Summer Farms
Seasonal Exploitation of the Uplands from Prehistory to the Present
Edited by
John R. Collis [+–]
University of Sheffield
John Collis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield
Franco Nicolis [+–]
Ufficio Beni Archeologici
Franco Nicolis is Director of the Office of Archaeological Heritage in Trentino, northern Italy.
Mark Pearce [+–]
University of Nottingham
Mark Pearce is Professor of Mediterranean Prehistory in the Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham.
Summer farms occur throughout the world where there are rich pastures that can only be utilised for part of the year, mainly because they are under snow and ice during the winter. In Europe transhumance is often a major event when the cattle and other livestock leave their home villages and move up into the mountains, and likewise on their return. The best known sites in Europe are perhaps those found in the Alpine areas, but they occur everywhere where there are suitable highland areas to exploit, even on small islands such as the Isle of Man. Traditionally they have been the subject of the studies of ethnographers and anthropologists, especially in the second half of the 20th century when technological and economic changes led to the gradual abandonment of the farms and to other ways of exploiting the highlands. The farmers of the last generation that lived on these farms is gradually disappearing and with them the oral records and memories, and now it is archaeologists who are leading the studies both to record the last famers and more specifically looking at the history of such farming which can stretch back into prehistory, and certainly to at least the Bronze Age with the rise in importance of ‘Secondary Products’ such as cheese which could be stored for use over winter. Much of the evidence can only be gathered by surface survey and by excavation, though in some cases there are good written sources which have yet to be fully exploited. This was the topic of two sessions at meetings of the European Association of Archaeologists, at Oslo in 2011 and Helsinki in 2012, and this volume publishes a dozen case studies, as well as brief summaries of other projects in Europe, extending from the Black Sea in the east to northern Spain and Iceland in the west, though with a concentration on the Alpine area.
One thing that emerges is the very varied nature of these sites, both in their chronology, who the people were who went to the farms, the distances travelled, and the other activities associated with transhumance such as mining. In some cases the products were primarily for the subsistence of the agricultural population, but in other cases they were traded and could produce a large amount of profit. This is the first overview of these sites in Europe written from an archaeological point of view.
Table of Contents
Prelims
List of Figures [+–] v-x
University of Sheffield
John Collis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield
Summer farms occur throughout the world where there are rich pastures that can only be utilised for part of the year, mainly because they are under snow and ice during the winter. In Europe transhumance is often a major event when the cattle and other livestock leave their home villages and move up into the mountains, and likewise on their return. The best known sites in Europe are perhaps those found in the Alpine areas, but they occur everywhere where there are suitable highland areas to exploit, even on small islands such as the Isle of Man. Traditionally they have been the subject of the studies of ethnographers and anthropologists, especially in the second half of the 20th century when technological and economic changes led to the gradual abandonment of the farms and to other ways of exploiting the highlands. The farmers of the last generation that lived on these farms is gradually disappearing and with them the oral records and memories, and now it is archaeologists who are leading the studies both to record the last famers and more specifically looking at the history of such farming which can stretch back into prehistory, and certainly to at least the Bronze Age with the rise in importance of ‘Secondary Products’ such as cheese which could be stored for use over winter. Much of the evidence can only be gathered by surface survey and by excavation, though in some cases there are good written sources which have yet to be fully exploited. This was the topic of two sessions at meetings of the European Association of Archaeologists, at Oslo in 2011 and Helsinki in 2012, and this volume publishes a dozen case studies, as well as brief summaries of other projects in Europe, extending from the Black Sea in the east to northern Spain and Iceland in the west, though with a concentration on the Alpine area. One thing that emerges is the very varied nature of these sites, both in their chronology, who the people were who went to the farms, the distances travelled, and the other activities associated with transhumance such as mining. In some cases the products were primarily for the subsistence of the agricultural population, but in other cases they were traded and could produce a large amount of profit. This is the first overview of these sites in Europe written from an archaeological point of view.
List of Tables [+–] xi
University of Sheffield
John Collis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield
Summer farms occur throughout the world where there are rich pastures that can only be utilised for part of the year, mainly because they are under snow and ice during the winter. In Europe transhumance is often a major event when the cattle and other livestock leave their home villages and move up into the mountains, and likewise on their return. The best known sites in Europe are perhaps those found in the Alpine areas, but they occur everywhere where there are suitable highland areas to exploit, even on small islands such as the Isle of Man. Traditionally they have been the subject of the studies of ethnographers and anthropologists, especially in the second half of the 20th century when technological and economic changes led to the gradual abandonment of the farms and to other ways of exploiting the highlands. The farmers of the last generation that lived on these farms is gradually disappearing and with them the oral records and memories, and now it is archaeologists who are leading the studies both to record the last famers and more specifically looking at the history of such farming which can stretch back into prehistory, and certainly to at least the Bronze Age with the rise in importance of ‘Secondary Products’ such as cheese which could be stored for use over winter. Much of the evidence can only be gathered by surface survey and by excavation, though in some cases there are good written sources which have yet to be fully exploited. This was the topic of two sessions at meetings of the European Association of Archaeologists, at Oslo in 2011 and Helsinki in 2012, and this volume publishes a dozen case studies, as well as brief summaries of other projects in Europe, extending from the Black Sea in the east to northern Spain and Iceland in the west, though with a concentration on the Alpine area. One thing that emerges is the very varied nature of these sites, both in their chronology, who the people were who went to the farms, the distances travelled, and the other activities associated with transhumance such as mining. In some cases the products were primarily for the subsistence of the agricultural population, but in other cases they were traded and could produce a large amount of profit. This is the first overview of these sites in Europe written from an archaeological point of view.
List of Contributors [+–] xii-xiii
University of Sheffield
John Collis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield
Summer farms occur throughout the world where there are rich pastures that can only be utilised for part of the year, mainly because they are under snow and ice during the winter. In Europe transhumance is often a major event when the cattle and other livestock leave their home villages and move up into the mountains, and likewise on their return. The best known sites in Europe are perhaps those found in the Alpine areas, but they occur everywhere where there are suitable highland areas to exploit, even on small islands such as the Isle of Man. Traditionally they have been the subject of the studies of ethnographers and anthropologists, especially in the second half of the 20th century when technological and economic changes led to the gradual abandonment of the farms and to other ways of exploiting the highlands. The farmers of the last generation that lived on these farms is gradually disappearing and with them the oral records and memories, and now it is archaeologists who are leading the studies both to record the last famers and more specifically looking at the history of such farming which can stretch back into prehistory, and certainly to at least the Bronze Age with the rise in importance of ‘Secondary Products’ such as cheese which could be stored for use over winter. Much of the evidence can only be gathered by surface survey and by excavation, though in some cases there are good written sources which have yet to be fully exploited. This was the topic of two sessions at meetings of the European Association of Archaeologists, at Oslo in 2011 and Helsinki in 2012, and this volume publishes a dozen case studies, as well as brief summaries of other projects in Europe, extending from the Black Sea in the east to northern Spain and Iceland in the west, though with a concentration on the Alpine area. One thing that emerges is the very varied nature of these sites, both in their chronology, who the people were who went to the farms, the distances travelled, and the other activities associated with transhumance such as mining. In some cases the products were primarily for the subsistence of the agricultural population, but in other cases they were traded and could produce a large amount of profit. This is the first overview of these sites in Europe written from an archaeological point of view.
Chapter 1
Introduction [+–] 1-20
University of Sheffield
John Collis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield
Summer farms occur throughout the world where there are rich pastures that can only be utilised for part of the year, mainly because they are under snow and ice during the winter. In Europe transhumance is often a major event when the cattle and other livestock leave their home villages and move up into the mountains, and likewise on their return. The best known sites in Europe are perhaps those found in the Alpine areas, but they occur everywhere where there are suitable highland areas to exploit, even on small islands such as the Isle of Man. Traditionally they have been the subject of the studies of ethnographers and anthropologists, especially in the second half of the 20th century when technological and economic changes led to the gradual abandonment of the farms and to other ways of exploiting the highlands. The farmers of the last generation that lived on these farms is gradually disappearing and with them the oral records and memories, and now it is archaeologists who are leading the studies both to record the last famers and more specifically looking at the history of such farming which can stretch back into prehistory, and certainly to at least the Bronze Age with the rise in importance of ‘Secondary Products’ such as cheese which could be stored for use over winter. Much of the evidence can only be gathered by surface survey and by excavation, though in some cases there are good written sources which have yet to be fully exploited. This was the topic of two sessions at meetings of the European Association of Archaeologists, at Oslo in 2011 and Helsinki in 2012, and this volume publishes a dozen case studies, as well as brief summaries of other projects in Europe, extending from the Black Sea in the east to northern Spain and Iceland in the west, though with a concentration on the Alpine area. One thing that emerges is the very varied nature of these sites, both in their chronology, who the people were who went to the farms, the distances travelled, and the other activities associated with transhumance such as mining. In some cases the products were primarily for the subsistence of the agricultural population, but in other cases they were traded and could produce a large amount of profit. This is the first overview of these sites in Europe written from an archaeological point of view.
Chapter 2
State Historical Museum
Russian Academy of Sciences
The system of seasonal use of grassland has been one of the key principles of exploiting different ecological zones since the origin and subsequent evolution of the Eurasian steppes pastoral lifestyle during the Bronze Age. Seasonality data can therefore be used in identifying population mobility. Different values of 13C and 15N point to different diet systems, which have been reconstructed for various population groups. Therefore, the comparison between groups or even individuals can be used to identify the presence of immigrants who might have consumed a diet different from that of the population in a given area. 87Sr/86Sr ratio in human teeth enamel is another tool for the identification of human mobility and migration. With combination of all data available we are able to produce five models of population movements across the exploited Eurasian steppe areas during the Bronze Age and also gain insights into individual lives, so that personal stories begin to emerge.
Chapter 3
Czech Academy of Sciences
Mountain summer grazing has formed a significant part of the economy in many regions of Europe. In the modern history of the Czech Republic such a system was practiced in the eastern part of the country, East Moravia in the Outer Western Carpathians. It started with the arrival of nomadic shepherds (the Wallachians) in the 15th and 16th centuries and ceased to exist at the beginning of the 20th century. In contrast, in the western part of the country (Bohemia) transhumance has been almost unknown despite the fact that the whole of Bohemia is surrounded by mountain ranges. The only exceptions were so called ‘mountain cabin farming’ (Baudenwirtschaft) in the Krkonoše Mountains¸ introduced in this region by Alpine woodcutters in the late 17th–19th centuries, and the insufficiently recognised animal husbandry in the Šumava Mountains taking place at the same time. The reason why the summer farming was not practiced in Bohemia on a bigger scale has not been fully understood. Environmental rather than cultural factors may be behind it. In this context the possibilities of prehistoric summer farming/transhumance are discussed as well as the limitations of its detection in archaeological and palynological records.
Chapter 4
University of Nottingham
Mark Pearce is Professor of Mediterranean Prehistory in the Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham.
By moving livestock to summer farms, fodder at the home base is saved but the milk and other animal products produced during the animals’ absence are no longer immediately available to those left at the home base. In this paper I shall explore the economic implications of the use of summer farms, in particular the effect on carrying capacity, on the number of livestock which can be over-wintered, and on the use of the milk produced while the animals are at the summer grazing lands. I then explore archaeological evidence from the Bronze and Iron Ages of the Italian uplands (Apennines and Alps). I argue that the production of hard cheese, which converts milk into an easily conservable and transportable commodity, is key to the expansion of summer farms in the Bronze Age of Italy. Cheese production is an essential part of models for the pastoral use of Mediterranean uplands in prehistory but it is commonly held that in the Alps the production of hard cheese only begins in the Middle Ages. I examine the literary and archaeological evidence for the prehistoric production of hard cheese and argue that its production in prehistory is the most parsimonious explanation for the summer use of high mountain pastures and thus for the origins of the Alpwirtschaft economy in the southern Alps.
Chapter 5
Shepherds and miners through time in the Veneto highlands: ethnoarchaeology and archaeology [+–] 57-72
Mara Migliavacca £17.50
The eastern Italian Pre-Alps in the area between Lake Garda and the river Brenta have been exploited from historical times to the present day for many purposes that are typical of a mountain zone. Among the most important activities were mining and stock-raising. Ethno-archaeological and archaeological projects have been carried out in the study area in order to detect and document the traces of human activities, especially shepherds and sheep farming. To date, it has been possible to locate hundreds of sheep folds, shepherds’ shelters and breeders’ houses in the uplands, to discover that the most ancient traces of organised human exploitation in the uplands go back to the Bronze Age, while during the Iron Age a change in upland economy is evident, possibly connected with the organisation of larger territorial polities and their boundaries.
Chapter 6
Seasonal settlements and husbandry resources in the Ligurian Apennines (17th–20th centuries) [+–] 73-96
University of Genoa/University of the Basque Country
This paper compares the results of different investigations devoted to the historical reconstruction of seasonal settlements (locally called casoni) that were widespread in the western Ligurian Apennines during the post-medieval period, and in doing so evaluate their potential as archaeological sources for the study of the management systems of husbandry resources. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, casoni became important components of pasture organization in the eastern Ligurian Apennines. As buildings where cattle and shepherds found shelter, it is possible to locate various casoni through place names, the analysis of historical and current cartography or by field-survey. The research summarized in this paper was carried out in four areas (Casoni Lagorara, Casoni di Bargone, Perlezzi sites and Casone del Giazzo) using archaeological (particularly architectural archaeology and survey) and documentary sources (historical cartography, archival documentation about jurisdictional conflicts). In each area, the archaeological analysis of the buildings revealed important transformations between the 18th and early-19th centuries. The comparison between the case studies suggests that these changes were the result of more general transformations in husbandry during this period, particularly those associated with transformations in agricultural systems.
Chapter 7
University of York
Pastoral groups are often considered ‘invisible’ by archaeologists, as their mobility is supposed to affect the archaeological visibility of their sites. In order to tackle this invisibility issue, ethno-archaeological research was carried out in the eastern Italian Alps (Val di Fiemme, Trentino province). It enabled the identification of two husbandry strategies, one focused on dairying animals (reared for their milk) and the other on non-dairying animals (reared for their wool and meat). It was noticed that the seasonal sites related to the ‘dairying’ strategy are more complex and less ephemeral than those related to the ‘non-dairying’ strategy. This led to the conclusion that the ‘non-dairying’ pastoralists are less visible in the archaeological record than the ‘dairying’ pastoralists. This inference enhances the understanding of specific mountain archaeological sites, and also confirms that ethno-archaeology has the potential to solve specific archaeological problems, such as those related to archaeological visibility.
Chapter 8
Franco Nicolis,Elisabetta Mottes,Michele Bassetti,Elisabetta Castiglioni,Mauro Rottoli,Sara Ziggiotti £17.50
Ufficio Beni Archeologici
Franco Nicolis is Director of the Office of Archaeological Heritage in Trentino, northern Italy.
Provincia autonoma di Trento
Cora Società Archeologica
Musei Civici di Como
Musei Civici di Como
The Dosso Rotondo site (Storo, Trento) is located in the valley of the River Chiese at 1876 metres a.s.l. Investigations, still underway, began in 1998 and have involved a surface area of more than 50 m2, although the occupied area, estimated using surveys and manual coring, is around 800–1,000 m2. The archaeological deposits brought to light have made it possible to identify a stratigraphic sequence with four separate phases of occupation. In the area investigated it has currently been possible to identify 76 postholes, 70 of which can be related to four residential buildings constructed using load-bearing vertical posts planted in the ground, which can be attributed to three different settlement phases. During the fourth phase of occupation a fifth dwelling was built using a new construction technique with stone foundations, on which the wooden structure rested. Interdisciplinary research at the Storo Dosso Rotondo site has led to the conclusion that it was probably a seasonal settlement linked to mountain pasture activities. On the basis of the pottery and flint artefacts, occupation of the settlement can be dated to the early phase of the Middle Bronze Age.
Chapter 9
University of Sheffield
John Collis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield
Museo delle Scienze, Trento
Museo delle Scienze, Trento
Upland population levels are strongly correlated to environmental dynamics such as morphology, exposure and climate. A temperature fall leads to a shortening of the plant growth season, which can lead to lower pasture productivity hence shorter periods spent by the livestock in the mountains. The aim of this research is to correlate natural climate constraints with variations in post-medieval human settlements of the Pasubio plateau, located between 1500 and 1800m, in the Italian southern Alps (Trento). A survey of a 630ha area has identified the remnants of 145 structures used for milk processing, which date from the 17th to the 19th century. A ‘building density curve’, grouped into fifty year intervals, shows oscillations over time. The high population density that characterises the first half of the 17th century is followed by an almost total abandonment of pastures in the second half of the century. Dairyman-shepherds returned to the high pastures only after the mid-18th century. The correlation of this trend with climatic oscillations in the same area derived from speleothems, reveals that the decrease in highland exploitation between 1650 and 1750 was linked to the Maunder temperature fall. The subsequent temperature rise corresponds to the resettlement of the highland pastures.
Chapter 10
Brigitte Andres £17.50
Oberhasle in the Bern highlands has produced over 400 new sites, the majority linked to Alpwirtschaft activities dating from medieval to modern times. Due to its location on the transalpine route over the Brünig, Grimsel and Gries Passes the area profited from the export of livestock and hard cheeses from late medieval times up to the end of the 19th century. The archaeological sites were not excavated which limits the possibilities of dating and interpreting them. The main category of sites was the foundations of buildings which allows an overview of their location, form and method of construction. Written and pictorial sources as well as comparisons with standing buildings and with results from archaeological excavations elsewhere assist in understanding their historical context.
Chapter 11
University of York
Kevin Walsh is Lecturer in Landscape Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York. His principal research areas are Mountain and Mediterranean landscape archaeology. Current field projects are based in the southern French Alps, the Pyrenees, and the landscape around Stymphalos in the northern Peloponnese. All these projects assess notions of environmental knowledge, and consider how past Mediterranean societies understood and responded to environmental change between the Neolithic and Roman period. His most recent publication, co-edited with Ph. Della-Casa (eds.), is: Interpretation of Sites and Material Culture from Mid-high Altitude Mountain Environments. Proceedings of the 2004 EAA Session on Alpine Archaeology. Preistoria Alpina.Volume 42 (Trento, Italy: Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, 2007).
Aix-Marseille Université
The aim of this paper is to assess the development of summer activities in the high-altitude zone of the southern French Alps between the Neolithic and the Middle Ages. During these periods, there was enormous variety in the nature of high-altitude activity in these valleys. The Bronze Age witnessed the establishment of the first stone-built pastoral structures at 2200m and above. This marked an important change in the engagement with this landscape, with high-altitude summer pasturing emerging as a new activity. The Iron Age and Roman Period are characterised by a dearth of archaeological structures, but continued palaeoecological signals for pastoral (and possibly mining) activity. The medieval periods saw a substantial increase in activity; a combination of pastoralism and mining, with some large high altitude settlements created which imply the wholesale summer movement of communities from valley-bottom to the high altitude zones.
Chapter 12
An Archaeological Approach to the brañas: summer farms in the pastures of the Cantabrian Mountains (northern Spain) [+–] 203-219
David Gonzalez Alvarez,Margarita Fernández Mier,Pablo López Gómez £17.50
Universidad de León
Universidad de Granada
The pastures of the Cantabrian Mountains have constituted an important resource for the subsistence strategies of their inhabitants, from the Neolithic to the present day. Seasonal settlements in these upland areas – so-called brañas in the case study – were used by shepherds in relation with herding mobility. In this paper we reflect on present-day brañas in order to understand different types of herding settlements in the archaeological record according to different mobility systems or pastoralist strategies. This way, we hope to gain a better understanding on archaeological issues from summer farms. In fact, this kind of approach has been really useful to encourage the discussion around our on-going research on cultural landscapes of the Cantabrian Mountains from a long-term chronological perspective.
