Aquatic environments and early medieval pig husbandry: two case studies from northern and southern Europe

Objective

The AquaPig project aims to conduct zooarchaeological analyses of early medieval pig remains in order to reconstruct animal husbandry practices and food production, which will in turn inform historical dynamics and contribute knowledge on past human-animal-environment interactions. It relies on a comparative approach of two study regions characterised by water-dominated environments: the final course of the river Rhine (the Netherlands) and the Venetian Lagoon (Italy). The project will reconstruct in detail pig husbandry practices, landscape use linked to such activities, and the socio-economic significance of pork production, which played a major part in the food supply and development of local human communities but, to this date, remains largely under-researched. It will do so by applying an unprecedented combination of traditional zooarchaeological analyses, isotopic analyses on bones and teeth, and 3D dental microwear analyses, as well as by processing and integrating the evidence obtained from other disciplines, such as additional archaeological knowledge, history, environmental studies, and food science. The comparative approach will highlight valuable similarities and differences between the two regions, stimulating interpretative insights; in addition, the historical value of the comparison lies in the fact that political and economic dynamics in these parts of northern and southern Europe have been shown to be interconnected, although the role of food production in local macro-developments is rarely considered. AquaPig is designed to answer long-standing research questions in the zooarchaeology of domestic animals in wetland environments, parallels efforts made by other archaeological projects to highlight the role of humans and animals within specific environments, and reflects current growing interest in wetland research.