The nature of Mediterranean Europe: an ecological history.

The nature of Mediterranean Europe: an ecological history. Integration and independence in the Mediterranean world Top of the usual big pile on the Mediterranean, this quarter, arethree diverse books which raise issues about viability of politicalintegration. There follow titles on the later prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to andprotohistory pro��to��his��to��ry?n.The study of a culture just before the time of its earliest recorded history.pro of the eastern part of the region, on the Classical periodand late antiquity Late Antiquity is a rough periodization (c. AD 300 - 600) used by historians and other scholars to describe the interval between Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally between the decline of the western Roman Empire , and a couple on the Middle Ages. To start off,though, here is a couple on the heritage today. A.T. GROVE & OLIVER RACKHAM. The nature of MediterraneanEurope: an ecological history. 384 pages, 313 b&w & colourfigures, 35 tables. 2001. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press;0-300-084439 hardback 45 [pounds sterling]. JON P. MITCHELL. Ambivalent Europeans: ritual, memory and thepublic sphere in Malta. xvi+275 pages, 9 figures. 2002. London:Routledge; 0-415-27153-3 paperback. GREG WOOLF. Becoming Roman: the origins of provincial civilizationin Gaul. xviii+296 pages, 3 maps, 17 illustrations. 1998. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). ; 0-521-41445-8 hardback 40 [pounds sterling]& US$64.95. In `Late September ... the beaches empty.... Old human ways areresumed, so far as they can be. Natural systems, likewise, struggle toresume their accustomed cycles' (p. 361). The geographicalcontrasts and dynamism, fragility and resilience of the northMediterranean are described in detail by GROVE & RACKHAM with verydiverse photography of the highest quality, striking maps, figures andtables, and consistently crisp and forthright prose. In 20 chapters,they cover: `ruined landscapes and ... desertification'; climatetoday and during previous centuries; the history of vegetation andsavanna savannaor savannah(both: səvăn`ə), tropical or subtropical grassland lying on the margin of the trade wind belts. ; fire; erosion (and karst Karst(kärst), Ital. Carso, Slovenian Kras, limestone plateau, W Slovenia, N of Istria and extending c.50 mi (80 km) SE from the lower Isonzo (Soča) valley between the Bay of Trieste and the Julian Alps. ); `Deltas and soft coasts'; andwater abstraction. They sum up an immense range of research, includingtheir own. Intensely thought through and crafted, their book takes anotable place in the modern history of writing on the Mediterranean byvirtue of its comprehensive and penetrating vision, and a distinctivebut rounded position on management and responsibility. The greateststrengths of this formidable pairing of authors are at their boldesthere. People had probably `transformed the landscapes of most parts ...by ... 4000 years ago' (p. 361); fauna have been exterminated butfloral communities survive. Tectonic events in the southern Aegean andelsewhere have affected the geography; and so have cycles of climatechange; but the authors find that, until today, under pressures ofdiminshing returns, people have drawn back repeatedly from unsustainableuses of the land. Many of the resulting landscapes are touristattractions, and valuable as such, so `to survive they must be kept inworking order' (p. 364). The authors point to contemporaryextensification along the southern shores as a warning. `We see dangersin centralized ... management ... It is better ... to help and advisecommunities to make decisions ... about their own land' (p. 365).Perhaps, at root, that is why MITCHELL'S ethnography found Maltese`looking to the past and commemoration to allay the anxieties of presentand future' (p. 239). Not so in Gaul, however, according to Prof. WOOLF'ssubstantial and well-written study, at least for `a new aristocracy ...with greater authority, status, wealth and security' (p. 47), whosucceeded in persuading themselves that they were Romans and in engagingenough of the lower orders and the countryside with them to ensureincorporation in the great empire. The strategy depended in large part,he argues, on manipulating `the public sphere': the arch atBesancon, for example, blended `local and imperial images' (p. 76).Prof. WOOLF dwells on Franche Comte. After assessing the epigraphy epigraphy:see inscription. , heconsiders why the new elite built `those ... civitas capitals with theirgrand monuments and public spaces' (p. 124): `the richest ...citizens ... learned to associate civic life with civilization' (p.126). Social differentiation became more marked than before Roman rule;but the process as a whole was weaker than in the Mediterraneanprovince. Successive chapters appraise appraisev. to professionally evaluate the value of property including real estate, jewelry, antique furniture, securities, or in certain cases the loss of value (or cost of replacement) due to damage. the countryside, consumption ofRoman goods, and religion and the development of Christianity. `Romanvalues were internalized by the Gallo-Roman elite' (p. 247).Becoming Roman cries out for comparison with Britain. Compare too ThePhoenicians, below.