Feeding Iuvavum

Zooarchaeological Investigations on Urbanisation, Vertical Transhumance, and Roman Animal Husbandry in Western Noricum

Funding

This project is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project number ESP2565325 (“Feeding Iuvavum: Zooarchaeological Investigations on Urbanisation, Vertical Transhumance, and Roman Animal Husbandry in Western Noricum; principal investigator: Benjamin Wimmer). The duration of the project is from 01/09/2026 to 31/08/2029. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, or decision to publish (online and/or scientific papers). There has been no additional external funding received for this study.

Project management: Benjamin Wimmer; Benjamin.Wimmer@uibk.ac.at

Project

Wider research context

With the establishment of new provinces, the Romans transformed the sociopolitical and economic realities of local communities. Traditional aspects were integrated into the Empire’s proto-global system whenever beneficial. Because the more temperate climate of the Northern Provinces differed from the accustomed Mediterranean climate, it presented the Romans with agricultural challenges. Although the system of surplus-generating villae rusticae was adopted north of the Alps, environmental conditions could not be altered, and agricultural strategies had to be adapted. One indication of transformed animal utilisation strategies is the increasing portion of large-sized cattle north of the Alps. While increase in size has generally been seen as ‘improvement’, the parallel presence of small-sized cattle throughout the Roman period suggests that utilisation might have depended (at least partially) on the morphotype of the animals.

Research questions

Iuvavum (Roman Salzburg) and its territory serve as a case study to answer questions on the provisioning of a town with animal products, and the underlying agricultural system of the microregion. How was the increasingly urban population provisioned with meat and other animal products? On which animal utilisation strategies was the supply based? How were vertical transhumance and an intensifying agriculture based on villae rusticae integrated? Were there specific agricultural niches and feeding regimes for different animal morphotypes and purposes? Can the production, maintenance and consumption of animals be linked to deviating social roles and strategies?

Methods

Tightly dated and contextualised faunal assemblages from Iuvavum and four villae rusticae on its outskirts are analysed. State-of-the-art ‘traditional’ zooarchaeological methods permit the reconstruction of the producing and consuming ends of the microregional chaîne opératoire of animal produce. A multiproxy approach — comprising analyses of δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O isotopes in tooth enamel, dental meso- and microwear analyses — provides details on the animals’ life-histories, including seasonality, vertical transhumance, and feeding regimes. The resulting detailed multifaceted dataset is interpreted in the light of vertical transhumance and large-scale agricultural enterprises

Innovation

The project will publish a significant portion of one of the chronologically most detailed and extensive zooarchaeological sequences in present-day Austria and beyond, rendering the Salzburg Basin a model region for international zooarchaeology. This aspiration is strengthened by a detailed investigation of animal husbandry, based on fine resolution data of the animals’ life-history provided by a multiproxy approach.