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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; ([email protected])
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.
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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 

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