The Gymnesic Islands at the crossroads: Livestock body size as marker of social interactions during the first millennium BC
2022
Valenzuela, Alejandro
This study presents an analysis of 7575 individual sheep, goat, cattle and pig measurements from 22 sites from Mallorca and Menorca dating to different phases throughout the 1st millennium BC. Two main episodes of size change have been identified, although some variations in the speed and timing by species are noted. The earliest evidence for size change in cattle and sheep occurs between the 6–5th century BC and may be connected to the increase of trade exchanges and social interactions between Gymnesic Islands and the colonial area of influence of the Punics. This process of livestock size increasing probably occurred as a combined consequence of agricultural innovations, the increasing commercialisation of animal farming, and as the meat demands required by the expanding population. Subsequent size increases in livestock occurred as the process of integration continued to develop, reaching its peak at the end of the millennium with the Roman colonisation of the islands.
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