Karen Milek
Biographic Data
| ID | 3487208 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karen Milek |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karen |
| FAMILY NAME | Milek |
| SIGNATURE | MILEK K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Aberdeen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8083-6240 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 135 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Expanding the role of geoarchaeology in the study of pottery production: Geo-ethnoarchaeology in Yaotou, Gansu, China
Pottery production is a defining craft in human history, yet its material traces in the archaeological record remain underexplored using geoarchaeological approaches. Soil micromorphology, a key technique for reconstructing site formation processes and human activities, has yet to be fully applied to ceramic production. This study presents the first systematic ethno-geoarchaeological investigation of abandoned pottery workshops. Combining field s…
Accessory minerals: A Provenancing Tool for Steatite Quarries
Steatite has been a widely traded material across a range of archaeological contexts. Yet, challenges inherent to determining its provenance limits our understanding of the networks and mechanisms of its exchange. We present a robust new accessory mineral provenancing “fingerprint” method based their specific growth history. We use laser‐ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) to produce detailed trace‐element maps of mi…
The role of geoarchaeology in the interpretation of fragmented buildings and occupation surfaces: The case of coastal settlements in northeast Scotland
Around the world, poorly preserved buildings and occupation deposits often represent the primary evidence for archaeological structures and settlements. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can be used to maximise the information obtained from such deposits regarding site preservation and the use of space. However, archaeologists are often reluctant to apply these methods if they suspect that preservat…
Revealing the invisible floor: Integrated geoarchaeological analyses of ephemeral occupation surfaces at an early medieval farmhouse in upland Perthshire, Scotland
Poorly defined occupation surfaces restrict the ability to interpret the use of space in archaeological structures and settlements around the world. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can provide information about site preservation and characterise the use of archaeological space when stratigraphy is lacking but have rarely been applied in such contexts. This paper presents a comparative study of mul…
Revealing the invisible dead: Integrated bio-geoarchaeological profiling exposes human and animal remains in a seemingly ‘empty’ Viking-Age burial
Recent investigations of an apparently ‘empty,’ partly disturbed Viking chamber grave in Denmark (Fregerslev II, dated around the mid-10th century CE) provided an opportunity to develop a novel multi-scale and multi-method analysis of burial and post-burial processes. To overcome the limitations of poor preservation of artefacts and bones, and the lack of a clear macrostratigraphic sequence, we integrated multi-proxy analyses of organic and inorg…
Risk and Resources: An Evaluation of the Ability of National Soil Datasets to Predict Post-Depositional Processes in Archaeological Sites and Heritage at Risk
Previous studies have demonstrated the vast range of physical, chemical and biological processes that influence the preservation of archaeological sites, yet characterisation at the site-level remains largely unexplored. National datasets on soil type, land use and erosion modelling have the potential to predict localised impacts but remain an untapped resource in the evaluation of heritage at risk. Using early medieval Scotland as a case study, …
The Archaeology of a Landslide: Unravelling the Azores Earthquake Disaster of 1522 and its Consequences
The multidisciplinary research described here shows how archaeologists can help reconstruct past seismic episodes and understand the subsequent relief operation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction processes. In October 1522, a major earthquake and landslide struck the then capital of the Azores, Vila Franca do Campo, 1500 km from the European mainland. Damage was extensive, destroying key monuments, affecting most of the inhabited area, and leavi…
Animal domestication in the high Arctic: Hunting and holding reindeer on the I͡Amal peninsula, northwest Siberia
The history of animal domestication in the Arctic is often represented as marginal or a weak copy of more complex pastoral situations in southern climes. This article re-assesses the classic archaeological site of I͡Arte 6 on the I͡Amal Peninsula of Northwest Siberia for markers of early Rangifer and dog taming and the emergence of transport reindeer husbandry at the start of the Iron Age. We critically examine published and unpublished Russian l…
Transdisciplinary Archaeology and the Future of Archaeological Practice: Citizen Science, Portable Science, Ethical Science
This paper presents a vision and a pathway for the future of archaeological practice, in which several fields that are currently considered distinct, including community-based collaborative archaeology, indigenous archaeology, and applied archaeology, could become the norm. Inspired by personal encounters with some exceptionally open and collaborative archaeology projects, as well as by recent advances in archaeological science, which are startin…
