Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 57

PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES WHEN USING BEETLE REMAINS (COLEOPTERA) FOR INTERPRETATION OF
POST-MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE INTERDISCIPLINARY HÓLAR PROJECT, ICELAND
the possibility of investigating the
function and interior environment of the
buildings (Buckland et. al., 1995).
Previous projects involving the study
of insect remains in house floor samples in
the North Atlantic region have examined
particular issues such as high-status
settlements in Iceland (e.g. Amorosi et.al.,
1992) and Norse settlements in Greenland
(e.g. Buckland et.al., 1983). These
projects generally reveal good
preservation in their samples, with
remnants of both plant and insect remains.
In several cases the insect fauna has been
diverse, being dominated by beetles
(Coleoptera) and puparia of true flies
(Diptera).
It is, however, important to remember
that the study of settlements from house
floors presents a complex taphonomic
situation: remains may represent any or
all of the indoor environment and reflect
the functions of different rooms; or may be
“background fauna” from the surrounding
environment and activities; or be
generated from incoming products and
materials from outside the settlement. It is
also important to consider the various
activities that may be reflected in the
samples collected such as the construction
of and repairs to a house, indoor activities,
change in activities over time, and
different daily activities, such as cleaning.
This variety should be taken into
consideration during the interpretation of
floor samples and may be compared with
that from other constructions like wells
that are often found and routinely sampled
during excavations in for example
Sweden. Wells may function as traps for
insects in particular, and samples of the
relevant layer during its use provide
infonnation about the influx of material
from a broad range of environments and
activities around the site.
Another common feature found in
archaeological excavations that is also
routinely studied in Iceland is the farm
midden, which has been sampled and
investigated in Hólar. This kind of feature
has been routinely investigated in Iceland
and well described in previous
publications (e.g. Zutter, 1989, 1997, for
examples of palaeoecological analysis of
midden material).
Knowledge about houses in Iceland
including how they were built and the
distribution of the rooms and activities in
them was developed early, during
excavations of famous sites such as Stöng
(Roussell, 1943) and Stóraborg (e.g.
Sveinbjamadóttir et.al., 1981; Snæsdóttir,
1989; Buckland & Perry, 1989). The
Stöng site is of particular interest because
it was reconstructed between the years
1969 and 1977 (Áugústsson, 1983). This
is one of several reconsfructions of earlier
buildings in Iceland dating from the 19th
century back to the Viking age. Although
there is active discussion about the
historical reliability of such
reconstructions, and how to protect the
buildings preserved within them, they all
provide very useful insights about the
indoor environment of houses when
interpreting results from analyses of
samples from excavated former buildings.
The use of insect analysis
(palaeoentomology) in geological and
archaeological investigations has
developed much during the last 50 years,
and, as the number of studies has
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