Mike J Church
Biographic Data
| ID | 91894 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mike J Church |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mike J |
| FAMILY NAME | Church |
| SIGNATURE | CHURCH M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7908-7812 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 432 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
The effect of seaweed fertilisation on sulfur isotope ratios (δ34S) and grain size in barley
Introduction Stable sulfur isotope ratios (δ 34 S) in bone collagen are often employed to study the consumption of marine and freshwater fish, wetland grazing, marine foraging patterns, and the possible geographic origins of food sources. However, a recent small-scale crop experiment showed that biofertilisation with seaweed can elevate δ 34 S in Celtic beans by ca. 10 ‰. Consumption of this food could erroneously suggest a marine diet and theref…
Recommendations for stable isotope analysis of charred archaeological crop remains
Stable isotope analysis of plant remains recovered from archaeological sites is becoming more routine. There remains a lack of consensus, however, on how to appropriately select archaeological plant remains for isotopic analysis, how to account for differences in preservation and the effect of potential contamination, and how to interpret the measured isotope values in terms of the conditions in which the plants grew. In this paper, we outline th…
Further investigation into the impact of manuring on stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values in pulses
Plant stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values can be used to directly investigate crop husbandry practices such as manuring; a key variable in understanding the scale and intensity of past farming practices. We present new results from a four-year experiment examining the impact of manuring on the δ13C and δ15N values of a heritage cultivar of the broad or faba bean (Vicia faba), the 'Celtic black broad bean'. This paper builds up…
Getting to the root of the problem
This paper presents new evidence for the harvesting of edible plant roots and tubers at Northton, a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site on Harris, in the Western Isles of Scotland, in the north-west corner of Europe. The excavations uncovered abundant root tuber remains of Ficaria verna Huds. (lesser celandine), an excellent high energy and carbohydrate-rich food source, and produced the first evidence for the use of tubers of Lathyrus linifolius (Re…
Scotland's first farmers
Thirty years after the discovery of an Early Neolithic timber hall at Balbridie in Scotland was reported in Antiquity , new analysis of the site's archaeobotanical assemblage, featuring 20 000 cereal grains preserved when the building burnt down in the early fourth millennium BC, provides new insights into early farming practices. The results of stable isotope analyses of cereals from Balbridie, alongside archaeobotanical and stable isotope resul…
Neolithic Farming and Wild Plant Exploitation in Western Britain
The introduction of agriculture is a key defining element of the Neolithic, yet considerable debate persists concerning the nature and significance of early farming practices in north-west Europe. This paper reviews archaeobotanical evidence from 95 Neolithic sites ( c . 4000–2200 cal bc ) in Wales, focusing on wild plant exploitation, the range of crops present, and the significance of cereals in subsistence practices. Cereal cultivation practic…
Deforestation and Human Agency in the North Atlantic Region
This paper considers the timing and mechanisms of deforestation in the Western Isles of Scotland, focusing in particular on the landscape around the Calanais stone circles, one of the best preserved late Neolithic/early Bronze Age monumental landscapes in north-west Europe. We present new archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence from a soil and peat sequence at the site of Aird Calanais, which spans the main period of use of the Calanais c…
Fire in the Moor
This paper presents the results of a palaeoenvironmental investigation of riverine deposits containing charred heathland plant material, recovered during an archaeological survey of Gleann Mor Barabhais, Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland. This survey was conducted to identify Mesolithic occupation in the interior of the island and was undertaken as part of a wider project investigating the Mesolithic of the Western Isles. The recovery of carbonise…
Nitrogen isotope evidence for manuring of early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture cereals from Stensborg, Sweden
Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects for the Mesolithic and Medieval Periods in the Western Isles of Scotland
This article presents new values for the Scottish marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) during the Mesolithic at 4540–4240 BC (6490–6190 BP) and the Medieval period at AD 1460–1630 (490–320 BP). The results give a ΔR of –126±39 14 C yr for the Mesolithic and of –130±36 14 C yr for the Medieval. We recalculate previously published MRE values for the earlier Holocene in this region, at 6480–6290 BC (8430–8180 BP). Here, MRE values are slightly …
The influence of manuring on stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) in Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.)
