Reconstructing Animal Management in a Terramare Settlement through Zooarchaeology and Stable Isotopes: The Case of Ronchi di Caorso (PC-Italy)

This study investigates animal exploitation and herd management strategies at the Middle–Recent Bronze Age terramara site of Ronchi di Caorso (Po Plain, northern Italy), integrating zooarchaeological analysis with carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope data. Situated within the broader Terramare cultural system, Ronchi di Caorso offers valuable insight into how agro-pastoral communities adapted to the dynamic landscape of the Po floodplain. The faunal assemblage indicates a diversified economy structured primarily around ovicaprine husbandry, with sheep particularly well represented. Mortality profiles suggest strategies consistent not only with meat production but also with the exploitation of secondary products, especially wool. Cattle, though less numerous, were maintained into adulthood, indicating traction and labour use, while pigs contributed as a flexible meat resource. Limited evidence of wild fauna and molluscs suggests that hunting and gathering played a supplementary role. Isotopic results point to predominantly local herd management within a territorially bounded landscape, with C₄ plant signals reflecting foddering practices and integration between crop cultivation and animal husbandry. Overall, Ronchi di Caorso reflects a stable yet adaptable agro-pastoral system shaped by environmental constraints and embedded within regional Terramare variability.