Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1998, Side 289

SEINHOLOSENAR SKORDÝRAKANNINGAR OG ENDURMETING AV
FLOGSÁÐ- OG BÚSKRÁSETINGUM í MYKINESI
295
Discussion
The suggestion that the deposits at Uldalíð
has been extensively disturbed by burrow-
ing puffins and the slope instability evident
within the stratigraphy as seen in 1985 (Fig.
3), throws some doubt on the validity of the
pollen diagram as a continuous record of
change, despite the conformable and seem-
ingly reasonable sequence of radiocarbon
dates from the base to the top of the section.
The extent of disturbance caused by puffins
is only too evident on the Lambi site, where
not only are the sediments deeply burrowed
into by the birds, but the size of colonies
has in the recent past led to land-slips. In
addition, the marine diet of the birds may
also have resulted in a diluted old carbon
effect in any dates on associated plant de-
bris. It is unfortunate, but the evidence from
Mykines would seem too unreliable to be
used to support a model of pre-Norse, Irish
settlement in the Faroe Islands.
The faunas are also interesting in the ex-
tent to which they overlap with Bengtson’s
(1981) infield assemblages, and it is proba-
ble that several elements in this essentially
anthropogenic fauna were able to move
over from the eutrophic habitats of bird
cliffs and puffinries to the man-made habi-
tats of manured infields. Collecting at Lam-
bi, where the entire field system is bur-
rowed into by puffrns (Fig. 3), produced a
short list of modem beetles (Table 3). This
shows some overlap with the Uldalíð fossil
assemblages, although comparison be-
tween hand collected material and fossil as-
semblages is always difficult. It is possible
that Megasternum boletophagum relates to
the highly eutrophic pools, which appear at
the back of small landslips occasioned by
the birds’ activities (Fig. 3). The dating of
the Uldalíð assemblages remains doubtful,
and some elements in the fauna may well
have moved in from man-made accumula-
tions of rotting plant debris and other detri-
tus, similar to those of bird cliffs, having
been initially accidentally introduced by
the first settlers.
In spite of some questioning of the assig-
nation of the cereal-type pollen to the Ave-
na or Hordeum categories, it seems likely
that the pollen from Lambi does derive
from the Cerealia. Given the probable na-
ture of the mixed assemblages, as indicated
by the radiocarbon dates, it does not seem
sensible to aver too strongly that oats
should have temporal primacy over barley,
irrespective of their true taxonomic identi-
ty. In any case, if the first settlers on
Mykines did come from Ireland, they
would have had barley as well as oats at
their disposal. Furthermore, any Norse set-
tlers could have come directly or indirectly
from Ireland, or elsewhere, bringing oats
with them.The inferred cultural link be-
tween the palynological evidence and a
pre-Norse, Irish presence should probably
be regarded as highly tenuous.
Acknowledgements
Sampling was carried out in the company of the late
Jóhannes Jóhansen, and despite our differing conclu-
sions about the site, he continued a fruitful and friendly
dialogue right up to his final illness. Funding from the
Leverhulme Trust for the project, ‘Viking Settlement,
Climate and Environmental Change around the North
Atlantic’ and the University of Birmingham made the
fieldwork possible, and the Faroese Natural History Mu-
seum (Føroya Náttúrugripasavn) provided funds for a
helicopter, when rough seas stranded the group on