Can't find a pulse? Celtic bean ( Vicia faba L.) in British prehistory
Archaeobotanical research on prehistoric crops in Britain has primarily focussed on cereals and the potential importance of alternative crops, such as pulses, has often been overlooked. This paper reviews evidence for Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.) in British prehistory, using a database of archaeobotanical assemblages from 75 sites. Celtic bean is rare in the Neolithic – Early Bronze Age and it only becomes frequent from the Middle Bronze Age (ca. …
Firewood, food and human niche construction
Over the past few decades the potential role of Mesolithic hunter–gatherers in actively constructing their own niches, through the management of wild plants, has frequently been discussed. It is probable that Mesolithic hunter–gatherers systematically exploited specific woodland resources for food and fuel and influenced the ‘natural’ abundance or distribution of particular species within Mesolithic environments. Though there has been considerabl…
Islands of change vs. islands of disaster
The offshore islands of the North Atlantic were among some of the last settled places on earth, with humans reaching the Faroes and Iceland in the late Iron Age and Viking period. While older accounts emphasizing deforestation and soil erosion have presented this story of island colonization as yet another social–ecological disaster, recent archaeological and paleoenvironmental research combined with environmental history, environmental humanitie…
Seeds, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Mesolithic
Over the past few decades, the potential importance of plants within European Mesolithic economies has frequently been discussed, but there has been little systematic consideration of the archaeobotanical evidence for Mesolithic plant consumption in Scotland. This paper assesses the use of plants in the Scottish Mesolithic economy using the archaeobotanical evidence from 48 sites. It is argued that plants were systematically, and, in some cases, …
A special place in the saltings? Survey and excavation of an Iron Age estuarine islet at An Dunan, Lewis, Western Isles
This is the third of a series of four papers that present the excavations undertaken on the Uig peninsula, Isle of Lewis, as part of the Uig Landscape Project. We present the archaeological evidence from An Dunan, a causewayed tidal islet in the salt marsh of Uig sands, a liminal and potentially ritual site dating to the Iron Age and medieval period. The first main Middle Iron Age phase was characterised by activities centred on an ash mound, dem…
Stable Isotopic (δ13C and δ15N) Characterization of Key Faunal Resources from Norse Period Settlements in North Iceland
During the Viking Age, Norse peoples established settlements across the North Atlantic, colonizing the pristine and near-pristine landscapes of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and the short-lived Vinland settlement in Newfoundland. Current North Atlantic archaeological research themes include efforts to understand human adaptation and impact in these environments. For example, early Icelandic settlements persisted despite substantial envir…
Re-deposited cryptotephra layers in Holocene peats linked to anthropogenic activity
Tephra layers can form useful age-equivalent stratigraphic markers for correlating palaeoenvironmental sequences and they provide information about the spatio-temporal nature of past volcanic ash fall events. The use of microscopic ‘cryptotephra’ layers has both increased the stratigraphic resolution of tephra sequences in proximal areas and extended the distal application of tephrochronology to regions of the world situated far from volcanoes. E…
A charcoal-rich horizon at Ø69, Greenland
It is often assumed that the colonisation of Greenland by Norse settlers in c. A.D. 985 had a sudden and dramatic effect on the environment, involving substantial vegetation clearance and environmental degradation. Consequently, it has been argued that charcoal-rich horizons, visible in many sections in Greenland, represent the initial burning of the vegetation by Norse farmers to create land suitable for agriculture. In this study a charcoal-ric…
Small-Scale Evaluation of a Post-Medieval Blackhouse at Bereiro, Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland
This paper presents the results of the excavation of two dry-stone structures in the abandoned blackhouse village of Bereiro, near to the township of Crowlista, Isle of Lewis. The research was undertaken as part of a wider landscape project investigating human occupation on the Uig peninsula from prehistory to the post-medieval period (the Uig Landscape Project). The excavation aimed to collect dating evidence from the site to determine the date …
Radiocarbon reservoir effects in human bone collagen from northern Iceland
Domestic, industrial, (en)closed? Survey and excavation of a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age promontory enclosure at Gob Eirer, Lewis, Western Isles
