipment, transport, and shipping
costs, leaving little for post-excavation research.
Even though it is clear that the numerous archaeoentomological
datasets published since the 1960s
have contributed to the awareness and potential of
this method, it is still not uncommon for insect remains
to be extracted from subsamples of sediment
collected for archaeobotanical analysis or from samples
that have already been processed. This approach
is not ideal, since plant and insect remains do not
necessarily preserve in similar conditions and the
best extraction procedures for insect remains (paraffin
floatation; see Kenward et al. 1980) differ from
those used for plant macrofossils. It is fortunate that
sampling for archaeoentomological analysis is much
less uncommon in the North Atlantic region than
it once had been, but we also need to ensure these
samples are duly stored, processed, and analyzed.
The time, resources, and methods needed for archaeoentomological
analyses vary depending on the
questions that are being asked and the nature of the
sediment sampled. Thus, one way to ensure the best
use of archaeoentomology is to include, or at least
consult, specialists early in the planning process.
This approach requires archaeological project managers
to be well aware of the potential applications
of insect analyses and to be able to identify whether
information derived from entomological remains
could help them attain their research objectives.
In providing an overview of the types of questions
that can be addressed with archaeoentomology in
the North Atlantic region, it is hoped that this paper
will raise awareness concerning an important but
under-exploited methodology and stimulate new
ventures for archaeoentomological research in the
North Atlantic region and beyond.
Acknowledgments
Foremost we wish to acknowledge the work of Paul
Buckland and the late Peter Skidmore, whose pioneering
research in the North Atlantic inspired us to work in this
fascinating region. Magnus Hellqvist and Hrönn Konráðsdóttir
are thanked for providing access to unpublished material.
Collaborators on archaeological excavations in Canada
(William Fitzhugh, Susan Kaplan, Daniel Odess, Douglas
Stenton, Marianne Stopp, Patricia Sutherland, and James
Woollett), Greenland (Geneviève LeMoine and Christyann
Darwent), and Iceland (Jesse Byock, Ágústa Edwald, Bjarni
F. Einarsson, Vala Garðarsdóttir, Guðrún Alda Gísladóttir,
Garðar Gudmundsson, Megan Hicks, Oddgeir Isaksen,
Ramona Harrison, Steinunn J Kristjánsdóttir, Gavin Lucas,
Tom McGovern, Karen Milek, Guðmundur Ólafsson, Lilja
Pálsdóttir, Howell M. Roberts, John Steinberg, Ragnheidur
Traustadóttir, Orri Vésteinsson, James Woollett, and Davide
Zori) are acknowledged for sampling for insects on their
sites! This paper has greatly benefitted from comments from
Phil Buckland and two anonymous reviewers. All mistakes
and omissions are our own.
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