Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 65

Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 65
Pre-Landnam Plantago lanceolata in North-West Iceland J. D. Hansom og D. J. Briggs Abstract Recent finds of pre-Landnam Plantago lan- ceolata in sediment cores from North-west Iceland show that the plant was present well before the arrival of early settlers. This ap- pears to be a fairly common trend in the western and northern islands of Europe since pre-settlement P. lanceolata is also known from Britain and Faroe as well as elsewhere in Iceland. It follows that, without substantial supporting evidence, great cau- tion must be exercised in the use of this spe- cies as an indicator of human settlement. Introduction Plantago lanceolata often carries the label of being a so-called anthropogenic indicator (Berglund, 1985; Vorren, 1986) and its ap- pearance in pollen cores is frequently recog- nised as heralding the arrival of humans. For example, Iversen (1941) demonstrated the significance of the pollen curve of this spe- cies as an indicator of the progress of the deforestation of Denmark by prehistoric peoples. Godwin (1944, 1948) also showed that the pollen curve of P. lanceolata ran closely parallel to the pollen curves typical of the creation of heathlands in East Anglia and of the variation in cultivation intensity from the Late Bronze Age to Late Roman times in England. The indicator value of P. lanceolata lies in its common association to- day with pasture and cultivation, its relative intolerance of competition from woody plants and its prolific production of wind- borne pollen (Godwin, 1975). More recently, the appearance of P. lanceolata at 2300BC and 390BC in the Faroe Islands has been used as evidence of prehistoric settlement (Johansen, 1989). This paper aims to call into question the use of P. lanceolata on its own, and in small quantities, as an indicator species in Britain, Iceland and the Faroes since it can be demonstrated to occur widely in pre-settlement Britain, considerably earli- er than Landnam in Iceland and probably precedes humans in Faroe. Pre-Landnam P. lanceolata in North-West Iceland Recent geomorphological investigations in Vestfirdir, North-west Iceland (Fig. 1) have revealed deposits of undisturbed marine silts capped by freshwater peats which yield both pollen and microplankton in abundance (Hansom and Briggs, 1991). At Hvitahlid, Fróðskaparrit 38.-39. bók (1989-90): 69-75
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