This is the first of four papers that present the results of survey and excavations undertaken in the late 1990s as part of the Uig Landscape Project on Lewis in the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar). This paper introduces the project and presents the results of the survey and excavations on the promontory enclosure of Gob Eirer, one of the earliest of the Uig sites excavated. Gob Eirer is located on a stack just off the Uig shoreline in the Cam…
Years of environmental change and human impact at Stóra-Mörk, southern Iceland
Multiproxy pollen, sediment, plant macrofossil and subfossil insect analyses are used to explore environmental change at Stóra-Mörk in southern Iceland between ad 500 and 1500. Previous palaeoecological studies in Iceland have indicated that vegetation and landscape change rapidly succeeded the initial settlement of the island around ad 871, with strong environmental consequences. However, recent high-resolution studies in western and northern Ic…
An Icelandic freshwater radiocarbon reservoir effect
A freshwater radiocarbon ( 14 C) reservoir effect (FRE) is a 14 C age offset between the atmospheric and freshwater carbon reservoirs. FREs can be on the order of 10 000 14 C yr in extreme examples and are a crucial consideration for 14 C dating of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological samples. Correction for a FRE may be possible, provided the FRE and the proportion of FRE-affected carbon within a sample can be accurately quantified. However, a…
Pigs in the Faroe Islands
This paper discusses the evidence for pig husbandry in the Faroes during the Norse and early Medieval periods. The evidence from zooarchaeology, biomolecular archaeology, and place-name evidence is reviewed, proposing that the keeping of pigs was an important part of the early paleoeconomy of the islands
Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland
Early settlement in the North Atlantic produced complex interactions of culture and nature. The sustained program of interdisciplinary collaboration is intended to focus on ninth- to 13th-century sites and landscapes in the highland interior lake basin of Mývatn in Iceland and to contribute a long-term perspective to larger issues of sustainable resource use, soil erosion, and the historical ecology of global change
The Role of Climate in Settlement and Landscape Change in the North Atlantic Islands
In order to assess possible contributions of climate change to the human ecology of the Faroe Islands, proxy climate data from the Greenland Icesheet Project 2 (GISP2) are evaluated in relation to settlement and landscape \nchanges in the Faroes and other North Atlantic islands. Our aim is to identify \ntimes of unpredictable change in the context of cultural and environmental \n'memories'. A pan-Atlantic perspective is used to assess the utility…
Historical Ecology on Sandoy, Faroe Islands
We present palaeoenvironmental, geomorphological, archaeological, and place-name data which allow a holistic assessment of the history of landscape change on Sandoy, Faroe Islands, especially in terms of the changes that occurred in response to the colonization of the island by humans. In contrast to other situations in the North Atlantic region, there is considerable continuity in the patterns and processes of landscape evolution across the init…
Radiocarbon reservoir effects in human bone collagen from northern Iceland
Reservoirs and Radiocarbon
This paper examines 2 potential sources of the radiocarbon offset between human and terrestrial mammal (horse) bones recovered from Norse (∼AD 870–1000) pagan graves in Mývatnssveit, north Iceland. These are the marine and freshwater 14 C reservoir effects that may be incorporated into human bones from dietary sources. The size of the marine 14 C reservoir effect (MRE) during the Norse period was investigated by measurement of multiple paired sam…
A Hypothesis-Based Approach to Landscape Change in Suðuroy, Faroe Islands
Hovsdalur, an area delimited by the great cirques of upland central Su uroy, draining into the valley of the Hovs ́a and terminating in the east at the coastal amphitheatre of Hovsfjørdur, is a microcosm of the Faroes. The area contains the physical and economic features which characterize the greater part of the island group-mountain, valley, and coast, and marine, cultivation, and grazing environments. Data comprising mainly geomorphological,pa…
The Norse landnám on the North Atlantic islands
The Norse colonisation or landnám of the North Atlantic islands of the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland from the ninth century AD onwards provides opportunities to examine human environmental impacts on ‘pristine’ landscapes on an environmental gradient from warmer, more maritime conditions in the east to colder, more continental conditions in the west. This paper considers key environmental contrasts across the Atlantic and initial settlement impa…
An Icelandic freshwater radiocarbon reservoir effect
A freshwater radiocarbon ( 14 C) reservoir effect (FRE) is a 14 C age offset between the atmospheric and freshwater carbon reservoirs. FREs can be on the order of 10 000 14 C yr in extreme examples and are a crucial consideration for 14 C dating of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological samples. Correction for a FRE may be possible, provided the FRE and the proportion of FRE-affected carbon within a sample can be accurately quantified. However, a…
