Pastoralism without writing? The case of Monti Lessini

In the Lessini highlands a project has been underway since 2005, in order to gain more information about the most ancient exploitation of the zone. It focused on shepherds’ activities. The aims of the project were to locate and document the traces of shepherds and sheep farming in the area, dis¬tinguishing them from the traces left by the other activ¬ities performed in the territory, such as cattle farming; to understand the changes that pastoral structures underwent through time; to single out the specific characteristics of pastoral sites. A systematic field survey covered the whole of the Lessini highlands. In this way about 600 pastoral structures were discovered, recognised and recorded in databases collecting their geomorphological location and architectural features. Archaeological findings dating to the final phases of Bronze Age and to historical times were found in the same area: they are possibly connected with some pastoral structures (Sauro et al. 2013). Except few cases found on the edge of Lessini highlands, where significant traces of mining activities were recorded, no traces of writings were found: the paper will try to explain this absence, probably due to several reasons.