Deforestation, Erosion, and Forest Management in Ancient Greece and Rome
Deforestation, Erosion, and Forest Management in Ancient Greece and Rome
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古希腊和罗马的森林砍伐、侵蚀和森林管理
DOI：
10.2307/4004530
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发表时间：
1982
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Thirgood
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
J. Hughes;J. Thirgood
在这一点上，城市废墟和土地废墟之间有着密切的联系。古代文明中心破碎的雕像和散落的圆柱鼓已经砍伐森林和侵蚀景观作为其设置的事实似乎并不是偶然的。同时性的一般印象，古代社会和古代环境的同时毁灭，一直是不可避免的。森林为古典世界提供了主要的建筑材料和几乎唯一的燃料来源，这种资源的枯竭引发了许多危机。随着森林的消失和土地的清理，木材的供应减少，价格上涨，导致了困扰古代晚期的毁灭性通货膨胀。对森林资源的争夺引发了军事冲突，而军事冲突本身又造成了对木材的需求。侵蚀削弱了以农业为主的社会的经济基础，导致人口下降，使希腊罗马文明更难抵抗来自边境以外的野蛮人的入侵。在更干旱的地区，以前调节气候和均衡供水的森林被剥夺了，允许沙漠前进。北非城市的废墟，在古代是橄榄油和木材的出口地，但后来被埋在沙漠的沙子下面，集中体现了文明衰落中的环境因素，沿着北方地中海沿岸的沼泽也是如此。
T here is a close interconnection between ruined cities and ruined land. The fact that the broken statues and scattered column drums of the centers of ancient civilization have deforested and eroded landscapes as their settings does not seem to be an accident. The general impression of synchronicity, the contemporaneous ruin of ancient societies and ancient environments, has been inescapable. Forests provided the major material for construction and almost the only fuel source of the classical world, and depletion of this source precipitated a number of crises. As forests retreated with land clearance, wood decreased in availability and increased in price, contributing to the ruinous inflation that plagued late antiquity. Competition for forest resources ignited military conflicts, which themselves created demands for timber. Erosion weakened the economic base of the predominantly agrarian societies, contributing to a population decline that made it ever more difficult for Greco-Roman civilization to resist the incursions of barbarians from beyond the frontiers. In the more arid regions, forests that formerly moderated the climate and equalized the water supply were stripped away, permitting the desert to advance. The image of the ruined cities of North Africa, from which olive oil and timber were exported in ancient times but which later were buried beneath the desert sand, epitomizes the environmental factor in the decline of civilization, as do the swamps along the northern Mediterranean mar-