Variability in North Atlantic marine radiocarbon reservoir effects at c. AD 1000
14 C age measurements made on samples from three archaeological sites located on North Atlantic coasts were used to investigate the marine reservoir effect (MRE) at c.AD 1000. This is an important period within human cultural and palaeoenvironmental research as it is a time when Norse expansion to the North Atlantic islands occurred, during what appears to be a period of ameliorating climatic conditions. This makes improved chronological precisio…
Puffins, Pigs, Cod and Barley
This paper reports on the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical remains from the initial season of excavations at the Norse period site at Undir Junkarinsfløtti in the Faroe islands. These remains represent the first zooarchaeological analysis undertaken for the Faroes and only the third archaeobotanical assemblage published from the islands. The excavated deposits are described and the key findings from the palaeoenvironmental remains highlight…
Archaeological evidence for the first Mesolithic occupation of the Western Isles of Scotland
The examination of eroding coastal dunes at the prehistoric site of Northton, Harris, has produced the first archaeological evidence of Mesolithic activity in the Western Isles in the form of two midden-related deposits. The first phase of Mesolithic activity is dated to 7060-6650 cal. BC based on AMS dating of charred hazelnut shells. This discovery appears to validate the frequent pollen-based inferences of Mesolithic impact for the area and, a…
Islands of change vs. islands of disaster
The offshore islands of the North Atlantic were among some of the last settled places on earth, with humans reaching the Faroes and Iceland in the late Iron Age and Viking period. While older accounts emphasizing deforestation and soil erosion have presented this story of island colonization as yet another social–ecological disaster, recent archaeological and paleoenvironmental research combined with environmental history, environmental humanitie…
Sourcing fire ash on archaeological sites in the Western and Northern Isles of Scotland, using mineral magnetism
The application of a new technique developed to identify different fuel sources from ash on nine archaeological sites in the Western and Northern Isles of Scotland is presented. The technique is based on variations observed in the mineral magnetic signatures that derive from the experimental burning of different fuels. The application of the technique is successful, demonstrating both uniformity and diversity in fuel use. A marked continuity of p…
Abandoned Farms, Volcanic Impacts, and Woodland Management
Geomorphological maps and nine soil profiles containing 92 tephra layers have been examined to explore the nature of medieval environmental change in Þjórsárdalur, Iceland, where farms are thought to have been abandoned after the massive tephra fall from the eruption of Hekla in 1104 A.D. This paper presents evidence for continued human activity in the area in the two centuries following the 1104 A.D. eruption, indicating that continued utilizati…
Years of environmental change and human impact at Stóra-Mörk, southern Iceland
Multiproxy pollen, sediment, plant macrofossil and subfossil insect analyses are used to explore environmental change at Stóra-Mörk in southern Iceland between ad 500 and 1500. Previous palaeoecological studies in Iceland have indicated that vegetation and landscape change rapidly succeeded the initial settlement of the island around ad 871, with strong environmental consequences. However, recent high-resolution studies in western and northern Ic…
Nitrogen isotope evidence for manuring of early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture cereals from Stensborg, Sweden
Can't find a pulse? Celtic bean ( Vicia faba L.) in British prehistory
Archaeobotanical research on prehistoric crops in Britain has primarily focussed on cereals and the potential importance of alternative crops, such as pulses, has often been overlooked. This paper reviews evidence for Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.) in British prehistory, using a database of archaeobotanical assemblages from 75 sites. Celtic bean is rare in the Neolithic – Early Bronze Age and it only becomes frequent from the Middle Bronze Age (ca. …
Investigation of fire ash residues using mineral magnetism
As part of a wider research programme of experimental archaeology at Calanais Farm, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, a number of experimental hearths were constructed, based on excavated evidence from the Late Iron Age houses at Bostadh, Lewis. Controlled and repeated burning of different fuel sources (well‐humified peat, fibrous upper peat, peat turf and wood) was carried out over a number of burning episodes, each of three days duration. A range of min…
Getting to the root of the problem
This paper presents new evidence for the harvesting of edible plant roots and tubers at Northton, a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site on Harris, in the Western Isles of Scotland, in the north-west corner of Europe. The excavations uncovered abundant root tuber remains of Ficaria verna Huds. (lesser celandine), an excellent high energy and carbohydrate-rich food source, and produced the first evidence for the use of tubers of Lathyrus linifolius (Re…
