Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:12:49.765Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geoarchaeological importance of sub-Arctic bird perches dated by lee side turf mound accumulation and identified by lichen plumes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2012

P.J. Julig ,
W.C. Mahaney ,
V. Kalm  and
J.R. Earl-Goulet
P.J. Julig
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, P3E2C6; (pjulig@laurentian.ca)
W.C. Mahaney
Affiliation:
Quaternary Surveys, 26 Thornhill Ave., Ontario, Canada, L4J1J4
V. Kalm
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Ravila 14a, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
J.R. Earl-Goulet
Affiliation:
Canterbury Regional Council, P O Box 550, Timaru, New Zealand7940.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Organic-rich turf mounds, fertilised with bird droppings, may develop in the lee of obstacles, including either natural or human-made structures, boulders and rock cairns in exposed mountain and sub-Arctic and Arctic periglacial/proglacial environments. These boulder-leeside deposits consist mainly of organic materials intermixed with loess trapped in baffling agents (turf), and may sometimes contain archaeological features. Certain animal and bird species may also contribute to turf-mounds by frequenting these locations. Boulders and other natural and human-made obstructions are observed to have lichen plumes, principally Xanthoria spp?, lacing the tops and downwind side of the mound and fertilised by defecating birds and mammals. Turf mounds, consisting of organic soil, can be used for both relative and chronometric age dating, the buried peat providing 14C dates for archaeological context for specific mountain sites when artefacts are recovered. In addition, field and laboratory analyses of soils provide important palaeoenvironmental and geoarchaeological information about the sites. Examples are provided from a field site in the Norra Storfjället in the Swedish SubArctic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 373 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benedict, J.B. 1967. Recent glacial history of an alpine area in the Colorado Front Range, U.S.A., I, Establishing a lichen–growth curve. Journal of Glaciology (6): 817–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benedict, J.B. 1968. Recent glacial history of an alpine area in the Colorado Front Range, U.S.A., II, Dating the glacial deposits. Journal of Glaciology (7): 77–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergman, I. 1991. Spatial structures in Saami cultural landscapes. In: Kvist, R. (edtor). Readings in Saami history, culture and language II. Umeå: Umeå University Centre for Arctic Cultural Research: 59–68.Google Scholar
Broadbent, N. 1979. Coastal resources and settlement stability. A critical study of a mesolithic site complex in northern Sweden. Uppsala: University of Uppsala.Google Scholar
Bruun, B. 1975. The Hamlyn guide to birds of Britain and Europe. London: Hamlyn Press.Google Scholar
Chandler, R.S.B., Bruun, N., and Zim, H.S.. 1983. Birds of North America. New York: Golden Press.Google Scholar
Earl–Goulet, J.R., Mahaney, W.C., Sanmugadas, K., Kalm, V., and Hancock, R.G.V.. 1998. Middle–holocene timberline fluctuation: influence on the genesis of podzols (Spodosols), Norra Storfjället Massif, northern Sweden. The Holocene 8 (6): 705–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earl–Goulet, J.R., Mahaney, W.C., Hancock, R.G.V., and Milner, M.W.. 1997. Geochemistry of Spodosols developed in Holocene till, Norra Storfjället Massif, northern Sweden. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 219 (1): 7–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrhardt, K.J. 1964. Alte Kultsteine und Opferplätze der finnischen Lappen im Gebiet des Inarisees und Iijärvi. Anthropos 59: 5–6.Google Scholar
Flint, R.F. 1971. Glacial and Quaternary geology. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.Google Scholar
Forsberg, L. 1989. Economic and social change in northern Sweden 6000 B.C.–1000 A.D. In: Kvist, R. (edtor). Readings in Saami history, culture and language. Umeå: Umeå University, Centre for Arctic Cultural Research (Miscellaneous publications 7): 1–28.Google Scholar
Hallendy, N. 1994. Inuksuit semalithic figures constructed by the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic. In: Morrison, D. and Pilon, J–L. (edtors). Threads of Arctic prehistory: papers in honour of William E. Taylor, Jr. Ottawa: Archaeological Survey of Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilisation (Mercury series paper 149): 385–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallendy, N. 2000. Inuksuit: silent messengers of the Arctic. Vancouver and Toronto: Douglas and McIntyre.Google Scholar
Holm, L. 1991. The use of stone and hunting of reindeer. Umeå, Umeå University, Department of Archaeology (Archaeology and Environment 12).Google Scholar
Julig, P.J. 1993. Report on reconnaissance archaeological survey conducted in the Norra Storfjället region of the Vindelfjällen Nature Reserve, Västerbottens Län, Sweden, 1993. (Tärna–Okstindan glacial history project 1990–1993). Umeå: Umeå University Centre for Arctic Research (Miscellaneous publications 28): 9–17Google Scholar
Knutsson, K. 1993. Sveriges äldsta fynd. In: Västerbottens–Kuriren, Umeå, 29 July 1993: 4.Google Scholar
Mahaney, W.C. 1990. Ice on the equator. Ellison Bay, WI: Wm. Caxton Ltd.Google Scholar
Mahaney, W.C. 2008. Hannibal's odyssey: environmental background to the alpine invasion of Italia. Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press.Google Scholar
Mahaney, W.C., Boyer, M.G., Wilson, E., and Hancock, R.G.V.. 1995a. Marginal bleaching of thalli of Rhizocarpon as evidence for acid rain in the Norra Storfjället, Sweden. Environmental Pollution 87: 71–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mahaney, W.C., Earl, J., Kalm, V., and Julig, P.. 1995b. Geoecology of the Norra Storfjället Area, northern Sweden. Mountain Research and Development, 15 (2): 165–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahaney, W.C., and Kalm, V.. 2012. Late Holocene paleoclimate and weathering history in the Norra Storfjället Mountains, Sweden: solifluction and 14C dated pedostratigraphy. Geomorphology in press.Google Scholar
Maxwell, M.S. 1985. Prehistory of the eastern Arctic. Orlando: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mulk, I.M. 1991. Sirkas – a mountain Saami hunting society in transition, AD 500–1500. In: Kvist, R. (editor.). Readings in Saami history, culture and language II. Umeå: Umeå University, Center for Arctic Cultural Research (Miscellaneous publications 12): 41–57.Google Scholar
Murtagh, G.J., Dyer, P.S., Furneaux, P.A., and Crittenden, P.D.. 2002. Molecular and physiological diversity in the bipolar lichen–forming fungus Xanthoria elegans. Mycological Research 106 (11): 1277–1286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NSSC (National Soil Survey Center). 1995. Soil survey laboratory information manual. Washington: US Government Printing Office (Soil survey investigations report 45, version 1.00).Google Scholar
Pielou, E.C. 1995. A naturalist's guide to the Arctic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sandwall, J. 1981. Caledonian geology of the of the Jofjället area, Västerbotten Country, Sweden, stratigraphy, metamorphism, deformation. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning Serie C Nr. 778.Google Scholar
Spence, J.R., and Mahaney, W.C.. 1988. Growth and ecology of Rhizocarpon section Rhizocarpon on Mount Kenya, East Africa. Arctic and Alpine Research 20: 237–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sveriges Meteorologiska och Hydrologiska Institute. 1980. Meteorological records. Norrköping.Google Scholar
Timoney, K.P., and Marsh, J.. 2005. Lichen trimlines in the Peace–Athabasca Delta: variations in flora, form and distrubance regime. The Canadian Field–Naturalist 119: 76–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vegetationskarta över de svenska fjällen, kartbland nr11, 1978. Naturvardsverket, Sweden.Google Scholar