Medieval markets: A soil micromorphological and archaeobotanical study of the urban stratigraphy of Lier (Belgium)
Early Medieval Shellfish Exploitation in Northwest Europe: Investigations at the Sands of Forvie Shell Middens, Eastern Scotland, and the Role of Coastal Resources in the First Millennium AD
Coastal shell middens represent a well-known element of the archaeological record of island and coastal regions across the world and shellfish have been an important resource for subsistence since the mid Holocene. However, the factors that influence shellfishing remain poorly understood and in many regions investigations into the role of shellfish gathering often have remained focused on prehistoric examples to the detriment of shell middens of …
Early medieval shellfish gathering at the Sands of Forvie, Aberdeenshire: Feast or famine
From 2010 to 2014, extensive shell middens were excavated at the Sands of Forvie, Aberdeenshire, and the wider landscape explored through a programme of soil and geophysical survey. The middens were dated to the 1st millennium AD and appear to represent intensive gathering and cooking of shellfish, particularly mussels. To date, few middens of the scale of the Forvie examples have been identified in Scotland, but the middens share some parallels …
Soil Micromorphology in Urban Research: Early Medieval Antwerp (Belgium) and Viking Age Kaupang (Norway)
info:eu-repo/semantics/published
Geostatistical approach to spatial, multi-elemental dataset from an archaeological site in Vatnsfjörður, Iceland
The Bennachie Colony: A Nineteenth-Century Informal Community in Northeast Scotland
Use of phosphorus mapping in assessing coastal activity zones of an Icelandic multi-period site of Vatnsfjörður
Woven Cultures: New Insights into Pictish and Viking Culture Contact Using the Implements of Textile Production
THIS PAPER PRESENTS A new approach to Pictish and Viking culture contact in Orkney using the material culture of everyday life, focusing in this case on implements used in textile production. The production of textiles was a major component of everyday life between the 5th and 12th centuries and the tools of production have survived well in the archaeological record. This paper uses a study of the implements used in textile production from six Vi…
Roles and perceptions of shielings and the mediation of gender identities in Viking and medieval Iceland
Interpreting Social Space and Social Status in the Viking Age House at Hrísbrú Using Integrated Geoarchaeological and Microrefuse Analyses
The Viking North Atlantic differs significantly from the popular image of violent raids and destruction characterizing the Viking Age in Northern Europe. In Iceland, Scandinavian seafarers discovered and settled a large uninhabited island. In order to survive and succeed, they adapted lifestyles and social strategies to a new environment. The result was a new society: the Icelandic Free State. This volume examines the Viking Age in Iceland throug…
Insects, activity areas and turf buildings' interiors: An ethno-archaeoentomological case study from 19th to early 20th-century Þverá, northeast Iceland
Floor formation processes and the interpretation of site activity areas: An ethnoarchaeological study of turf buildings at Thverá, northeast Iceland
Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas: A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland
The Roles of Pit Houses and Gendered Spaces on Viking-Age Farmsteads in Iceland
THE SMALL SEMI-SUBTERRANEAN buildings (jarðhús) with slab-built ovens that have been found on many Viking-Age farmsteads in Iceland (late 9th–11th century) have been subject to wide-ranging interpretations, from short-lived, expedient dwellings to saunas, women’s workrooms, the houses of Slavic settlers and in one case a cult building. This paper tests these hypotheses by making a thorough revaluation of pit-house dates, architectural forms, inte…
Investigation of Iron Age north-eastern Scottish glass beads using element analysis with LA-ICP-MS
The palaeoecology of a high status Icelandic farm
Written sources indicate that the farm of Reykholt in Borgarfjorour, Iceland was built on the land of the original settlement farm, and that it had acquired the primary status in the valley by the early 12th century. Archaeological evidence suggests that the farm together with a church may have been established as early as ca. 1000 AD, which is when Christianity was adopted in Iceland. The site became one of the country’s major ecclesiastical cen…
Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas: A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland
Animal domestication in the high Arctic: Hunting and holding reindeer on the I͡Amal peninsula, northwest Siberia
The history of animal domestication in the Arctic is often represented as marginal or a weak copy of more complex pastoral situations in southern climes. This article re-assesses the classic archaeological site of I͡Arte 6 on the I͡Amal Peninsula of Northwest Siberia for markers of early Rangifer and dog taming and the emergence of transport reindeer husbandry at the start of the Iron Age. We critically examine published and unpublished Russian l…
