Palaeoentomological data in SEAD – The Strategic Environmental Archaeology Database

This dataset includes the Quaternary fossil record of arthropods (mainly insects and especially beetles) from the Strategic Environmental Archaeology Database (SEAD; www.sead.se). Data are from BugsCEP (www.bugscep.com), a constituent database of SEAD, and have been gathered from published studies in both scientific journals and consultancy reports. References to the source publications are available in the dataset. The database is global but includes data mostly from northwestern Europe. Sites are classified as either archaeological sites or stratigraphic sequences, with each site containing data from one or more sediment samples. Archaeological sites are locations on or near archaeological excavations. Stratigraphic sequences are mainly from peatbogs or lake sediments, but include mixed sediments which may have human impact. Sample dates are expressed as a range of years BP and derived through a wide variety of dating methods ranging in precision and accuracy from calendar dates and modern radiocarbon dating to stratigraphic association of undated samples with dated layers. Many dates are also interpolated between radiometric dates using age-depth models. Datings ranges from ca 500000 yrs BP until present.