Shaping through Grazing: The Impacts of Animal Husbandry on the Early Modern Carpathians

• In Event: Mountains in Transition: Tracing the Environmental History of the Southeastern Carpathians Mountains

Abstract

Historical and ethnographic research has often focused on animal husbandry, particularly sheep breeding in the Southern and Eastern Carpathians. However, its environmental impact – especially before the 18th century – remains largely understudied, primarily due to the scarcity of source material. Nevertheless, early modern charters, correspondence, estate descriptions and village laws allow us to reconstruct general patterns of how animal husbandry transformed the mountain environment.
This paper explores the effects of sheep and pig breeding on the Carpathian environment and landscape during the 16th and 17th centuries. Sheep breeding experienced a sharp increase from the mid-16th century, following the integration of the three lands surrounding the mountains – Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia – into the Ottoman Empire as tributary principalities. The rising demand for livestock led to increased deforestation to create new pastures and meadows. At the same time, contemporaries sought to protect oak and beech forests, which were essential for pig husbandry and pannage. Conflicts over natural resources among villagers, monasteries, and nobles often resulted in the division of their properties, designated by boundary signs that left their traces in the landscape. Additionally, sheepfolds and pigpens not only served practical purposes, but also marked the humans’ increasing presence in the mountains.
By focusing on sheep and pig husbandry and their environmental impact, this paper situates the Carpathians within a broader transnational context. Rather than centering solely on the interactions between Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia, it explores the dynamic relationships between mountain and lowland regions as well as between humans and nature.

Author

• Kata Tóth, U of Vienna (Austria)