Environmental Histories: Ancient Practices and Modern Problems

HIS 4534 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This course investigates the environmental histories of the ancient Mediterranean world through a diverse array of archives—including cultural materials such as paintings, mosaics, excavated landscapes, and textual records; natural proxies like ice cores, ocean sediments, and dendrochronological data; and archaeobotanical and faunal evidence, such as ancient fish populations that inform us about past marine ecologies. By juxtaposing human and environmental archives, students will critically analyze how ancient societies perceived, interacted with, and were shaped by their environments. The course engages with ongoing scholarly debates about the potential for ancient modes of resource management, agricultural practice, and ecological adaptation to inform resilient solutions to today’s environmental crises. It further interrogates the methodological and interpretive challenges of translating ancient practice into modern application, asking what is at stake in forging environmental bridges between past and present. Through case studies, interdisciplinary readings, and hands-on analysis of select archives, students will develop skills to assess both the promise and the limits of learning from the environmental past.