The Ancient Mediterranean Environment between Science and History Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition Editorial Board William V. Harris (editor) Alan Cameron, Suzanne Said, Kathy H. Eden, Gareth D. Williams, Holger A. Klein VOLUME 39 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/csct The Ancient Mediterranean Environment between Science and History Edited by W.V. Harris LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 Cover illustration: Fresco from the Casa del Bracciale d’Oro, Insula Occidentalis 42, Pompeii. Photograph © Stefano Bolognini. Courtesy of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The ancient Mediterranean environment between science and history / edited by W.V. Harris. pages cm. – (Columbia studies in the classical tradition, ISSN 0166-1302 ; volume 39) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-25343-8 (hardback : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-90-04-25405-3 (e-book) 1. Human ecology–Mediterranean Region–History. 2. Mediterranean Region–Environmental conditions–History. 3. Nature–Effect of human beings on–Mediterranean Region–History. I. Harris, William V. (William Vernon) author, editor of compilation. GF541.A64 2013 550.937–dc23 2013021551 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 0166-1302 ISBN 978-90-04-25343-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25405-3 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS List of Tables and Figures . vii Notes on Contributors . xiii Abbreviations. xvii Preface . xix What Kind of Environmental History for Antiquity? . 1 W.V. Harris PART ONE FRAMEWORKS Energy Consumption in the Roman World . 13 Paolo Malanima Fuelling Ancient Mediterranean Cities: A Framework for Charcoal Research . 37 Robyn Veal PART TWO CLIMATE What Climate Science, Ausonius, Nile Floods, Rye, and Thatch Tell Us about the Environmental History of the Roman Empire . 61 Michael McCormick Megadroughts, ENSO, and the Invasion of Late-Roman Europe by the Huns and Avars . 89 Edward R. Cook The Roman World and Climate: Context, Relevance of Climate Change, and Some Issues . 103 Sturt Manning vi contents PART THREE WOODLANDS Defining and Detecting Mediterranean Deforestation, 800bce to 700ce...............................................................173 W.V. Harris PART FOUR AREA REPORTS Problems of Relating Environmental History and Human Settlement in the Classical and Late Classical Periods: The Example of Southern Jordan . 197 Paula Kouki Human-Environment Interactions in the Southern Tyrrhenian Coastal Area: Hypotheses from Neapolis and Elea-Velia . 213 Elda Russo Ermolli, Paola Romano, and Maria Rosaria Ruello Large-Scale Water Management Projects in Roman Central-Southern Italy ................................................................233 Duncan Keenan-Jones PART FIVE FINALE The Mediterranean Environment in Ancient History: Perspectives and Prospects . 259 Andrew Wilson Bibliography . 277 Index ...................................................................327 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Malanima Tables 1 Energy consumption in the early Roman Empire . 17 2 Energy consumption in advanced regions of the West and East according to I. Morris. 8000bc–2000ad . 35 Figures 1 Dated remains of coal in England 1–500ad . 23 2 Oxygen isotopes in the ice carrot GISP2 (Greenland glacier ice core) 60bc–350ad. 25 3 Intensity of precipitation between 400bc and ad400 (and range of error) . 26 4 Estimates of forest clearance in Central Europe (Germany, North-Eastern France) from archaeological wood remains 200bc–400ad . 28 5 Food consumption by modern populations according to age . 31 Veal Figures 1 Factors affecting the wood supply, which underpin the types of archaeological charcoals found. 41 2 Examples of charcoals from excavation . 46 3 Modern charcoal stack ready for covering with mud, leaves and charring residues, which was then set to char by insertion of a burning log . 48 4 Summary results of diachronic study of wood fuel of Pompeii c. third c. bc to ad79 . 56 viii list of tables and figures McCormick Tables 1 Nile Floods: overview of broader qualities as classified by Bonneau 1971 . 77 2 Detailed categories of flood qualities of the Nile according to Bonneau 1971 . 78 3 Recording quality as assessed by Bonneau . 