Pollution and the Environment in Ancient Life and Thought

Was there any awareness of environmental problems among intellectuals and politicians of the ancient world? Did they even have notions of 'pollution', 'exploitation', and 'depletion' of natural resources? And what forms did human action take for the protection of the environment?

The authors from the fields of Ancient History, Classical Archeology, Ancient Laws, and History of Medicine focus on the environmental and ecological awareness in the ancient world, both in material evidence of daily life and in the intellectual thought. They analyse if there was a common awareness of environmental and ecological questions, or if there were only a few and isolated measures aimed at the interest of special social groups and at specific political goals. They discuss to which extent the ancient evidence can be used to identify the roots of modern environmental sensitivity.

Auteur
Orietta Cordovana graduated in Classics and Classical Archaeology at the University La Sapienza in Rome, Ph.D. in Ancient History at the University of Messina. She lectured in Rome at La Sapienza, was a Humboldt fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin, Marie Curie fellow at the University of Edinburgh and at the AIAS, Aarhus University. Gian Franco Chiai graduated in Classics and Ancient History at the University La Sapienza in Rome, Ph.D. in Ancient History in Rome, La Sapienza. He was a fellow at the Universities of Heidelberg and Eichstätt, the Freie Universität Berlin and at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Résumé
"No aspect of the ancient world can be studied, much less understood, in isolation, as this finde volume recognizes." Georgia L. Irby Journal of Hellenic Studies 139, 2019 20191101