ABSTRACT
Views have differed as to the way insect remains can be used as evidence of conditions on and around ancient occupation sites. At present, the funding for studies of insect assemblages from archaeological sites largely stems from their potential as a source of information about the sites themselves and for this reason the work has to be judged by its contribution to archaeology. Work on insects from natural and semi-natural deposits associated with archaeological sites, or assemblages of natural-habitat insects from deposits formed in, is not very different from studies of Pleistocene assemblages of the kind carried out for many years at Birmingham by G. R. Coope, P. J. Osborne and others. The value of a varies greatly between different death assemblages. Work on large numbers of ancient and modern death assemblages as well as on modern communities will hopefully improve the quality of both ecological data and decisions as to the significance of particular archaeological assemblages.