The palaeoecology of a high status Icelandic farm
Written sources indicate that the farm of Reykholt in Borgarfjorour, Iceland was built on the land of the original settlement farm, and that it had acquired the primary status in the valley by the early 12th century. Archaeological evidence suggests that the farm together with a church may have been established as early as ca. 1000 AD, which is when Christianity was adopted in Iceland. The site became one of the country’s major ecclesiastical cen…
Transdisciplinary Archaeology and the Future of Archaeological Practice: Citizen Science, Portable Science, Ethical Science
This paper presents a vision and a pathway for the future of archaeological practice, in which several fields that are currently considered distinct, including community-based collaborative archaeology, indigenous archaeology, and applied archaeology, could become the norm. Inspired by personal encounters with some exceptionally open and collaborative archaeology projects, as well as by recent advances in archaeological science, which are startin…
Revealing the invisible dead: Integrated bio-geoarchaeological profiling exposes human and animal remains in a seemingly ‘empty’ Viking-Age burial
Recent investigations of an apparently ‘empty,’ partly disturbed Viking chamber grave in Denmark (Fregerslev II, dated around the mid-10th century CE) provided an opportunity to develop a novel multi-scale and multi-method analysis of burial and post-burial processes. To overcome the limitations of poor preservation of artefacts and bones, and the lack of a clear macrostratigraphic sequence, we integrated multi-proxy analyses of organic and inorg…
Investigation of Iron Age north-eastern Scottish glass beads using element analysis with LA-ICP-MS
Interpreting the Viking Age to Medieval period transition in Norse Orkney through cultural soil and sediment analyses
The transition from the Viking Age (ca. A.D. 800–1050) to the Medieval period (ca. A.D. 1050–1500) saw the development of widening trade activities that incorporated peripheral North Atlantic polities into mainstream Europe and contributed to the intensification of marineresource exploitation and agricultural production in these localities. As yet, there is only limited understanding of these intensification processes and their interrelationships…
The Roles of Pit Houses and Gendered Spaces on Viking-Age Farmsteads in Iceland
THE SMALL SEMI-SUBTERRANEAN buildings (jarðhús) with slab-built ovens that have been found on many Viking-Age farmsteads in Iceland (late 9th–11th century) have been subject to wide-ranging interpretations, from short-lived, expedient dwellings to saunas, women’s workrooms, the houses of Slavic settlers and in one case a cult building. This paper tests these hypotheses by making a thorough revaluation of pit-house dates, architectural forms, inte…
Revealing the invisible floor: Integrated geoarchaeological analyses of ephemeral occupation surfaces at an early medieval farmhouse in upland Perthshire, Scotland
Poorly defined occupation surfaces restrict the ability to interpret the use of space in archaeological structures and settlements around the world. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can provide information about site preservation and characterise the use of archaeological space when stratigraphy is lacking but have rarely been applied in such contexts. This paper presents a comparative study of mul…
The role of geoarchaeology in the interpretation of fragmented buildings and occupation surfaces: The case of coastal settlements in northeast Scotland
Around the world, poorly preserved buildings and occupation deposits often represent the primary evidence for archaeological structures and settlements. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can be used to maximise the information obtained from such deposits regarding site preservation and the use of space. However, archaeologists are often reluctant to apply these methods if they suspect that preservat…
Geostatistical approach to spatial, multi-elemental dataset from an archaeological site in Vatnsfjörður, Iceland
The Bennachie Colony: A Nineteenth-Century Informal Community in Northeast Scotland
The Archaeology of a Landslide: Unravelling the Azores Earthquake Disaster of 1522 and its Consequences
The multidisciplinary research described here shows how archaeologists can help reconstruct past seismic episodes and understand the subsequent relief operation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction processes. In October 1522, a major earthquake and landslide struck the then capital of the Azores, Vila Franca do Campo, 1500 km from the European mainland. Damage was extensive, destroying key monuments, affecting most of the inhabited area, and leavi…
Use of phosphorus mapping in assessing coastal activity zones of an Icelandic multi-period site of Vatnsfjörður
Accessory minerals: A Provenancing Tool for Steatite Quarries
Steatite has been a widely traded material across a range of archaeological contexts. Yet, challenges inherent to determining its provenance limits our understanding of the networks and mechanisms of its exchange. We present a robust new accessory mineral provenancing “fingerprint” method based their specific growth history. We use laser‐ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) to produce detailed trace‐element maps of mi…
