Environment and Society in Byzantium, 650-1150

Between the Oak and the Olive

Alexander Olson (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

XI, 258 Seiten

2021 | 1st ed. 2020
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-030-59938-6 (ISBN)

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This book illuminates Byzantines' relationship with woodland between the seventh and twelfth centuries. Using the oak and the olive as objects of study, this work explores shifting economic strategies, environmental change, and the transformation of material culture throughout the middle Byzantine period. Drawing from texts, environmental data, and archaeological surveys, this book demonstrates that woodland's makeup was altered after Byzantium's seventh-century metamorphosis, and that people interacted in new ways with this re-worked ecology. Oak obtained prominence after late antiquity, illustrating the shift from that earlier era's intensive agriculture to a more sylvan middle Byzantine economy. Meanwhile, the olive faded into the background, re-emerging in the eleventh and twelfth centuries thanks to the initiative of people adapting yet again to newly changed political and economic circumstances. This book therefore shows that Byzantines' relationship with their ecology was far from static, and that Byzantines' decisions had environmental impacts.

Alexander Olson received a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, USA where he studied Byzantine and environmental history. He now enjoys working as a bureaucrat.

1. Introduction.- 2. Middle Byzantium's Environmental and Economic Antecedents .- 3. An Evergreen Empire.- 4. The Decline of the Olive in Middle Byzantium.- 5. Re-arranging Woods and Scrub.- 6. The Return of the Olive.- 7. The Devil Chops Wood.- 8. Conclusion.

Erscheinungsdatum	19.11.2021
Reihe/Serie	New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture
Zusatzinfo	XI, 258 p. 1 illus.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 210 mm
Gewicht	359 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Sozialgeschichte
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
Schlagworte	Byzantine Aegean Basin • Byzantine peasantry • Eastern Mediterranean • material culture • provincial Byzantine society
ISBN-10	3-030-59938-8 / 3030599388
ISBN-13	978-3-030-59938-6 / 9783030599386
Zustand	Neuware