Seeds, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Mesolithic
Over the past few decades, the potential importance of plants within European Mesolithic economies has frequently been discussed, but there has been little systematic consideration of the archaeobotanical evidence for Mesolithic plant consumption in Scotland. This paper assesses the use of plants in the Scottish Mesolithic economy using the archaeobotanical evidence from 48 sites. It is argued that plants were systematically, and, in some cases, …
Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects for the Mesolithic and Medieval Periods in the Western Isles of Scotland
This article presents new values for the Scottish marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) during the Mesolithic at 4540–4240 BC (6490–6190 BP) and the Medieval period at AD 1460–1630 (490–320 BP). The results give a ΔR of –126±39 14 C yr for the Mesolithic and of –130±36 14 C yr for the Medieval. We recalculate previously published MRE values for the earlier Holocene in this region, at 6480–6290 BC (8430–8180 BP). Here, MRE values are slightly …
Scotland's first farmers
Thirty years after the discovery of an Early Neolithic timber hall at Balbridie in Scotland was reported in Antiquity , new analysis of the site's archaeobotanical assemblage, featuring 20 000 cereal grains preserved when the building burnt down in the early fourth millennium BC, provides new insights into early farming practices. The results of stable isotope analyses of cereals from Balbridie, alongside archaeobotanical and stable isotope resul…
Stable Isotopic (δ13C and δ15N) Characterization of Key Faunal Resources from Norse Period Settlements in North Iceland
During the Viking Age, Norse peoples established settlements across the North Atlantic, colonizing the pristine and near-pristine landscapes of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and the short-lived Vinland settlement in Newfoundland. Current North Atlantic archaeological research themes include efforts to understand human adaptation and impact in these environments. For example, early Icelandic settlements persisted despite substantial envir…
Re-deposited cryptotephra layers in Holocene peats linked to anthropogenic activity
Tephra layers can form useful age-equivalent stratigraphic markers for correlating palaeoenvironmental sequences and they provide information about the spatio-temporal nature of past volcanic ash fall events. The use of microscopic ‘cryptotephra’ layers has both increased the stratigraphic resolution of tephra sequences in proximal areas and extended the distal application of tephrochronology to regions of the world situated far from volcanoes. E…
The Chironomidae of Gróthúsvatn, Sandoy, Faroe Islands
Chironomids were examined as part of a multiproxy palaeolimnological study of Gróthúsvatn, Sandoy, Faroe Islands. A total of 37 taxa was found in the top 1 m of the core. Chironomid-inferred total phosphorus and temperature reconstructions indicate that after landnám (the Norse settlement period) total phosphorus levels rose slightly, then peaked at a temperature minimum (interpreted as the `Little Ice Age'). Total phosphorus levels subsequently …
Investigation of fire ash residues using mineral magnetism
As part of a wider research programme of experimental archaeology at Calanais Farm, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, a number of experimental hearths were constructed, based on excavated evidence from the Late Iron Age houses at Bostadh, Lewis. Controlled and repeated burning of different fuel sources (well‐humified peat, fibrous upper peat, peat turf and wood) was carried out over a number of burning episodes, each of three days duration. A range of min…
Camilla Dickson & James Dickson. Plants and people in ancient Scotland. 320 pages, 172 figures. 2000. Stroud
Camilla Dickson & James Dickson. Plants and people in ancient Scotland. 320 pages, 172 figures. 2000. Stroud: Tempus/Charleston (SC): Arcadia; 07524-1905-6 paperback £25 & $39.99. - Volume 76 Issue 292
Excavation of two burials at Galson, Isle of Lewis, 1993 and 1996
Two burials of Iron Age date were recorded at Galson during rescue excavations in 1993 and 1996, as a result of erosion of the steep, north-facing sand-dune face, which rises over 6 m between the shingle beach and a field wall.This erosion face is the site of a well-known cemetery and settlement extending in date at least from the Iron Age to the Norse period.The burials are placed in the context of past discoveries at Galson and a brief consider…
Excavation of a burnt mound and associated structures at Ceann nan Clachan, North Uist
First excavation of a burnt mound site in the Western Isles, not thought to be part of a domestic site. Cellular building closely paralleled by a recently excavated building at Cladh Hallan in South Uist. Various possible funcions are suggested including cooking place, smoke-house, or sweat-lodge. There are notes on
The excavation of a Bronze Age cemetery at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland
