Resumo
This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary research focused on the medieval transhumance routes connecting the lowland winter pastures of Provence to the Southern Alps summer pastures (France), using different sources. The study aims to compare the geographical information about shepherd’s journey’s recorded in written sources with the theoretically optimal routes obtained using GIS-based digital tools. To do this, we first localised the places mentioned in the medieval documents related to transhumance including the departure and arrival of different routes and places through which the herds passed. Next, we modelized different possible layouts between the start and ending point of each route using GIS-based methods: Namely, least-cost path calculation and focal networks. Then, we compared the digital layouts with the places crossed by the shepherds according the documents. Our goals are, for on the one hand, to assess the soundness of GIS procedures to model ancient seasonal pastoral routes. In this regard, another important goal is to explore the importance of physical constraints and socioeconomical factors in choosing a route for seasonal migration of herds from plains to the uplands and vice versa. On the other hand, we build a proposal of most probable pathways to carry out the seasonal displacements addressing the ‘who and why’ questions concerning medieval transhumance. Finally, our ultimate objective is to understand the role of seasonal pastoralism in the human-making of medieval landscapes in the Provence.
Palabras chave
Routes. GIS. Pastoralism. Medieval. Written sources.