HR: 17:30h
AN: PP34A-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Seasonality recorded in Modern and Viking Limpet Shells ( Patella vulgata), Quoygrew, Orkney, UK
AU: * Surge, D
EM: donna64@unc.edu
AF: University of North Carolina, Dept of Geological Sciences, 104 South Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States
AU: Barrett, J H
EM: jhb41@cam.ac.uk
AF: University of Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3ER, United Kingdom
AU: Milner, N
EM: nm507@york.ac.uk.
AF: University of York, Department of Archaeology, The King's Manor, York, YO1 7EP, United Kingdom
AB: Climate archives contained in shells of the European limpet, Patella vulgata, from Viking shell middens can potentially provide much needed information about seasonality in mid-latitude coastal areas prior to the complicating effects of industrialization. P. vulgata shells are common in the stratified middens accumulated by the Viking inhabitants of Quoygrew, Orkney, and were likely used for baiting fish. Radiocarbon dates and artifacts place these middens between the 9th/10th and 13th centuries. This interval coincides with the Medieval Warm Period. Little is known about the seasonal temperature variation during this time of pre-industrial warming. Before reconstructing climate information from Viking shells, we determined whether P. vulgata preserves environmental and ecological information. Previous work on live-collected specimens from Whitley Bay near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, confirmed that: (1) oxygen isotope ratios served as a proxy for sea surface temperature after accounting for a uniform +1.01 +/-0.21 ‰ offset; and (2) annual growth lines occurred during the winter given this location is within the cold-temperature biogeographic province. Winter growth lines and increments are common growth patterns found in marine bivalves from the cold-temperate province along the western North Atlantic. Preliminary isotope data from the 9th/10th century reveals similar winter and summer temperature relative to today and annual growth lines formed during winter, typical of a cold-temperate habitat.
DE: 0473 Paleoclimatology and paleoceanography (3344, 4900)
DE: 1041 Stable isotope geochemistry (0454, 4870)
DE: 4902 Anthropogenic effects (1803, 4802)
DE: 4924 Geochemical tracers
DE: 4954 Sea surface temperature
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting