Pastoralism in the Southern Alps
What is Pastoralism?
The Neolithic is known as the agricultural revolution for its developments in the domestication of livestock. Pastoralism has often been overlooked in favour of academic focus on settled agriculture and the emergence of breeding practices of livestock and crops.
Pastoralism is a type of farming centred on the rearing and management of livestock. It differs from other kinds of agriculture as it is often a nomadic existence that relies on changing environmental and ecological factors. The movement of flocks in response to changing environmental factors is crucial to the sustenance of a stable herd of livestock. The process of transhumant pastoralism (moving livestock from arable to unfertile land) enriches land that previously was unsuitable for growing crops. This means that the landscape is transformed and areas that were previously of no use to people can become fruitful areas of agricultural production. Within the Southern Alps, pastoral economies produce milk based products as well as wool, meat and leather. These products are now traded across the globe, but stemmed from the early pastoral systems we are investigating.
The environment of the Southern Alps is sensitive to erosion caused by grazing animals as well as climate change. It is important for us to understand the evolution of the region's pastoral economies in order to protect and preserve this landscape and way of life.
Map of study area: Walsh, 2013
What do we already know about the history of agriculture in the region?
Since 1998, a team of archaeologists and paleo-environmental scientists have been carrying out the Southern French Alps Landscape Project. Their work has focused on long-term human/landscape interaction in mountainous areas. The research has particularly focused on the evolution from hunter gatherer societies to settled agriculture and pastoralism. The projects' aims are to better understand how the ecologically sensitive area of the Southern French Alps has been managed and transformed by humans over time in order to be better equipped to protect its contemporary landscape and culture.
Four stages of landscape use and change have been identified:
- Mesolithic: saw growth in fir trees within the Montane zone. The forest edge (known as an ecotone in ecology) was used for hunting. The tree cover would have created ideal conditions for such hunting practices.
- Neolithic and Bronze age: forest at lower altitudes is cleared, suggesting much agricultural activity occurred at lower levels during the neolithic. There is little evidence of land management and clearance at higher altitudes. There is still plenty of evidence for hunting practices. In the transition between the neolithic and bronze age, traces of human intervention in higher altitude zones emerge. We see stone structures in high altitude regions, suggesting intensified agricultural use of these areas.
- Iron Age and Roman: steady continuation of farming and pastoral practices developed in the bronze age. Fewer permanent agricultural structures were erected in this period with ephemeral structures in their place. Forest clearance did not intensify as we might expect. This is thought to be a result of emerging transhumant pastoral systems.
- Medieval Period: maintained increase in the management of alpine landscapes, with high levels of forest clearance. During the Little Ice Age (1645–1715), despite harsh conditions, human activity in the area is at its peak with vast areas of cleared forest and open land for agriculture.