Toward a diachronic vision of Corsican caprine husbandry systems

Nowadays, the caprine farming system in the Mediterranean island of Corsica is mostly oriented toward sheep milk production. Sedentarized on the coastal plains, this dairy farming is governed by a specific calendar, with most births scheduled for autumn, to provide milk in winter, i.e. out of season. However, the pre-industrial dairy system was characterized by mixed herds of both sheep and goats, with the main birth season in late winter for sheep and autumn for goats, and more importantly: a transhumance between littoral plains and inland mountains. This recent change raises questions about the long-term permanence of so-called traditional zootechnical systems, dependent on socio-economic and environmental factors. This purpose requires a long-term approach, and in this respect, we combined osteological analyses, and isotopic analyses of tooth enamel on two Neolithic sites (Araguina-Sennola and Montlaur, 5th – 3rd cal BC) and two medieval sites (Rostino and Litala, 14th century). The former, construction of caprines mortality profiles, reveals demographic management and production orientation. The latter, the sequential oxygen (seasonal marker), carbon (vegetation marker) and strontium (geological marker) isotope ratios analyses enable us to respectively determine the birth season, feeding variability and flock mobility from a single tooth sample. Our findings show that while the production orientation and the calendar of births vary according to socio-economic factors, from the Neolithic period to industrialization, livestock farmers have adapted their zootechnical systems to the contrasting climates and landscapes of the Mediterranean thanks to seasonal mobility. A diachronic vision is necessary to encompass the nonlinear, long-term trajectory of husbandry systems in the Mediterranean area. Such an understanding of the adaptation of past pastoral practices can help broaden zootechnical scenarios for adapting livestock farming to current changes, such as the use of transhumance during the summer, which is locally a multi-millennial response to heat.