Moving Up and Down throughout the Seasons: Winter and Summer Grazing between Provence and Southern Alps (France) AD 1100-1500

Résumé En

This chapter focuses on the period from ad 1100 to 1500, which is characterised by the first evidence of seasonal migration, its development, structuring and globalisation. It aims to create a better understanding of medieval mid- and long-distance herding between the Provence and the southern Alps. The chapter then highlights the chronology and geography of both wintering and summering migration systems and their gradual fusion. It also explores their economic, social and logistical organisation. By blending historical and archaeological data, the chapter examines the daily life of the shepherds on summer and winter pastures. The seasonal migration of flocks between summer and winter pastures was not only a response to environmental constraints but also a part of a complex socio-economic process that evolved in complementary territories. This synthesis shows the multi-faceted reality of the animal migration in both temporal and spatial dimensions. It flies in the face of the conventional and fixed picture painted by the Great Transhumance paradigm.