Environmental Histories: Ancient Practices and Modern Problems

Harvard GSD

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…