Risk and Resources: An Evaluation of the Ability of National Soil Datasets to Predict Post-Depositional Processes in Archaeological Sites and Heritage at Risk
Previous studies have demonstrated the vast range of physical, chemical and biological processes that influence the preservation of archaeological sites, yet characterisation at the site-level remains largely unexplored. National datasets on soil type, land use and erosion modelling have the potential to predict localised impacts but remain an untapped resource in the evaluation of heritage at risk. Using early medieval Scotland as a case study, …
A reinterpretation of the great pit at Hofsta ir, Iceland using sediment thin section micromorphology
The site at Hofstaðir in northeast Iceland has been central to the debate on pre-Christian Norse temples and temple-farm complexes throughout the Scandinavian world. Critical to an understanding of the site have been the various and conflicting interpretations of the great pit feature, which have included the hypotheses that it was intentionally made for the disposal of rubbish after temple feasts, that it was a cooking pit for large-scale food p…
A reinterpretation of the great pit at Hofstaðir, Iceland using sediment thin section micromorphology
The site at Hofstaðir in northeast Iceland has been central to the debate on pre-Christian Norse temples and temple-farm complexes throughout the Scandinavian world. Critical to an understanding of the site have been the various and conflicting interpretations of the great pit feature, which have included the hypotheses that it was intentionally made for the disposal of rubbish after temple feasts, that it was a cooking pit for large-scale food p…
Interpreting the Viking Age to Medieval period transition in Norse Orkney through cultural soil and sediment analyses
The transition from the Viking Age (ca. A.D. 800–1050) to the Medieval period (ca. A.D. 1050–1500) saw the development of widening trade activities that incorporated peripheral North Atlantic polities into mainstream Europe and contributed to the intensification of marineresource exploitation and agricultural production in these localities. As yet, there is only limited understanding of these intensification processes and their interrelationships…
The palaeoecology of a high status Icelandic farm
Written sources indicate that the farm of Reykholt in Borgarfjorour, Iceland was built on the land of the original settlement farm, and that it had acquired the primary status in the valley by the early 12th century. Archaeological evidence suggests that the farm together with a church may have been established as early as ca. 1000 AD, which is when Christianity was adopted in Iceland. The site became one of the country’s major ecclesiastical cen…
Investigation of Iron Age north-eastern Scottish glass beads using element analysis with LA-ICP-MS
Floor formation processes and the interpretation of site activity areas: An ethnoarchaeological study of turf buildings at Thverá, northeast Iceland
Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas: A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland
The Roles of Pit Houses and Gendered Spaces on Viking-Age Farmsteads in Iceland
THE SMALL SEMI-SUBTERRANEAN buildings (jarðhús) with slab-built ovens that have been found on many Viking-Age farmsteads in Iceland (late 9th–11th century) have been subject to wide-ranging interpretations, from short-lived, expedient dwellings to saunas, women’s workrooms, the houses of Slavic settlers and in one case a cult building. This paper tests these hypotheses by making a thorough revaluation of pit-house dates, architectural forms, inte…
Roles and perceptions of shielings and the mediation of gender identities in Viking and medieval Iceland
Interpreting Social Space and Social Status in the Viking Age House at Hrísbrú Using Integrated Geoarchaeological and Microrefuse Analyses
The Viking North Atlantic differs significantly from the popular image of violent raids and destruction characterizing the Viking Age in Northern Europe. In Iceland, Scandinavian seafarers discovered and settled a large uninhabited island. In order to survive and succeed, they adapted lifestyles and social strategies to a new environment. The result was a new society: the Icelandic Free State. This volume examines the Viking Age in Iceland throug…
Insects, activity areas and turf buildings' interiors: An ethno-archaeoentomological case study from 19th to early 20th-century Þverá, northeast Iceland
Use of phosphorus mapping in assessing coastal activity zones of an Icelandic multi-period site of Vatnsfjörður
Woven Cultures: New Insights into Pictish and Viking Culture Contact Using the Implements of Textile Production
THIS PAPER PRESENTS A new approach to Pictish and Viking culture contact in Orkney using the material culture of everyday life, focusing in this case on implements used in textile production. The production of textiles was a major component of everyday life between the 5th and 12th centuries and the tools of production have survived well in the archaeological record. This paper uses a study of the implements used in textile production from six Vi…
Soil Micromorphology in Urban Research: Early Medieval Antwerp (Belgium) and Viking Age Kaupang (Norway)
