Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 105

INSECT, MAN AND THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT . .
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the absence of mammalian herbivores be-
fore Man on both the Faroes and Iceland,
the appearance of the dung and hay fauna,
the former now ubiquitous on the islands,
must clearly indicate the arrival of Man on
more than a casual, occasional landing
basis. In addition, changes in the fre-
quency of the endemic (at least since the
end of the last glaciation, cf. Buckland,
1988) insect fauna might also be useful
indicators of the impact of Man.
Results
The modern beetle fauna of the Faroe Is-
lands has recently been reassessed (Bengt-
son, 1981), providing the necessary back-
ground to research upon the fossil biota.
With the model predicted, fieldwork was
carried out in association with Jóhannes
Jóhansen in 1985 at both his major pre-
Norse Landnám localities, at Lambi and
Uldalíð on Mykines and at Tjørnuvík on
Streymoy. In addition, samples from de-
posits known to predate Landnám by seve-
ral thousand years were recovered from
sites in Saksunardalur on Streymoy to pro-
vide an indication of natural assemblages
in the islands unaffected by Man. This
note does not concern the detail of the
faunas from the three localities, which will
be published elsewhere (Buckland, Dinnin
& Sadler, in prep.), but is restricted to the
evidence for Landnám. Whilst pollen may
survive in soil profiles, insects are rapidly
eroded in such situations and rarely survi-
ve to be incorporated into younger sedi-
ments. Their contemporaneity with the
enclosing deposit is therefore rarely in
doubt.
Mykines
At Lambi, on the most westerly of the
islands, Mykines, Dahl (1970) had suggest-
ed that a system of embanked fields were
reminiscent of ‘stone walls in the Celtic
regions.1 Jóhansen (1979) had sampled this
site and, at a depth of 1.01 m, had obtain-
ed pollen of oats (Avena sp.) and, at 0.85
m, that of barley (Hordeum sp.). The site
was extensively disturbed by puffin burr-
ows and no suitable deposits existed for
the recovery of samples for examination
for fossil insects. Similar problems atten-
ded the palynology to the extent that the
sequence obtained for radiocarbon dating
gave inconsistent results because of the
incorporation of old carbon by slope wash.
Deposits at Uldalíð, 1 km to the east, were
correllated with Lambi by pollen analysis
and further radiocarbon samples from this
site gave consistent results. The latter sec-
tion was an erosion scar, 1.2 m high, at 190
m a.s.l., on a slight south-westerly facing
slope in short grazed grassland to the east
of the modern farms, and adjacent to anot-
her field system. Jóhansen (1979) had
obtained samples from the organic sedi-
ments at the site and constructed a pollen
diagram. The radiocarbon dates from this
section allowed a date of 600-700 A.D. to
by proposed by interpolation for the
Lambi fields by comparison of the two di-
agrams (Jóhansen, 1979; 1985, 56). The
original sampling locality remained expos-
ed in 1985 and was cut back and resampled
by Buckland and Jóhansen. The upper
part of the exposure consisted of oxidised,
peaty slope wash, with much small gravel
of basalt, and irregular bedding planes; its
disturbed, aerated nature made it unsui-
table for sampling for invertebrate remains