| Sander E. I. Aerts |
clude edible crustaceans, whilst the unintentionally imported taxa could be any species that lived or are living in or on imported natural resources( Kenward 1978, 11-12). This could be inhabitants of imported wood, but also older sub-fossils present in peat.
The quaternary sub-assemblage represents contamination in the form of remains from neighbouring deposits or sediments, or modern arthropods. This assemblage may not hold information on the past environment or human actions, but may originate from other contexts, for example due to the collapse of a wall or mixing due to flooding, or a more recent taphonomical process, such as ploughing, and became part of the current archaeological context.
Visibility of C-transforms through synanthropes: commensals and pests Biological and ecological data is needed to trace the meaning of the sub-assemblages. Synanthropic species and communities have proven useful to reconstruct human activities( King 2014, Forbes and Milek 2014). However, in separating the natural from the cultural formation processes in a pit that forms an accumulation of deposits, understanding synanthropic ecologies and species associations is a helpful aid. The applicability and potential of synanthropic ecological data to determine specific anthropogenic actions is presented in a case study on Icelandic turf buildings( Forbes and Milek 2014, 197-198). Nowadays, insect ecological data can be easily accessed through the BugsCEP database, which is still being improved( Buckland 2014).
On a somewhat larger ecological scale than species communities, a differentiation is made between commensals and pests. The commensals are those synanthropes that benefit from man-made environments without causing any harm or nuisance. If humans deposit their cess in the back of the garden, any dung beetles that may be attracted to that will not have any negative influence on the people’ s daily lives. Pests on the other hand do inflict damage on humans directly, to their food resources or possessions( Robinson 1996, 56). The more stenotopic, or confined to a small range or environmental conditions, the present species are, the more detailed the information is that we can retrieve from the remains. The aforementioned Sitophilus granarius can only thrive on stored grains, while the blind and wingless beetle Aglenus brunneus has been found in different anthropogenic habitats with organic components( Kenward 1975, Buckland et al. 2009). Many Staphylinidae beetles are likely to occur in human environments to hunt other arthropods, but are eurytopic and unsuitable for the reconstruction and differentiation of deposits( Kenward 1978, 5-6). Also peridomestic pests can be encountered( Robinson 1996), feeding on crops or occurring on livestock as parasites. Parasites do not directly affect the produce, but can be a nuisance to their hosts. Some are seemingly peridomestic, such as Damalina ovis or the sheep louse, forming an indicator for the presence of sheep, whilst D. bovis points archaeologists in the direction of cattle presence( Smith 2012, 55- 56). Correct interpretation is not too easy, as these species are more likely to have occurred on the hides than on the animals themselves( Smith 2012, 55-56). Although these are then not an indication for the presence of live animals, they can form an indication for the processing of hides and carcasses, possibly in the domestic area.
The commensals and pests are all part of larger communities, which may or may not be observed in the archaeological record, depending on the selective process of deposition and over- or underrepresentation as well as post-depositional taphonomic processes. Figure 3 gives examples of such faunal groups, as can be observed in waste / cesspits and where they would fit in the grand scheme of deposit origins.
Archaeological applicability and future prospects Understanding depositional trajectories allows understanding of‘ invisible’ stratigraphies and functions. A pit may have gone through successive phases of use during its life-span on which arthropod remains can shed new light. Also, as a part of an interdisciplinary research, it can be of aid to simply reconstruct the function of a pit in the first place. The identification of features in the field is not always done correctly, for which manure pits as found in Dutch medieval contexts form a great example. A vast number of relatively shallow, rectangular features with organic fillings are described as manure pits, but differ greatly in arthropod composition( Aerts, in prep.), thus indicating different characteristics and function. Interpreting and describing manure pits as seemingly uniform has caused confusion, but can be avoided through a more in-depth analysis( Aerts, in prep.). An interdisciplinary specialist study would help prevent such misinterpretations from seeping into the academic and grey literature, allowing archaeologists to do better research. It provides researchers with a more objective toolkit to interpret features. Arthropod remains can indicate the importation of resources, and which materials were discarded, how and where. They can help understand in what state the deposited materials p. 26 | VOL II | INTER-SECTION | 2016