Local environment and human impact at Gamla Uppsala,SE Sweden, during the Iron Age, as inferred from fossil beetle remains

Abstract

Analyses of subfossil insect remains was used to study the environmental history of Gamla Uppsala, south-eastern Sweden. The samples studied, most of which were collected in a smaller depression, Myrby träsk, are dated to a period from the Roman Iron Age (0–400 AD) to the Early Viking Age (AD 800). Beetles living in aquatic environments and waterside situations are related to the former permanent open water situation of the depression. Several host plants for beetles were probably growing either in the surrounding open areas or close to the wet or moist environment. The dominant beetles, occurring during more or less all the time periods studied, are dung beetles, generally indicating grazing.