Contribution of Ectoparasites Studies in Archaeology with Two Example from the North Atlantic Region

Human and animal ectoparasites are often recovered from archaeological contexts being examined forpreserved insect remains. Records of human lice, fleas and bedbugs are used to reconstruct past sanitaryconditions and practices, as well as their geographic distribution and that of the pathogens for which theymay be vectors. Ectoparasites of domesticated and wild animals may be considered proxy indicatorsfor the presence of those animals whilst also inferring activities such as wool processing. This papersummarizes the contribution of ectoparasite studies in archaeology and presents two original case studiesfrom Iceland and Greenland.