The diversity evolution of sheep morphology in French zooarchaeological remains from the 9th to the 19th century: Analysis of pastoral strategy
Résumé
Although the economic importance of sheep husbandry in the Middle Ages, especially during the development of the major cloth industries, and the speculation of animals for wool, is recognized, until now the evolution of sheep forms on the French mainland have not been the subject of major investigations. The purpose of our study, therefore, was to assess the morphological diversity of sheep across eleven centuries, and attempt to reconstruct the zootechnical practices used in husbandry and their effectiveness from the zooarchaeological remains. In addition, a database was created, with the help of numerous specialists, grouping 16,353 measured bones corresponding to 59,801 distributed measurements from the 9th to the 19th centuries in France.
Our purpose was to describe the shape of animals bred for wool (through size or dimensions) across a wide territory using bone remains and the help of common methods and tool, such as shoulder height, the slenderness index, and the log size index. The work carried out within the framework of this study should be reproducible for any type of zooarchaeological study.
The results reveal an evolution in sheep diversity and morphologies according to three stages, from the end of the Late Middle Ages to the industrial era. The first phase corresponds to fairly homogeneous sheep herds from the 9th–10th and the 12th–13th centuries, with a low diversity of forms: small and stunted. We then witness an important development in morphological variety from the 13th–14th centuries, in all dimensions, from the smallest to the largest. Many of the various forms emerged without impacting sheep dimensions in depth; overall, the herds remained composed of smaller individuals. Finally, from the 12th–13th and the 18th–19th centuries, there is a loss of diversity in sheep forms to the benefit of herds primarily consisting of larger dimensioned individuals. This zootechnical evolution can be compared to the effect of merinisation operating at the end of the modern period.