80 Figures 1 Reconstructed precipitation anomalies (mm/day), April, May, June, 367–378ad, northeast France. 69 2 Percentages of Nile flood qualities, early vs. later Roman Empire . 78 Cook Figures 1 The Dulan-Wulan annual tree-ring chronology from north-central China and the occurrence of severe droughts during the times of the Hun-Avar migrations into late-Roman Europe.............................................................. 90 2 Correlations between December–February Niño 3.4 sea surface temperatures (a measure of ENSO variability) and March–June total precipitation from 1951 to 2003 . 94 3 Two 2,000 year long annual tree-ring chronologies from ENSO sensitive regions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres: Douglas fir from northwest New Mexico and Kauri from the North Island of New Zealand . 95 4 Correlations between the Douglas fir and Kauri tree-ring chronologies and Hadley Centre global sea surface temperatures (HadISST1) for the winter season: 1871–2003. 96 5 The average (A) and difference (B) of the Douglas fir and Kauri tree-ring chronologies . 97 6 Correlations between December–February average SSTs and the average and difference of the Douglass fir and Kauri annual tree-ring chronologies, each with an identified ENSO signal . 98 7 Comparisons of correlation patterns of March–June precipitation with actual and tree-ring ENSO indices . 99 list of tables and figures ix 8 The Douglas fir—Kauri average interhemispheric ENSO index with drought inducing La Niña periods indicated around the times of the Hun-Avar migrations into late-Roman Europe . 100 Manning Figures 1a Comparisons of general northern hemisphere temperature covering the past millennium and the often differing (almost opposite) precipitation records from the west and east Mediterranean . 110 1b A comparison of periods noted in the analyses of Nicault et al. (2008) of decadal or longer intervals of wetter (more negative PDSI) and drier (more positive PDSI) for Italy, Greece and the Levant versus reconstructed winter NAO indices. 111 2 A. The standard radiocarbon calibration curve for the period 3000bc to ad1950 from known-age trees. B. The Δ14C record per mille (‰) from A—this is the relative 14C content decay corrected and normalized. C. The residual Δ14C record per mille (‰) after a 1000-year moving average is removed . 123 3 Bottom: observed sun-spot numbers (SSN) per year. Top: The annual Δ14C record per mille (‰) ad1600–1900 and an 11-year moving average of this record. Middle: The Δ14C record per mille (‰) from IntCal09 and IntCal04 and two models of 14C production . 124 4 Top: A. The residual annual Δ14C with 2 point (pt) FFT smoothing from the data shown in Figure 3 from Stuiver et al. (1998) calculated minus a 22pt FFT smoothing to emphasise the change around the longer-term trend. B. The residual annual production of 14C (iterative method—see Figure 3) with 2pt smoothing . 125 5 High resolution 10Be data from Greenland for the most recent six centuries . 127 6a Comparison of the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) reconstructions of Vieira et al. (2011) from the 14C record versus Steinhilber et al. (2009) from the 10Be record . 128 6b Top: Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) reconstruction from ice-core 10Be records from Steinhilber et al. (2009)—see Figure 6a. Bottom: 14C production from Marmod09 (Reimer et al. 2009) . 129 x list of tables and figures 7 Top: detail of the Total Solar Irradiance (dTSI) reconstruction from ice-core 10Be records from Steinhilber et al. (2009) for the period 300bc to ad800. Bottom: two 14C production models: (a) from Marmod09 (Reimer et al. 2009) and (b) the iterative model from Usoskin and Kromer (2005) . 130 8 Top: the two 14C production models in Figure 7—now not inverted—for the period 300bc to ad800. Bottom: the SSN reconstruction from Solanki et al. (2004) for 300bc to ad800 . 131 9 The main trends of the solar proxy records in Figures 7 and 8 for the period 300bc to ad700 . 134 10 Top: Extra-tropical Northern Hemisphere temperature record. A. 50-year smoothed curve; B. A 10pt FFT smoothed curve. Middle: IntCal09 radiocarbon calibration curve. Bottom: Ring widths of ANG-7B . 138 11 Top: the mean tree-ring widths record for the tree-ring series from Istanbul. Bottom: the reconstructed temperature and precipitation records from central European oak time-series shown