Beetle, lice and flea sub-fossils as evidence for resource exploitation, the use of space and ecological conditions at the pre-contact Eskimo site of Nunalleq, south-western Alaska

Summary

Samples collected from the permafrost-preserved floors of 14-17th century Eskimo winter sod houses at Nunalleq, south-western Alaska, have yielded thousands of insect sub-fossils. These diverse and exceptionally well-preserved insects are invaluable indicators of the ecological conditions which prevailed inside the structures, but also of the activities that took place inside them. Indeed, while external parasites such as human lice, bird fleas and dog lice reveal details about hygienic practices and animal resource use, the numerous beetle fossils identified from these samples suggest that despite their seasonal character, the sod houses at Nunalleq and the activities that took place inside them had a profound impact on the local insect fauna. The results of archaeoentomological analyses at Nunalleq are used to explore how the study of insect remains from northern hunter-gatherer sites could potentially enrich our understanding of past Arctic life-ways by illuminating details about animal and plant resource collection, storage and processing practices and their influence on local conditions and ecosystems.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Human-Environment Interactions & Human Ecology in Western Arctic Prehistory

Keywords

Spatial Coverage