info:eu-repo/semantics/published
Geostatistical approach to spatial, multi-elemental dataset from an archaeological site in Vatnsfjörður, Iceland
The Bennachie Colony: A Nineteenth-Century Informal Community in Northeast Scotland
Medieval markets: A soil micromorphological and archaeobotanical study of the urban stratigraphy of Lier (Belgium)
Early Medieval Shellfish Exploitation in Northwest Europe: Investigations at the Sands of Forvie Shell Middens, Eastern Scotland, and the Role of Coastal Resources in the First Millennium AD
Coastal shell middens represent a well-known element of the archaeological record of island and coastal regions across the world and shellfish have been an important resource for subsistence since the mid Holocene. However, the factors that influence shellfishing remain poorly understood and in many regions investigations into the role of shellfish gathering often have remained focused on prehistoric examples to the detriment of shell middens of …
Early medieval shellfish gathering at the Sands of Forvie, Aberdeenshire: Feast or famine
From 2010 to 2014, extensive shell middens were excavated at the Sands of Forvie, Aberdeenshire, and the wider landscape explored through a programme of soil and geophysical survey. The middens were dated to the 1st millennium AD and appear to represent intensive gathering and cooking of shellfish, particularly mussels. To date, few middens of the scale of the Forvie examples have been identified in Scotland, but the middens share some parallels …
Transdisciplinary Archaeology and the Future of Archaeological Practice: Citizen Science, Portable Science, Ethical Science
This paper presents a vision and a pathway for the future of archaeological practice, in which several fields that are currently considered distinct, including community-based collaborative archaeology, indigenous archaeology, and applied archaeology, could become the norm. Inspired by personal encounters with some exceptionally open and collaborative archaeology projects, as well as by recent advances in archaeological science, which are startin…
Animal domestication in the high Arctic: Hunting and holding reindeer on the I͡Amal peninsula, northwest Siberia
The history of animal domestication in the Arctic is often represented as marginal or a weak copy of more complex pastoral situations in southern climes. This article re-assesses the classic archaeological site of I͡Arte 6 on the I͡Amal Peninsula of Northwest Siberia for markers of early Rangifer and dog taming and the emergence of transport reindeer husbandry at the start of the Iron Age. We critically examine published and unpublished Russian l…
Risk and Resources: An Evaluation of the Ability of National Soil Datasets to Predict Post-Depositional Processes in Archaeological Sites and Heritage at Risk
Previous studies have demonstrated the vast range of physical, chemical and biological processes that influence the preservation of archaeological sites, yet characterisation at the site-level remains largely unexplored. National datasets on soil type, land use and erosion modelling have the potential to predict localised impacts but remain an untapped resource in the evaluation of heritage at risk. Using early medieval Scotland as a case study, …
The Archaeology of a Landslide: Unravelling the Azores Earthquake Disaster of 1522 and its Consequences
The multidisciplinary research described here shows how archaeologists can help reconstruct past seismic episodes and understand the subsequent relief operation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction processes. In October 1522, a major earthquake and landslide struck the then capital of the Azores, Vila Franca do Campo, 1500 km from the European mainland. Damage was extensive, destroying key monuments, affecting most of the inhabited area, and leavi…
Revealing the invisible dead: Integrated bio-geoarchaeological profiling exposes human and animal remains in a seemingly ‘empty’ Viking-Age burial
Recent investigations of an apparently ‘empty,’ partly disturbed Viking chamber grave in Denmark (Fregerslev II, dated around the mid-10th century CE) provided an opportunity to develop a novel multi-scale and multi-method analysis of burial and post-burial processes. To overcome the limitations of poor preservation of artefacts and bones, and the lack of a clear macrostratigraphic sequence, we integrated multi-proxy analyses of organic and inorg…
The role of geoarchaeology in the interpretation of fragmented buildings and occupation surfaces: The case of coastal settlements in northeast Scotland
Around the world, poorly preserved buildings and occupation deposits often represent the primary evidence for archaeological structures and settlements. Integrated geoarchaeological methods, such as soil chemistry and micromorphology, can be used to maximise the information obtained from such deposits regarding site preservation and the use of space. However, archaeologists are often reluctant to apply these methods if they suspect that preservat…
Archaeology (25 works) · Geography (22 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (18 works) · Geology (14 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (9 works) · History (9 works) · Geoarchaeology (6 works) · Historical and Archaeological Studies (6 works) · History (6 works) · Paleontology (6 works)