P. Halstead, PASTORALISM OR HOUSEHOLD HERDING - PROBLEMS OF SCALE AND SPECIALIZATION IN EARLY GREEK ANIMAL HUSBANDRY, World archaeology, 28(1), 1996, pp. 20-42
Recent strategies of animal husbandry in Greece range from pastoralism
to mixed farming. Pastoralists tend to keep larger herds, schedule gr
azing to enhance nutrition and productivity, and specialize in particu
lar products for exchange. Each of these tendencies has implications f
or the species and age/sex composition of livestock which are amenable
to archaeozoological investigation. Faunal assemblages from seventh-s
econd millennium sc Greece match small-scale mixed farming better than
large-scale pastoralism. Written records from the second millennium s
c palaces indicate large-scale specialization in wool production, but
as a component of mixed farming 'estates'. In this heterogeneous lands
cape, pastoralism faces recurrent scarcity of labour, particularly if
not subsidized by exchange with farmers. In questioning the existence
of pastoralism in prehistoric Greece, this paper stresses the need to
consider the full range of recent models of animal husbandry and sugge
sts ways of harnessing archaeozoological evidence to the investigation
of pastoralism.