Project description
Animal husbandry in Roman and medieval economies
Roman husbandry practices had a significant impact on domestic animal farming in the Empire. However, with the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of feudal socio-economic structures, there was a transformation in these practices. The EU funded ZooRoMed project will compare the animal husbandry practices of the Basel Region in Switzerland and North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It will identify the reasons, timing, and regional variations in the resilience or adaptation of animal husbandry practices to the socio-political changes of the time. This investigation will consider factors like the progressive diversification of production, the reduction in livestock size, changes in feeding regimes, and the limited mobility of livestock.
Objective
This project will investigate changes in animal husbandry between the Late Roman period and the Early Middle Ages, by comparing two different regions of the Rhine Valley: Basel Region (Switzerland) and North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). The two geographical areas chosen for the project were frontier regions of the Roman Empire and were later located at the core of the Carolingian Empire. Research in different European regions during this period suggests that changes in the orientation and scale of husbandry practices reflect different socio-political conditions and economic strategies. Roman husbandry practices are known to have impacted considerably on the way domestic animals were raised in the various provinces of the Empire, in relation to a high degree of specialization of economic activities. The decline of the Roman political and economic structures and the development of feudal socio-economic structures had important consequences in animal husbandry practices, mainly in relation to the end of market-oriented production, and they include a self-subsistence economy, limited livestock mobility, no genetic improvement of livestock, and changes in management practices. The project will look for the reasons, timings and regional variations in the response (resilience or adaptation) of animal husbandry practices to the socio-political changes, including the progressive diversification of the production, the decrease of livestock size, the generalization of extensive or free range feeding regimes, and the limited mobility of livestock. For this, the project will undertake a thorough investigation of livestock body size and shape; integrate the zooarchaeological data with stable isotope analysis to investigate changes in the ways livestock was managed; and strive to understand the chronological and regional variability of the consequences of the collapse of the Roman Empire and of the gradual process that led to the birth of medieval economies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history medieval history
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry
- social sciences economics and business business and management
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2017
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
4051 Basel
Switzerland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.