Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1971, Page 145

A Palaeobotattical Study Iadicating a Previking Settlement 153
45 my. Among chese large pollen grains there is a certain
degree of variation, which might be due to occurrence of Ely-
mus arenarius. If this is so, Elymus would also have been
introduced by man, because the large pollen grains are not
found earlier. The corn which has been cultivated in the Faroes
up to the present time is Hordeum vulgare. Elymus, which in
Iceland has been grown as a corn plant (see e. g. Grøntved
1942), has not been oultivated in the Faroes as far as we know.
It is only present in a few places and is absent in Tjørnuvík
today.
Urtica. Urtica dioica has in an earlier work (Jóhansen 1968)
been demonstrated to be a native member of the Faroese flora.
It is muoh favoured by man and is today found only in in-
habited areas.
Geranium (sylvaticum). Pollien of this plant is found under
the settlement horizon, and it is probably naitive to the islands.
Plantago lanceolata. Pollen grains of this plant are found
long before the settlement that is demonstrated here. Up to
now it has not been found in the Faroes in deposits older than
ca. 1000 b.c. The history of this plant and its relationsihip
to a possible older settlement will be treated in a future work.
Not all the plants which have been included in the pollen
sum have been included in the diagram, for instance arboreal
pollen which originated outside the Faroes, and plants which
are represented only by some scattered pollen grains with no
affinity to the settlement. Examples of this group are Empe-
trum, Thalictrum, Polypodium, Selaginella and others. Ex-
cluded from both the pollen sum and the diagram are Meny-
anthes, Potamogeton and Sphagnum. They occur only in small
quantities.
Macrofossil analysis. From the open profile, sampLes were
taken for macrofossil analysis. It has not been possible to
make any systematic studies to present in this publication;
only a few — not unimportant — facts have been obtained.
As mentioned above, it has been possible to identify Rumex
11 — Fróðskaparrit