Excavations in 1996 in advance of a major commercial development at Seafield West revealed a Bronze Age cemetery. Inside a ring-ditch were two adjacent graves with wooden coffins, one a boat-shaped hollowed tree-trunk, the other plank-built. Both had probably contained crouched inhumation burials. Grave goods in the former included a bronze dagger of ‘Butterwick’ type whose scabbard of wood and cattle hide produced a date of 3385 ± 45 BP (1870–15…
Excavations at Geirisclett chambered cairn, North Uist, Western Isles
This report describes the results of excavations undertaken within the burial chamber and entrance area of the chambered cairn at Geirisclett, North Uist, Western Isles in 1996–7. The chamber of this cairn had been investigated by Erskine Beveridge in the early years of the 20th century, and the work described here was conducted because of the threat of tidal scouring of any remains which had survived previous attention. The excavation revealed e…
The excavation of two burnt mounds and a wooden trough near Beechwood Farm, Inshes, Inverness, 1999
An archaeological watching brief undertaken during topsoil stripping operations in the course of sewer construction led to the identification of two burnt mounds and a series of unrelated pits. Subsequent archaeological excavation of one of the mounds revealed the remains of a waterlogged timber trough, the contents of which afforded the preservation of environmental information concerning its use and later abandonment. The trough was radiocarbon…
Puffins, Pigs, Cod and Barley
This paper reports on the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical remains from the initial season of excavations at the Norse period site at Undir Junkarinsfløtti in the Faroe islands. These remains represent the first zooarchaeological analysis undertaken for the Faroes and only the third archaeobotanical assemblage published from the islands. The excavated deposits are described and the key findings from the palaeoenvironmental remains highlight…
Archaeological evidence for the first Mesolithic occupation of the Western Isles of Scotland
The examination of eroding coastal dunes at the prehistoric site of Northton, Harris, has produced the first archaeological evidence of Mesolithic activity in the Western Isles in the form of two midden-related deposits. The first phase of Mesolithic activity is dated to 7060-6650 cal. BC based on AMS dating of charred hazelnut shells. This discovery appears to validate the frequent pollen-based inferences of Mesolithic impact for the area and, a…
The Norse landnám on the North Atlantic islands
The Norse colonisation or landnám of the North Atlantic islands of the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland from the ninth century AD onwards provides opportunities to examine human environmental impacts on ‘pristine’ landscapes on an environmental gradient from warmer, more maritime conditions in the east to colder, more continental conditions in the west. This paper considers key environmental contrasts across the Atlantic and initial settlement impa…
Historical Ecology on Sandoy, Faroe Islands
We present palaeoenvironmental, geomorphological, archaeological, and place-name data which allow a holistic assessment of the history of landscape change on Sandoy, Faroe Islands, especially in terms of the changes that occurred in response to the colonization of the island by humans. In contrast to other situations in the North Atlantic region, there is considerable continuity in the patterns and processes of landscape evolution across the init…
A Hypothesis-Based Approach to Landscape Change in Suðuroy, Faroe Islands
Hovsdalur, an area delimited by the great cirques of upland central Su uroy, draining into the valley of the Hovs ́a and terminating in the east at the coastal amphitheatre of Hovsfjørdur, is a microcosm of the Faroes. The area contains the physical and economic features which characterize the greater part of the island group-mountain, valley, and coast, and marine, cultivation, and grazing environments. Data comprising mainly geomorphological,pa…
Variability in North Atlantic marine radiocarbon reservoir effects at c. AD 1000
14 C age measurements made on samples from three archaeological sites located on North Atlantic coasts were used to investigate the marine reservoir effect (MRE) at c.AD 1000. This is an important period within human cultural and palaeoenvironmental research as it is a time when Norse expansion to the North Atlantic islands occurred, during what appears to be a period of ameliorating climatic conditions. This makes improved chronological precisio…
The Chironomidae of Gróthúsvatn, Sandoy, Faroe Islands
Chironomids were examined as part of a multiproxy palaeolimnological study of Gróthúsvatn, Sandoy, Faroe Islands. A total of 37 taxa was found in the top 1 m of the core. Chironomid-inferred total phosphorus and temperature reconstructions indicate that after landnám (the Norse settlement period) total phosphorus levels rose slightly, then peaked at a temperature minimum (interpreted as the `Little Ice Age'). Total phosphorus levels subsequently …
Sourcing fire ash on archaeological sites in the Western and Northern Isles of Scotland, using mineral magnetism
