Autumn lambing in the Mediterranean: the ancient history of a sustainable practice
Abstract
Agropastoral systems in the Mediterranean take a great variety of forms in response to a wide range of climatic, orographic and socioeconomic contexts. The predominance of caprines (sheep and goat) is a frequent common feature, and a particularity is the existence of autumn lambing. Annual rhythms of pastoral systems are strongly determined by animal births season, which defines the annual availability of animal products (milk in particular) and the organization of agropastoral tasks. In temperate latitudes, ewes alternate on an annual scale between a period of fertility and a sexual rest. This reproductive cycle, inherited from their wild ancestor, is mainly driven by the photoperiod. In contrast to the dominant pattern of spring lambing in today’s temperate Europe, in the Mediterranean area lambing can also be scheduled in autumn, bringing benefits in terms of use of natural resources. Autumnal lambing in the Mediterranean is enabled by the conjunction of three factors: (i) the physiological capability of some Mediterranean breeds for an “out-of-season” fertility period; (ii) intentional scheduling by the herder, by separating females and males and reuniting them in the spring; (iii) abundant forage resources to support autumn lactation: in present-day Mediterranean climate, autumnal rains create favorable conditions. In this regard, autumnal lambing constitutes a form of sustainable pastoralism in the Mediterranean area. Recent studies involving stable isotope analysis in sheep teeth showed autumn lambing in the early and middle Neolithic (6th and 4th mill. BCE) in the northwestern Mediterranean, suggesting that all three conditions were met at least in different occasions in the past. We will present news findings on sheep birth season and the occurrence of autumn lambing in Neolithic contexts across the northern margin of the Mediterranean over a broad longitudinal range from North Macedonia and Greece to southern France.