Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 67

PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES WHEN USING BEETLE REMAINS (COLEOPTERA) FOR INTERPRETATION OF
POST-MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE INTERDISCIPLINARY HÓLAR PROJECT, ICELAND
Chryptophagous, a large family where the
species are difficult to identify to species
level; however, the species of this family
are usually found in the same
environments as Catops borealis.
Insect remains may also play a more
straightforward role in understanding the
origin of the rooms, as in the case of two
rooms that were interpreted as possible
storage rooms in connection to the
‘kitchen’; one small room with clear size
limits (Fig. 4) and a connecting larger
room. The larger room had flat boulders in
the floor that were possibly used as a
support for receptacles. The samples from
the smaller store were rather poor in insect
remains with a few unidentifiable remains
to species level and the common
Otiorhynchus-species. In the larger room
the common and in Iceland well-spread
ground beetle Amara apricaria was
identifíed: this beetle is found in many
types of environment such as open
ground, in all kinds of soil types, and in
gardens, as it favours human activities. It
thus probably came into the house by
occasional entry. One individual of Ptinus
fur was identified, and although this
species supports the interpretation of
storage, one individual does not provided
sufficient support in this case for this
usage of the room.
The presence of the dung beetle
Aphodius lapponum in the larger room did
not support the interpretation of it as a
storage room, as this beetle is connected to
dung from grazing animals, especially
sheep dung (Jessop, 1986); reindeer dung
in high mountain areas and cow dung in
the forest areas (Landin, 1957). There is
only one individual of this species in
samples from the 2003 excavation and
thus the interpretation must be considered
with caution. However, combined with
Ptinus fur, the dung beetle might indicate
that the floor sampled in the room
represented a later or even the last phase in
the building, when it was reused as a stable
or sheep house.
Conclusion
The usage of insect fossil remains for
interpretation of the Icelandic household,
economy and human-environment
interaction in post-medieval times is
considerable and is evident through the
growing number of investigations
performed during the last ten years. There
are both problems and possibilities when
using the method, as shown by examples
in the Hólar material. The degree of
preservation is usually very good, so
problems are primarily connected to low
species diversity and few finds, leading to
more uncertain interpretations. On the
other hand these problems may be more or
less secondary when subfossil insects
remains are identified to species level,
since even with small individual numbers
the quality of the results increase with
detailed species information. When
possible, combinations of different
methods are always the most
advantageous way for analysing soil
samples from archaeological sites. Few or
single methods may however sometimes
be the only ones available during
excavations and the problems and
possibilities of a method should always be
tested to measure the quality of the results.
The material presented here, alongside
other results, shows the strength of
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