Nature and Society in the Ancient World

What is ‘nature’? Is human society separate and distinct from the ‘natural’ world, or a closely-entwined part? Historical investigations often simplify this relationship to one-sided explanations of social or environmental determinism, missing the lived reality of people in their landscapes. This class explores the ecological reality of the ‘natural’ world in Antiquity, using archaeological, historical, and palaeo-environmental data to investigate these questions, focusing especially on the Roman and late-Roman periods.