A beetle-based palaeoecological reconstruction of human-environment interactions in Kivalekh, northern Labrador ...

• Main Author: Milliard, Pier-Ann
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2023
• Subjects: Monolith; inuit
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48336/atnj-g543; https://research.library.mun.ca/15933/

This research attempts to capture and document the “ecological footprint” of past Inuit groups who lived in Kivalekh in northern Labrador over the last thousand years. Using methods from both archaeology and palaeoecology, this work aims to examine and document how human activities affected the local landscape and ecosystems processes. This is achieved by reconstructing environmental change in the vicinity of Kivalekh over the last thousand years or so through a multi-proxy analysis (with archaeoentomology – the study of insect remains – as the main focus, complemented with biostratigraphy and charcoal analysis) applied on one peat monolith collected within a 30-meters distance of the archaeological site itself. This thesis first reviews published research that has examined how hunter-fisher-gatherers affected local environments through their activities within the landscape and discusses methodological considerations relevant to this scholarly literature. This review informed the design of the methods ...