Peat, pine stumps and people: interactions behind climate, vegetation change and human activity in wetland archaeology at Loch Farlary, Northern Scotland

First paragraph: In 1993, a peat-cutter, Bruce Field, working on the blanket peat bank he rented from the Sutherland Estate by Loch Farlary, above Golspie in Sutherland (fig 1), reported to Scottish Natural Heritage and Historic Scotland several pieces of pine wood bearing axe marks. Their depth in the peat suggested the cut marks to be prehistoric. This paper summarizes the work undertaken to understand the age and archaeological significance of this find (see also Tipping et al 2001 in press). The pine trees were initially thought to be part of a population that flourished briefly across northern Scotland in the middle of the Holocene period from c 4800 cal BP (Huntley, Daniell & Allen 1997). The subsequent collapse across northernmost Scotland of this population, the pine decline, at around 4200-4000 cal BP is unexplained: climate change has been widely assumed (Dubois & Ferguson 1985; Bridge, Haggart & Lowe 1990; Gear & Huntley 1991) but anthropogenic activity has not been disproved (Birks 1975; Bennett 1995). It was hypothesized that the Farlary find would allow for the first time the direct link between human woodland clearance and the Early Bronze Age pine decline.

The empirical case against the ‘demographic turn’ in Palaeolithic archaeology

Funding. M.C.’s work is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Programme, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund and Simon Fraser University. K.V. received support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (VIDI-grant 016.144312). R.C. and W.R. are supported by the Australian Research Council (discovery grants nos DP120100580 and DP150100586).

(Re)discovering the Gaulcross Hoard

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Charles and Helen Gray for permitting access to the land and for support in the excavation of the hoard. Thanks also to Bruce Mann and the Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service for advice and supporting the radiocarbon dating. Fraser Hunter and Tanja Romankiewicz assisted during a very cold excavation. Fraser and Alice Blackwell kindly read and commented on drafts of this paper. The fieldwork was funded through a donation to the University of Aberdeen’s Development Trust and undertaken as part of the Northern Picts project, in association with the Tarbat Discovery Centre.

Stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope analysis of permafrost preserved human hair from rescue excavations (2009, 2010) at the precontact site of Nunalleq, Alaska

Acknowledgments This work was funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K006029/1) grant awarded to Rick Knecht, Kate Britton and Charlotta Hillerdal (Aberdeen); an AHRC-LabEx award (AH/N504543/1) to KB, RK, Keith Dobney (Liverpool) and Isabelle Sidéra (Nanterre); the Carnegie Trust to the Universities of Scotland (travel grant to KB); and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The onsite collection of samples was carried out by staff and students from the University of Aberdeen, volunteer excavators and the residents of Quinhagak. We had logistical and planning support for fieldwork by the Qanirtuuq Incorporated, Quinhagak, Alaska, and the people of Quinhagak, who we also thank for sampling permissions. Special thanks to Warren Jones and Qanirtuuq Incorporated (especially Michael Smith and Lynn Church), and to all Nunalleq project team members, in Aberdeen and at other institutions, particularly Charlotta Hillerdal and Edouard Masson-Maclean (Aberdeen) for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript, and also to Véronique Forbes, Ana Jorge, Carly Ameen and Ciara Mannion (Aberdeen) for their inputs. Thanks also to Michelle Alexander (York). Finally, thank you to Ian Scharlotta (Alberta) for inviting us to contribute to this special issue, to the Editor, and to three anonymous reviewers, whose suggestions and recommended changes to an earlier version of this manuscript greatly improved the paper.

An Ecological and Evolutionary Framework for Commensalism in Anthropogenic Environments

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Jean-Denis Vigne, members of the Searle lab, and SNEEB at Cornell University for a stimulating environment and many early discussions and comments. We would also like to thank Maeve McMahon for comments on the manuscript.

Use of phosphorous mapping and sea-level change data in assessing coastal activity zones and establishing site chronology : A case study from the Icelandic multi-period site of Vatnsfjörður

This paper forms part of Lukasz Mikolajczyk's PhD dissertation, which is supervised by Karen Milek

The use of close-range photogrammetry in zooarchaeology : Creating accurate 3D models of wolf crania to study dog domestication

Acknowledgements We thank the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, that provided access to the specimens, and access to the morphometric platform where the surface scans were performed. We also thank Raphael Cornette and Julien Claude for the fruitful discussions we had when writing the manuscript. This work was supported by NERC (grant number NE/K003259/1) and the European Research Council (ERC-2013-StG 337574-UNDEAD). This is publication ISEM 2016-127. We thank the two anonymous reviewers who greatly helped to improve the manuscript.

Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas : A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland

Acknowledgements The excavation was funded by the City of Reykjavík, and the geoarchaeological research was funded by a SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship from the government of Canada, an Overseas Research Studentship, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Pelham Roberts and Muriel Onslow Research Studentships from Newnham College, Cambridge, and Canadian Centennial Scholarships from the Canadian High Commission in London. Garðar Guðmundsson took the micromorphology samples, and supervised sampling on site. The bones were counted by Clayton Tinsley, the thin sections were made by Julie Boreham, and Steve Boreham and his team in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, provided technical support for all of the bulk geochemical analyses that were conducted by K. Milek, except for ICP–AES, which was conducted by ALS Chemex. Our gratitude is extended to Charles French, Catherine Hills, Peter Jordan and two anonymous reviewers for their support and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Óskar Gísli Sveinbjarnarson for his assistance with the figures.

Placing the North

Peer reviewed

Woven cultures : New insights into Pictish and Viking culture contact using the implements of textile production

This paper is based on the undergraduate dissertation of Lindsey Stirling, which was supervised by Karen Milek, and which won the Society of Medieval Archaeology's John Hurst Memorial Dissertation Prize Acknowledgements This research would not have been possible without the assistance of Dr Martin Goldberg at the National Museum of Scotland, Lynda Aiano at Tankerness House Museum, Orkney, and Beverley Ballin Smith. The authors also wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper.

The Bennachie Colony : A Nineteenth-Century Informal Community in Northeast Scotland

Acknowledgments The investigation of the Bennachie Colony is part of a broader initiative called the Bennachie Landscape Project, a collaborative endeavour between the Bailies of Bennachie and the University of Aberdeen. To date, funding for the project has been generously provided by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the form of a Connected Communities Grant (G. Noble PI) and more recently through a larger Development Grant (J. Oliver PI). The research that this paper is based on could not have been undertaken without the generous assistance of a large number of volunteers, university students and staff members. While it would be impossible to name everyone who has contributed, we would like to acknowledge the regular members of the “landscape group” whose infective enthusiasm for the project has provided a stimulating environment for learning and co-production. Particular thanks go to Jackie Cumberbirch, Barry Foster, Chris Foster, Angela Groat, David Irving, Alison Kennedy, Harry Leal, Ken Ledingham, Colin Miller, Iain Ralston, Colin Shepherd, Sue Taylor and Andrew Wainwright. Further assistance with fieldwork was provided by Ágústa Edwald, Patrycia Kupiec, Barbora Wouters, Óskar Sveinbjarnarson, members of Northlight Heritage and several cohorts worth of University of Aberdeen undergraduate and graduate students. We are indebted to the RCAHMS for assistance with plane table survey and to Óskar Sveinbjarnarson for help with mapping. Others have supported additional aspects of the Bennachie Landscape project or have provided specialist advice. Thanks go to Neil Curtis, Liz Curtis, Rowan Ellis, Marjory Harper, Siobhan Convery and the University of Aberdeen Special Collections staff. Access to undertake fieldwork was graciously provided by the Forestry Commission Scotland. Helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper were provided by Barry and Chris Foster, Ken Ledingham, Collin Miller, Collin Shepherd, Sue Taylor, Andrew Wainwright and two anonymous reviewers.

Duck fleas as evidence for eiderdown production on archaeological sites

Acknowledgements This project was undertaken as part of my doctoral studies funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CACR-2009-39) in the United Kingdom. I would like to thank my supervisors Karen Milek and Andrew Dugmore for their help and support. I also wish to thank Jónas Helgason, his son Alexius Jónasson and Baldur Vilhelmsson for kindly having allowed access to the eiderdown stores and workshops at Æðey and Vatnsfjörður and for having provided assistance when needed. I would like to thank Fornleifastofnun Íslands for supporting my fieldwork at Vatnsfjörður, as well as Paul Ledger and Garðar Guðmundsson for their help during fieldwork. I am especially grateful to Richard Marriott for his invaluable help with flea identifications and for lending me reference material. Erling Ólafsson and Jan Klimaszewski also helped with the beetle identifications. Consultation of the BugsCEP database (Buckland and Buckland, 2006) aided the redaction of this paper.

A Palaeoenvironmental Investigation of Two Prehistoric Burnt Mound Sites in Northern Ireland

Funded by Road services Northern Ireland, Jacobs and Headland Archaeology

Integrated geoarchaeological methods for the determination of site activity areas : A study of a Viking Age house in Reykjavik, Iceland

Acknowledgements The excavation was funded by the City of Reykjavík, and the geoarchaeological research was funded by a SSHRCC Doctoral Fellowship from the government of Canada, an Overseas Research Studentship, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Pelham Roberts and Muriel Onslow Research Studentships from Newnham College, Cambridge, and Canadian Centennial Scholarships from the Canadian High Commission in London. Garðar Guðmundsson took the micromorphology samples, and supervised sampling on site. The bones were counted by Clayton Tinsley, the thin sections were made by Julie Boreham, and Steve Boreham and his team in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, provided technical support for all of the bulk geochemical analyses that were conducted by K. Milek, except for ICP–AES, which was conducted by ALS Chemex. Our gratitude is extended to Charles French, Catherine Hills, Peter Jordan and two anonymous reviewers for their support and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Óskar Gísli Sveinbjarnarson for his assistance with the figures.