Traditional sheep and goat husbandry in Cyprus : the effects of scale and its identification in archaeological assemblages

Zooarchaeological, as any archaeological, interpretation relies on analogical reasoning. In many cases, the analogies employed as interpretative aids derive from ethnographic studies. Zooarchaeology in particular has been heavily reliant on ethnography to inform its interpretative framework, especially on animal husbandry practices. The majority of relevant studies, however, concern specialised pastoralists in large-scale systems. Medium- and small-scale animal husbandry practices, especially in mixed agro-pastoral systems, are less documented ethnographically. The scarcity of such ethnographic analogies is detrimental to zooarchaeological interpretation, as scale is a fundamental characteristic of any animal husbandry system and permeates most of its aspects. This study constitutes an effort to address this gap through an ethnozooarchaeological study of, now extinct, medium-scale traditional caprine husbandry practices in 20th-century Cyprus. Data collected through semistructured interviews with sheep and goat herders are presented to illustrate how scale shapes important aspects of caprine management. Besides providing information of practical use to zooarchaeologists working in Mediterranean environments, this study also serves as a source of analogy for the detection and interpretation of ancient medium-scale systems.