Investigating Neolithic and the Middle Ages caprine herds mobility in French island of Corsica

Agropastoral societies settled in Corsica in the mid-6th millennium BC. They mainly settled along the coastal areas but their presence is also attested in the high mountains of the island's interior from the Neolithic period. The occupation of both coastal plains and mountainous areas could be linked to pastoral activity involving herds mobility. Nowadays, traditional sheep and goat breeding systems in Corsica mainly consist of dairy farming of flocks. Demographic management is mostly based on autumnal lambing, while the management of forage resources is based on seasonal grazing in a double transhumance system. The herds spend the winter on the low elevation plains, go up to mid-height elevation in the spring, and summer in high mountains. Then they make a stopover (a capicursura) in the middle mountains in the autumn, before returning to the plains for winter (impiaghjera). However, land use patterns in mountainous areas are not immutable. They may have been very different in the past and must be investigated directly from archaeological evidence. This presentation will sum up the results from ongoing research on pastoral mobility in the Neolithic and the Middle Ages in Corsica, involving sequential analysis of oxygen (δ18O), carbon (δ13C) and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotope ratios in caprine dental enamel from two Neolithic sites: Montlaur (4050-3500 BC) and Araguina Sennola (5th-3rd
millennium BC), and two medieval sites: Litala and Rostino (14th century AD). We have observed variations in feeding over the course of the annual cycle. Carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) showed diverse patterns of seasonal changes, involving forest resources in winter as well as intriguing high-δ13C plant resources in summer (C4 plants?). Seasonal mobility of the herds was confirmed from intra-tooth variations in 87Sr/86Sr values. The results showed large intra-tooth variations, concomitant to seasonal changes in δ18O values. In addition, high inter-individual variability can be interpreted as reflecting the diversity in management and grazing patterns that characterizes these systems.