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Grigori Simeonov
Universität Wien, Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik, Vienna, Austria;
grsim@gmx.at
Animal Husbandry and Pastoral Life in Northern Macedonia
from the 11
th
to the 13
th
Century
This paper deals with the different types of animal husbandry attested in Northern Macedonia
from the early 11
th
to the late 13
th
century. The first one was the transhumance that involved people,
predominantly of Vlach and Cuman origin, who according to the testimony of Kekaumenos and
the documents of the Athos monasteries moved together with their livestock and family between
their higher pastures situated in the mountains of modern Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia
in summer and the lower valleys near the Aegean coastline in winter. The above mentioned sources
inform us above the habitation and housing of herder practicing transhumance and their families; it
should be stressed that Vlach women also carried for the animals and worn male clothes that made
their everyday work easier. During their daily activity in a multinational province such as Northern
Macedonia different ethnic groups came into contact. This fact caused not only interaction in the
field of material culture and everyday life but it lead also to prejudice towards the other because
of their occupation. A good example is Kekaumenos who considered seasonally moving Vlachs
dangerous, cowardly and treacherous. This shows the mentality of a local nobleman such as him
but the reality was a little bit different–the occupation of the Vlachs was not a problem for their
being involved in the large scale trade with dairy products during the 12
th
century. According to
the Ptochoprodromika poems the cheese Vlach shepherds produced was exported far beyond the
boundaries of Macedonia and reached the markets of Constantinople itself.
The transhumance delivered the greater part of dairy products and wool necessary to local
inhabitants and merchants but this was not the only form of animal husbandry practiced in
Macedonia. The archives of the Athos monasteries and the documents of the monastery of Saint
George near Skopje illustrate the structure of the agricultural land that belonged to a local peasant
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community. It comprised of different types of pasture land near the village and offered the necessary
fodder for the animals. The sources show that almost every peasant household had different species
of domestic animals farmed for food, leather, wool or used as draft animals. The writings of the
Ohrid archbishop Demetrios Chomatenos concerning cases of divorce and heritage show that even
people living in the towns also earned their living by caring for domestic animals. In my paper I
shall present briefly two examples–the one reveals the case of a certain pottery maker in Ohrid, the
other deals with the priests in the bishopric of Pelagonia.
While trying to trace the daily life of herders and the role of husbandry in everyday life and
medieval economics, one can also use the available archaeological material and some wall paintings
from the Republic of Macedonia. The animal bones that archaeologists found in medieval burial
grounds and especially in the Late Medieval town of Prilep can help us to determine not only the
different animal species that were bred in ancient time but also to study such aspects of daily life as
eating habits and food supply.
The last methodological topic to be presented deals with some wall paintings from the Republic
of Macedonia that are connected to medieval animal husbandry. Some of them represent Christian
saints such as Blasios (Nerezi) and Mamas (Manastir/Mariovo) who were known for their help as
protectors of herdsmen and life stock and in this way they were depicted with objects typical for
the life of a herdsman. The last wall painting to be discussed in the paper is the depiction of the
shepherds at the Nativity from the church of Saint George near Kurbinovo and the church of Saint
Nicolas in Varoš/Prilep that may represent some elements from the outlook of a medieval herdsman.
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