The Alacant Project

Ethnoarchaeological Research of Traditional Shepherding Activity

Research has been carried out by Dr. Joan Segui, Service for Ethnographic Research of the Museum of Valencia, on traditional herd management strategies and penning sites since 1995 on the mountains range located at the north of the Alacant province, Mediterranean Spain.  The project was designed on the need of recording oral information from a generation of old shepherds who spent their lives across these mountain territories and who’s lifetime was simply running away making it a priority to collect their life experience as the last traditional shepherds of these mediterranean territories. 

Data collected lyed a large amount of information which helped to describe different aspects of traditional herding systems (herds structures and composition, kill-off patterns, transhumance).  It also offered interesting information on pastoral sites, their typology and location as well as their seasonal use.

All together this ethnographic information has been analysed under an archaeological perspective.  Thus aspects of pastoral sites location and use of space could be drawn from the data collected, equally flock management strategies may shed some light on past forms of herding economies.

Disclaimer: Any quoted material of this site (text or scanned images) is copyrighted by Nikos Efstratiou and Joan Segui.All Rights Reserved.

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