The application of a new technique developed to identify different fuel sources from ash on nine archaeological sites in the Western and Northern Isles of Scotland is presented. The technique is based on variations observed in the mineral magnetic signatures that derive from the experimental burning of different fuels. The application of the technique is successful, demonstrating both uniformity and diversity in fuel use. A marked continuity of p…
Reservoirs and Radiocarbon
This paper examines 2 potential sources of the radiocarbon offset between human and terrestrial mammal (horse) bones recovered from Norse (∼AD 870–1000) pagan graves in Mývatnssveit, north Iceland. These are the marine and freshwater 14 C reservoir effects that may be incorporated into human bones from dietary sources. The size of the marine 14 C reservoir effect (MRE) during the Norse period was investigated by measurement of multiple paired sam…
Abandoned Farms, Volcanic Impacts, and Woodland Management
Geomorphological maps and nine soil profiles containing 92 tephra layers have been examined to explore the nature of medieval environmental change in Þjórsárdalur, Iceland, where farms are thought to have been abandoned after the massive tephra fall from the eruption of Hekla in 1104 A.D. This paper presents evidence for continued human activity in the area in the two centuries following the 1104 A.D. eruption, indicating that continued utilizati…
Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland
Early settlement in the North Atlantic produced complex interactions of culture and nature. The sustained program of interdisciplinary collaboration is intended to focus on ninth- to 13th-century sites and landscapes in the highland interior lake basin of Mývatn in Iceland and to contribute a long-term perspective to larger issues of sustainable resource use, soil erosion, and the historical ecology of global change
The Role of Climate in Settlement and Landscape Change in the North Atlantic Islands
In order to assess possible contributions of climate change to the human ecology of the Faroe Islands, proxy climate data from the Greenland Icesheet Project 2 (GISP2) are evaluated in relation to settlement and landscape \nchanges in the Faroes and other North Atlantic islands. Our aim is to identify \ntimes of unpredictable change in the context of cultural and environmental \n'memories'. A pan-Atlantic perspective is used to assess the utility…
Pigs in the Faroe Islands
This paper discusses the evidence for pig husbandry in the Faroes during the Norse and early Medieval periods. The evidence from zooarchaeology, biomolecular archaeology, and place-name evidence is reviewed, proposing that the keeping of pigs was an important part of the early paleoeconomy of the islands
Years of environmental change and human impact at Stóra-Mörk, southern Iceland
Multiproxy pollen, sediment, plant macrofossil and subfossil insect analyses are used to explore environmental change at Stóra-Mörk in southern Iceland between ad 500 and 1500. Previous palaeoecological studies in Iceland have indicated that vegetation and landscape change rapidly succeeded the initial settlement of the island around ad 871, with strong environmental consequences. However, recent high-resolution studies in western and northern Ic…
An Icelandic freshwater radiocarbon reservoir effect
A freshwater radiocarbon ( 14 C) reservoir effect (FRE) is a 14 C age offset between the atmospheric and freshwater carbon reservoirs. FREs can be on the order of 10 000 14 C yr in extreme examples and are a crucial consideration for 14 C dating of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological samples. Correction for a FRE may be possible, provided the FRE and the proportion of FRE-affected carbon within a sample can be accurately quantified. However, a…
Radiocarbon reservoir effects in human bone collagen from northern Iceland
Domestic, industrial, (en)closed? Survey and excavation of a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age promontory enclosure at Gob Eirer, Lewis, Western Isles
This is the first of four papers that present the results of survey and excavations undertaken in the late 1990s as part of the Uig Landscape Project on Lewis in the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar). This paper introduces the project and presents the results of the survey and excavations on the promontory enclosure of Gob Eirer, one of the earliest of the Uig sites excavated. Gob Eirer is located on a stack just off the Uig shoreline in the Cam…
Re-deposited cryptotephra layers in Holocene peats linked to anthropogenic activity
Tephra layers can form useful age-equivalent stratigraphic markers for correlating palaeoenvironmental sequences and they provide information about the spatio-temporal nature of past volcanic ash fall events. The use of microscopic ‘cryptotephra’ layers has both increased the stratigraphic resolution of tephra sequences in proximal areas and extended the distal application of tephrochronology to regions of the world situated far from volcanoes. E…
Geography (40 works) · Archaeology (37 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (37 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (25 works) · Geology (23 works) · Biology (19 works) · Ecology (17 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (14 works) · Oceanography (11 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (11 works)