Reply To: Mon 17 March: Greece and Revisionist Environmental History

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nik.petek@arkeologi.uu.se	# Posted on December 12, 2014 at 20:49
	Nik Petek Reply to Kristina Berglund I have to admit, not knowing much about Greek ecology, that I thought that the factoid on Classical Greek deforestation was a fact. I heard it enough times that I thought it was true, since my undergraduate degree. Also, as I stated in my reply to Nick Hirschstein, it is generally thought that a lot of deforestation happened during the Antique – I admit this is not the same period as the Classical Greek period. But what I am trying to say is that I had the idea that the whole Greco-Roman period experienced widespread deforestation and ecological degradation. But I have to acknowledge that the chapter is almost 20 years old, and a lot of new data would have been retrieved since then. So what I now think of as a factoid – the deforestation of Greece – has actually been substantiated by new archaeological and environmental research. So, while Rackham’s chapter is not outdated in terms of the research deficiencies that it points out, it is outdated in terms of what it is saying about the ecology of Classical Greece. It is easy to succumb to factoids, especially if you are not a specialist in it, and people that do not understand the topic generalise to have a better grip on the topic itself.

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nik.petek@arkeologi.uu.se

# Posted on December 12, 2014 at 20:49

Nik Petek
Reply to Kristina Berglund

I have to admit, not knowing much about Greek ecology, that I thought that the factoid on Classical Greek deforestation was a fact. I heard it enough times that I thought it was true, since my undergraduate degree. Also, as I stated in my reply to Nick Hirschstein, it is generally thought that a lot of deforestation happened during the Antique – I admit this is not the same period as the Classical Greek period. But what I am trying to say is that I had the idea that the whole Greco-Roman period experienced widespread deforestation and ecological degradation.

But I have to acknowledge that the chapter is almost 20 years old, and a lot of new data would have been retrieved since then. So what I now think of as a factoid – the deforestation of Greece – has actually been substantiated by new archaeological and environmental research. So, while Rackham’s chapter is not outdated in terms of the research deficiencies that it points out, it is outdated in terms of what it is saying about the ecology of Classical Greece.

It is easy to succumb to factoids, especially if you are not a specialist in it, and people that do not understand the topic generalise to have a better grip on the topic itself.