Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 104

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INSECT, MAN AND THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT .
ent claims by Margret Hermanns-Auðar-
dóttir (Hermannsdóttir 1986; Hermanns-
Auðardóttir 1989) for early settlement of
Vestmannaeyjar by Merovingians are not
well supported by palynological evidence
(Hallsdóttir, 1984) and have engendered
heated debate in the Icelandic national
press (1989).
In both Iceland and the Faroe Islands,
the impact of Man and his domestic ani-
mals on the natural vegetation are well
documented in the palynological record
(cf. Hallsdóttir, 1987; Jóhansen, 1985),
but Man does not travel alone, and, along
with his domestis animals, he brings a rich
harvest of uninvited guests, from the lice
referred to in the same geography by
Dicuil (Sveinbjarnardóttir & Buckland,
1983), to his fleas (Buckland & Sadler,
1989) and the ectoparasites of his stock
(Buckland & Perry, 1989). All are recogni-
sable in the archaeological record, indeed,
where bone preservation is poor, as at
post-medieval Reykholt in Iceland (Svein-
bjarnardóttir, Buckland & Sadler, in
prep.), the only evidence for domesticates
may lie in their well-preserved ectopara-
sites. Such animals, however, are largely
restricted to the immediate proximity of
settlement, and, although the sheep ked,
Melophagus ovinus, may be found at the
present day in shed fragments of fleece
over the Faroese countryside, the chances
of examples surviving in the fossil record
or being recovered during sampling seem
infinitely remote.
The fauna liable to take advantage of
Man or be casually, unwittingly transpor-
ted by him is not restricted to parasites,
and the sailing ships of the recent past
have accounted for the worldwide distribu-
tion of many plants and animals (cf. Elton,
1957). Much of this fauna of tramps and
hitchikers consists of insects, many of
which survive in identifiable form as
fossils. This has allowed not only some ref-
inement to the work of Lindroth (1957) in
documenting introductions as a result of
transatlantic trade, but has also indicated
the large scale of earlier anthropochorous
dispersal around the North Atlantic
(Sadler, in press). The casually dispersed
fauna, preserved in anaerobic sediments,
particularly the insects associated with hay
and dung, provide a powerful potential
tool in the study of human dispersal, sett-
lement and ways of life (cf. McGovern et
al., 1983; Buchland et al., in press;
Buckland, 1988). Where independent dat-
ing is available, the earliest deposits in Ice-
land and Greenland produce extensive
anthropochorous insect faunas, not only in
immediate association with the archaeo-
logy, (cf. Buckland et al., 1983), but also
in the landscape around the farms (Buck-
land et al., 1986; in press). Dunnage and
ballast provided abundant suitable habit-
ats for the transport of invertebrates, as
well as the occasional small vertebrate (cf.
Berry, Jacobsen & Peters, 1978). Changes
at Landnám are readily apparent in the
fossil insect faunas and involve not only in-
troductions, but also the expansion of
species previously restricted to such places
as the nutrient enriched areas around bird
colonies, to the similar, if not more diverse
habitats around farms (Buckland et al., in
press).
As it appears possible to define Land-
nám in palynological terms in the stratig-
raphic record, it may be similarly defined
by changes in the fossil insect faunas. In