Thatch, Turves and Floor Deposits: a Survey of Coleoptera in Materials from Abandoned Hebridean Blackhouses and the implications for their Visibility in the Archaeological Record

Smith, David

doi:10.1006/jasc.1996.0014

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Hay, straw, turf and a variety of other materials will have been used for roofing as well as in stables, and no doubt old roofing frequently found re-use as litter. Smith (1996) considers problems of recognizing roofing material via insect remains, drawing a contrast between the fauna of roofing and associated floors in abandoned Hebridean ''blackhouses''.…”

Section: Haymentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Bioarchaeological Interpretation Using Indicator Groups: Stable Manure as a Paradigm

Kenward¹,

Hall²

1997

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Section: Haymentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Bioarchaeological Interpretation Using Indicator Groups: Stable Manure as a Paradigm

Kenward¹,

Hall²

1997

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…The use of the same resources for different functions, the possibility that plant macrofossils and insect remains are components of other resources (such as peat), the mixing of deposits, and unknown deposition rates (cf. Smith, 1996), make it very difficult to unravel the complex paths by which the plant macrofossils and insect remains were incorporated into the deposits. Peat and turves will introduce plant and insect remains which may be far older than the context in which they are deposited, and these may cause interpretational problems (Buckland et al, 1993).…”

Section: Results and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toftanes: The Paleoecology of a Faroese Landnám Farm

et al. 2005

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For the first time in the Faroe Islands, the paleoecological content of an early Norse farm has been sampled comprehensively in an effort to understand how it functioned and its relationship to the landscape in which it was located. Organic deposits indicate an increase in species diversity at the time of settlement, including the introduction of several new species. Plant resources from various areas of the treeless landscape were exploited and farm buildings contained suites of synanthropic insects dominated by those associated with accumulations of decaying plant debris. Potential fuels included wood, peat, dung, and seaweed. Insect faunas lacked both ectoparasites and a significant foul beetle component. This may be a reflection of animal husbandry, with stock not being stalled over winter in the farm buildings examined, or an absence of wool-processing in the buildings. Results compare well with other sites in the North Atlantic and argue for the consistent nature of the Norse farming economy across the region.

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“…Similar observations have been made by Kenward et al . () and Smith (,) during investigations of insect faunas from roofing turf and thatch. The materials and conditions within the buildings, in this study, seem to have exerted a strong influence on the composition of synanthropic faunas and the relative abundance of different taxa, but it is important to stress that spatial (altitude, longitude, climate) and temporal (time and duration of investigation) factors, as well as variations in population densities from species to species (Schowalter, ), are also likely to have played a role.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To overcome these problems, studies of modern 'death assemblages' (groups of organisms that were not necessarily associated during their lives but were recovered together after death) have been compared with archaeological faunas (e.g. Osborne, 1983;Smith, 1996aSmith, ,1996bSmith, , 1998Smith, , 2000Hellqvist, 2004;Smith et al, 2005;Kenward et al, 2012). Also, multivariate statistics have been used to define 'indicator groups' of taxa by their recurrent associations in the archaeological record (Carrott & Kenward, 2001;Kenward & Carrott, 2006;Smith, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The life and death of barn beetles: faunas from manure and stored hay inside farm buildings in northern Iceland

Forbes

Dugmore

Ólafsson³

2016

Ecological Entomology

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1. Subfossil beetle remains from archaeological sites have proven invaluable for examining past living conditions, human activities, and their impacts on landscapes and ecosystems. 2. In Iceland, specific economic practices (e.g. land management and natural resource exploitation) and major historical events (i.e. colonisation, economic intensification and commercialisation, and urbanisation) have affected local environments and left recognisable traces in the beetle subfossil record. 3. Understanding the ecology of synanthropic beetles is crucial if they are to be employed in high‐resolution reconstructions of past lifeways and their ecological impacts, yet, because buildings' interiors are rarely the object of systematic entomological research, the ecological requirements of many such species are poorly understood. 4. A survey was conducted of live and dead beetle faunas from habitats that have so far been largely neglected by entomological research: stable manure and stored hay inside farm buildings, two key facets of a northern European pastoral economy. 5. The present results clarify the ecological requirements of some under‐studied synanthropic beetles and the processes by which their exoskeletons may become incorporated into the archaeological record while also producing new records of exotic species recently introduced to Iceland. 6. This paper provides crucial guidance for the interpretation of archaeological beetle assemblages and highlights the potential of further investigations of indoor insect faunas for clarifying the causes, processes, and ecological impacts of recent bio‐invasions.

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Thatch, Turves and Floor Deposits: a Survey of Coleoptera in Materials from Abandoned Hebridean Blackhouses and the implications for their Visibility in the Archaeological Record

Cited by 22 publications

References 7 publications

Enhancing Bioarchaeological Interpretation Using Indicator Groups: Stable Manure as a Paradigm

Enhancing Bioarchaeological Interpretation Using Indicator Groups: Stable Manure as a Paradigm

Toftanes: The Paleoecology of a Faroese Landnám Farm

The life and death of barn beetles: faunas from manure and stored hay inside farm buildings in northern Iceland

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