The Ancient Mediterranean Environment between Science and History

摘要

This latest entry in the growing literature on environmental change in the ancient world is by turns fascinating and frustrating. It is the fruit of a conference held in 2011 in Rome, and its ancient Mediterranean is mainly the Roman Empire. It includes considerable interesting detail and judgments, mostly on energy, climate change, and deforestation, and touches on several other subjects. It bypasses such venerable questions as soil erosion and lead pollution. It ignores the marine environment. Its most entertaining feature is the confident dismissals of several of its authors' contentions written by Harris in his introductory chapter. Its most irritating is repetition: several authors go over the limitations of palynology or radiocarbon dating, when once would have been enough.