Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 61

Harp Seals in the Icelandic Archaeofauna: Sea Ice and Hard Times
archaeological record? More specifically,
can harp seal remains be confidently uti-
lised as a proxy indicator of climate change,
sea ice incidence and subsistence stress?
This paper seeks to establish that harp
seal hunting need not be exclusively linked
with sea ice incidence, that it was not nec-
essarily driven by hard times and that in-
deed, Icelanders anticipated and prepared
annually for the arrival of harp seals in Ice-
landic waters. Furthermore, while climate
remains a significant factor with regard to
harp seal distribution and breeding behav-
iour (Johnston et al. 2012), other variables
require consideration beyond that of sea ice
incidence in order to explain the presence
of harp seals in Icelandic waters. In order
to effect such a consideration, what follows
is an outline of the ecology of the harp seal
in the Greenland Sea, a review of Icelandic
archaeofaunal assemblages with harp seal
bone, the Icelandic historical archive and
recent bio-geographical studies pertaining
to harp seals in Icelandic waters. The dating
terminology follows that of the historical
and archaeological source material in the
use of Anno Domini (AD).
Current distribution and breeding
behaviour of harp seals in the
Greenland Sea
Of the three populations of harp seal (Ice-
landic: vöðuselur, lit: herd or pack seal)
associated with the Arctic and North At-
lantic, those found in Icelandic waters
are generally assumed to be derived from
Greenland Sea stock (Hauksson 1986;
Hauksson & Bogason 1997). Indeed, tag-
ging studies have demonstrated that harp
seals captured in the Denmark Strait were
pupped on the Greenland Sea pack ice (Ka-
pel 1996; Folkow et al. 2004). The Green-
land Sea population of approximately
650,000 harp seals is migratory, utilising at
various times of the year feeding grounds
between Greenland (Denmark Strait) and
Spitzbergen (Svalbard) (Kapel 1996; Sten-
son et al. 2012). Studies show that they
also travel farther afield into the Barents
Sea (Folkow et a.1. 2004). From autumn,
harp seals gather on the ice north/north-
west of Jan Mayen. Here, dispersed groups
of female harp seals give birth (February-
March) before abandoning the pups after
two to four weeks. As the Jan Mayen ice
begins to driít southwards, the adults mate
(March) and then move to ice north of
Jan Mayen where they moult (April) affer
which they return to their feeding grounds
in the Greenland Sea. The pups, affer wean-
ing, spend four to six weeks at the ice edge
before following the adults on their north-
ward migration (Ronald & Healey 1981).
Historically, whelping areas were found
upon the “West Ice” or “Odden”, a tongue
of ice that extended from the East Green-
land ice edge toward Jan Mayen. The exact
location of the whelping areas varied ac-
cording to sea ice condition and the drift
of the West Ice from year to year. During
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