Milk and meat exploitation, autumn lambing and use of forest resources in Neolithic Corsican sheep farming systems (fifth to third millennia cal BC)

Abstract

Corsica has been inhabited since the ninth millennium BC, but it is only from the sixth millennium BC onwards, that Neolithic societies originating from Italy settled mostly along coastal areas but also inland, in high mountainous areas. By then, Corsica was already experiencing some Mediterranean climate trends and was covered with dense forests. In order to assess how these Neolithic societies sustainably occupied this new insular territory, we need to understand how the local environment and resources were incorporated in the pastoral system. Osteological and isotopic analyses on remains from the sites of Araguina Sennola (late fifth – early third millennia cal BC) and Montlaur (4100–3600 cal BC) investigated the key parameters of these husbandry systems. Sheep mortality profiles from dental remains suggest mixed meat and milk exploitation. Modelled intra-tooth variations of oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O) revealed extended birth season, including autumnal lambing. Carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) showed high seasonal variation, involving forest resources in winter, as well as high-δ13C summer plant resources, possibly C4 plants from coastal salt marshes. This raises the question of the seasonal mobility of herds. Great inter-individual variability in δ13C values reflects variable degrees and patterns of mobility, suggesting that herders adapted to the conditions of the contrasted Mediterranean landscape.