British insect fossils have been studied from archaeological sites ranging in age from 10 kyr BP through the nineteenth century. More than 120 sites have been investigated for insects. An extensive gap in the fossil insect record extends from the Upper Paleolithic to the Early Neolithic period. Neolithic sites document the change from natural forest to cleared sites used for cultivation and grazing. One of the best-documented insect faunal successions of the Bronze Age was discovered at Thorne Moor in South Yorkshire. Here, fossils from an ancient trackway showed regional forest clearing and the rise of cereal pollen in the regional vegetation. Beetle species which are now extinct or extremely rare in Britain provide evidence of old, mature forests.
Iron Age records abound in Britain, and insect fossils have been examined from numerous Roman sites. Stored product pests associated with grain have been found in a number of Roman sites in Britain.
Reconstructions of medieval life at Anglo-Danish sites in York have included detailed research on insect fossils. All of the insect assemblages from York reflect human habitations. Based on the quantity and quality of debris, the insect evidence suggests that the Romans were somewhat more hygienic than the subsequent Anglo-Danish inhabitants of York. The overwhelming impression from the insect evidence is one of squalor in Anglo-Danish times.
Elsewhere in Europe, insects have been studied from medieval sites at Oslo, Norway, and the Orkney Islands. More extensive work has been done on Roman and medieval sites in Germany. In Greece, Panagiotakopulu and Buckland in 1991 have studied fossil insects from a Late Bronze Age site at Santorini. The fossil evidence indicates the establishment of field and stored grain pests in the Aegean region by about 3500 year BP. One cereal pest, Rhyzopertha dominica, probably originated in Africa, and arrived at Santorini through trade with Crete and Egypt.
World History
