VSF 2010 Report - Nabo

300
Charcoal Volume (ml)/Number Seaweed
Fragments
250
200
150
100
50
0
543
541
539
537
535
533
531
529
527
525
523
521
519
517
515
513
511
509
507
505
Sample Number
Charcoal
Seaweed
Figure 3. Graph showing volume of charcoal >1mm and number of seaweed fragments >1mm per sample
Figure 3 shows that as well as variation in the amount of charcoal in the samples,
there is also a large amount of variation in the amount of seaweed in different contexts across
the depth of the column. It is interesting to note that there is not always a correlation between
large quantities of charcoal and large quantities of seaweed. The contexts [10409] and
[10411], discussed above for their high charcoal content, also show contain large quantities
of seaweed fragments. However, context [10407], the turf collapse layer which contained a
large amount of charcoal, contained a relatively low amount of seaweed. Furthermore,
contexts [10404], [10408] and [10410], which contained low amounts of charcoal, contained
relatively large quantities of seaweed fragments. At least some seaweed is present in all but
seven of the samples. The seaweed fragments recovered all seem to be of the Ascophyllum
nodosum type, as in previous work at Vatnsfjörður (Mooney 2009), however this
identification is not certain as it is purely based on the general morphology of the preserved
fragments. Table 1 also shows the number of seaweed fragments per ml volume of charcoal.
This ranged from 0.1 in context [10407], to 11 in context [10410].
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