Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions · Horizon Europe
A comprehensive look at the research, methodology, sites, team, and progress of the OVIS fellowship.
About
OVIS (Origins of Variability in Island Systems) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral fellowship funded under Horizon Europe. The project investigates the diet, mobility, and management of ovicaprids — sheep and goats — across the Western Mediterranean islands during the Bronze and Iron Ages (ca. 1600–700 BCE).
Island communities in the ancient Mediterranean developed distinct strategies for managing livestock, shaped by geography, trade routes, and cultural exchange. OVIS asks: How did pastoral practices differ across island groups? Did mobility networks connect distant islands? How did the Bronze–Iron Age transition reshape animal husbandry?
The project combines zooarchaeological analysis with multi-isotope approaches on dental and bone remains. Strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and oxygen (δ¹⁸O) isotopes track animal mobility; carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotopes reveal diet; dental microwear texture analysis reconstructs feeding ecology. Sites in Menorca, Sardinia, and Sicily are compared to build a regional picture of pastoral practices.
Field Sites
Bronze and Iron Age navetiform sites from Mallorca and Menorca provide the core dataset, including assemblages from Els Closos de Ca'n Gaià and s'Illot des Porros. These sites span the key transition period ca. 1600–850 BCE.
Nuragic period sites in Sardinia offer a parallel island context with distinct cultural and geographic characteristics, enabling comparison of pastoral strategies across the central Mediterranean.
Sicilian Bronze Age assemblages provide a third comparative dataset, representing the largest island in the study and a key node in Mediterranean trade networks during the period under investigation.
Methodology
Standard zooarchaeological methods are applied to faunal assemblages: taxonomic identification, age-at-death profiling (epiphyseal fusion and dental eruption), sex determination, and skeletal part representation analysis to understand herd management and consumption strategies.
Multi-isotope sampling of tooth enamel (sequential sampling along the crown) and dentine collagen allows reconstruction of seasonal diet and lifetime mobility. Strontium and oxygen isotopes track geographic provenance; carbon and nitrogen isotopes reflect diet composition and trophic level.
Confocal microscopy of tooth enamel surfaces reveals fine-scale feeding ecology: browsing vs. grazing, foddering practices, and landscape use. This method complements isotopic data with a direct record of diet in the weeks before death.
Team
Postdoctoral Researcher · Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow
Graduated in History from the University of Barcelona (2011), Master in Archaeology from the University of Granada (2013), and PhD in History, History of Art and Geography from the University of the Balearic Islands (2020). Her research focuses on livestock strategies and landscape exploitation in past societies, with special emphasis on island contexts. She specialises in zooarchaeological analysis, dental microwear, and strontium isotope mobility studies.
Updates
A new article on livestock mobility during the Bronze–Iron Age transition in insular contexts has been published, presenting preliminary OVIS data on strontium isotope variation across Menorca and Sardinia.
Read more →New excavation and sampling campaign for the OVIS project, with international collaboration from three partner institutions.
Read more →The laboratory has begun analysis of new dental samples from Menorca and Sardinia, focusing on strontium and oxygen isotopes.
Read more →Preliminary OVIS results were presented at an international stable isotopes congress, generating significant interest from the community.
Read more →Timeline
2026 · Q1
Fellowship begins. Initial lab setup, database construction, and first sample batch preparation at Cardiff University isotope laboratory.
2026 · Q2–Q3
Sampling of faunal remains from Menorca and Mallorca archaeological repositories. Collaboration with the Museu de Menorca and UIB.
2026 · Q4
Strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of Balearic caprine tooth enamel at Cardiff labs. First data outputs expected.
2027 · Q1–Q2
Sampling in Nuragic site collections. Partnership with Università degli Studi di Sassari and the Soprintendenza Archeologia della Sardegna.
2027 · Q3–Q4
Third island group sampling. Integration of all isotope datasets. Dental microwear texture analysis begins.
2028
Final data integration, peer-reviewed article submissions, conference presentations, and open-access data deposit. Project close.
Bibliography
"OVIS project publications will appear here as the fellowship progresses."
Publications list in progress — 2026–2028