Chapter 13
Patrycja Kupiec,Karen Milek,Guðrún Alda Gísladóttir,James Woollett £17.50
University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The seasonal movement of grazing livestock to upland pastures (shielings) is believed to have played an important role in the subsistence economies of small farms in Scandinavia and the North Atlantic region during the Viking Age, Medieval and Post-Medieval periods. Historical sources, saga literature and place-name evidence strongly suggest that transhumance had been practised in Iceland since the settlement period in the ninth century, and that it formed an important part of a decentralised farming economy. However, since only eight putative shieling sites have been subjected to archaeological investigation in Iceland, little is known about the size and character of these sites, the full range of activities that took place in them, or the degree to which they were materially distinct from upland farms. This paper examines how microscopic analysis of floor surfaces can aid the detection of seasonally occupied sites and improve our understanding of livestock management in the North Atlantic region. The potential of micromorphological analysis of floor deposits to distinguish between periodically and permanently occupied sites is illustrated by a case study of a putative shieling site at Þorvaldsstaðasel, in northeast Iceland. The analysis of two thin sections taken from this site showed that its floor deposits exhibited a pattern of thin, periodic occupation surfaces, separated by thicker and less compacted accumulations of aeolian silt and fine sand. This pattern reflects the periods of intermittent occupation, separated by the periods of abandonment, and therefore it is consistent with the interpretation of the site as a periodically occupied shieling. The thin sections also captured a phase when the site was permanently occupied (characterised by thick and compacted floor deposits), which suggest that the occupation history of Icelandic shieling sites may have been more variable and complex than is normally recognised by archaeologists.
End Matter
Index [+–] 237-247
University of Sheffield
John Collis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield
Summer farms occur throughout the world where there are rich pastures that can only be utilised for part of the year, mainly because they are under snow and ice during the winter. In Europe transhumance is often a major event when the cattle and other livestock leave their home villages and move up into the mountains, and likewise on their return. The best known sites in Europe are perhaps those found in the Alpine areas, but they occur everywhere where there are suitable highland areas to exploit, even on small islands such as the Isle of Man. Traditionally they have been the subject of the studies of ethnographers and anthropologists, especially in the second half of the 20th century when technological and economic changes led to the gradual abandonment of the farms and to other ways of exploiting the highlands. The farmers of the last generation that lived on these farms is gradually disappearing and with them the oral records and memories, and now it is archaeologists who are leading the studies both to record the last famers and more specifically looking at the history of such farming which can stretch back into prehistory, and certainly to at least the Bronze Age with the rise in importance of ‘Secondary Products’ such as cheese which could be stored for use over winter. Much of the evidence can only be gathered by surface survey and by excavation, though in some cases there are good written sources which have yet to be fully exploited. This was the topic of two sessions at meetings of the European Association of Archaeologists, at Oslo in 2011 and Helsinki in 2012, and this volume publishes a dozen case studies, as well as brief summaries of other projects in Europe, extending from the Black Sea in the east to northern Spain and Iceland in the west, though with a concentration on the Alpine area. One thing that emerges is the very varied nature of these sites, both in their chronology, who the people were who went to the farms, the distances travelled, and the other activities associated with transhumance such as mining. In some cases the products were primarily for the subsistence of the agricultural population, but in other cases they were traded and could produce a large amount of profit. This is the first overview of these sites in Europe written from an archaeological point of view.
ISBN-13 (Hardback)
9780906090558
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ISBN-13 (Paperback)
9780906090565
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ISBN (eBook)
9781800500754
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Publication
15/08/2016
Pages
262
Size
276 x 203mm
Readership
scholars
Illustration
172 colour and black & white illustrations
