Collis et al./Summer Farms, 7. The ‘invisible’ shepherd and the ‘visible’ dairyman

Pastoral groups are often considered ‘invisible’ by archaeologists, as their mobility is supposed to affect the archaeological visibility of their sites. In order to tackle this invisibility issue, ethno-archaeological research was carried out in the eastern Italian Alps (Val di Fiemme, Trentino province). It enabled the identification of two husbandry strategies, one focused on dairying animals (reared for their milk) and the other on non-dairying animals (reared for their wool and meat). It was noticed that the seasonal sites related to the ‘dairying’ strategy are more complex and less ephemeral than those related to the ‘non-dairying’ strategy. This led to the conclusion that the ‘non-dairying’ pastoralists are less visible in the archaeological record than the ‘dairying’ pastoralists. This inference enhances the understanding of specific mountain archaeological sites, and also confirms that ethno-archaeology has the potential to solve specific archaeological problems, such as those related to archaeological visibility.