Research project Feeding Capitalism and Facing its Consequences? Upland Pastoralism in Ireland and Sweden, 1350-1850
This project by Eugene Costello is funded by a a Humanities and Social Sciences Project Grant from the Swedish Research Council and will run until 2025.
This project has developed out of Eugene Costello's doctoral and postdoctoral research on the history and archaeology of hill farming in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, in particular the practice of transhumance (i.e. seasonal movement of people and livestock). It also builds on Costello's work in environmental humanities at Stockholm University, as part of which he explored the potential role of historical ecology in upland management and conservation.
Project description
The research project seeks to investigate livestock farming in two upland case studies in Ireland and Sweden from the late 14th century to the mid-19th century AD. It is examining how the experiences of poorly-documented pastoral communities like these in the north of Europe can best be studied, with particular emphasis on how they adapted to growing market forces in the late medieval and early modern periods. The project is testing if better archaeological, historical and pollen data can be acquired at a local level in Ireland and Sweden regarding livestock production and it is gauging the opportunities and risks of comparative research on this subject.
As an interdisciplinary project, it will be considering the socio-ecological consequences of economic adaptation for upland pastoralists in the long run. We will present these findings at community events in Ireland and Sweden and discuss how historical lessons on grazing and social change can inform local land-use planning in uplands today.
The research project began in 2020 and will run until 2025. It is funded by a Humanities and Social Sciences Project Grant from the Swedish Research Council (Project number: 2020-01948. Amount: 4 360 000 kr).
Project members
Project managers
Members
Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir
Benjamin Gearey
More about this project
Excavation of upland herders' hut in Bridia, Ireland. Foto: Cathy Moore.To facilitate public impact, Costello is co-operating with the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Ireland and the EU-funded habitat conservation scheme, Wild Atlantic Nature. He is also increasingly co-operating with Prof Karl-Johan Lindholm in the Global Historical Ecology cluster at Uppsala University, and the IHOPE and SKÅNK networks.
Publications:
- Costello, E. 2025. Skills of the unskilled: working with livestock in medieval northern Europe. Social History 50(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2025.2466327
- Costello, E. 2025. Dating and interpreting landscapes of livestock herding: excavation of a hut site and enclosure in southwestern Ireland. Journal of Field Archaeology 50(2), 181-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2024.2397863
- Costello, E. 2022. Agriculture and the integration of British colonial migrants in early modern Ireland. Journal of Migration History 8(2), 291-312. https://doi.org/10.1163/23519924-08020008
Media attention:
Sveriges Radio: Ny forskning undersöker medeltida pollen i myrar i Jämtlands län
RTÉ Brainstorm: The lost art of 'booleying' in Ireland