Subfossil beetles, lice and fleas from palaeoeskimo and neoeskimos sites
Archaeoentomology, the analysis of insect remains preserved in archaeological contexts, is an approach that is relatively unknown in North America. Even though the first study of insect subfossils from Greenland was conducted in the 1960s, nearly three decades passed before studies were undertaken in the North American Arctic. Since then, a little more than twenty sites of palaeoeskimo (Saqqa, Dorset) and neoeskimo (Thule, Inuit, Yup’ik) cultures have been examined for their subfossil insect faunas, producing thousands of beetle, lice and flea specimens. This data allows an examination of the subsistence and hygiene practices of past indigenous peoples of Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland, as well as their impacts on the local fauna and flora. This paper reviews the contribution of archaeoentomology in the study of hunter-gatherer lifeways in the Circumpolar North.