Vertebrate remains in Holocene limestone cave sediments: faunal succession in the Sirijorda Cave, northern Norway

The faunal composition and temporal species succession dynamics during the Holocene are poorly known in Norway, and interpretations are often biased because of the potential overrepresentation of game species in the archaeological finds. Pitfall traps in limestone caves represent less biased long-term records of fauna, often being excellently preserved for thousands of years and thus providing an opportunity for reconstruction of the postglacial distribution history. We excavated fossiliferous sediments at the bottom of a 40-m entrance shaft, functioning as a pitfall trap, in the Sirijorda Cave, northern Norway, comprising 3467 identified vertebrate bone fragments. Radiocarbon-dating of mammalian bones at stratigraphic levels in excavated trenches was used for calibrating the time scale during the last 8000 ¹⁴C years BP, with a reconstruction of local vegetation history from a pollen profile in the cave deposits. At least 20 species were identified: one frog, two birds (plus 1-2 to genus level) and 17 mammals. Most of the species appeared more or less continuously during the covered time periods of the Atlantic, Subboreal and Subatlantic chronozones. With the exception of one species, Sorex isodon, which seems to have disappeared during the past 2000 years, all the registered species in the time profile are present in the area today. The possible immigration routes and time periods for (re)colonization of the recorded species are discussed.