Summer dairying and the history of upland landscapes
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-05-26

Although it is widely acknowledged that pastoralism has shaped mountainous landscapes since the Neolithic, the environmental impact of its different productive goals is poorly understood. Cheese production, for example, is very important for the economy and identity of mountain communities, but its role in the traditional management of vulnerable high-altitude environment is virtually unexplored. In this paper three study areas from the Alps will be investigated: Valgerola (central Italian Alps), where Bitto cheese production has been rescued by the Slow Food Foundation, with beneficial effects for the environment; Val Maudagna (western Italian Alps), where the modernisation of the long-lasting Raschera cheese production, and the conversion of the area to winter tourism, have triggered erosion and rewilding; Silvretta massif (eastern Swiss Alps), where the first prehistoric evidence of cheese production corresponds to a phase of increasing human-induced upland landscape transformation. These case studies will show how traditional summer dairying can contribute to sustainable landscape management at high altitude. 

Francesco Carrer, McCord Centre for Landscape, Newcastle University