1.  Students will learn fundamental themes and approaches in 
environmental history from study of the Mediterranean

2. Students will engage with case studies of environmental 
challenges and catastrophes faced by ancient societies

3. Students will understand the relationship between societal 
vulnerability and disaster effects

4. Students will interrogate the nature of success and failure 
in response to historical environmental challenges

5. Students will understand how ancient states and empires have 
transformed their environment and will understand the 
consequences of these efforts

6. Students will become familiar with scientific, 
archaeological, and historical methods used by environmental 
historians

7. Students will understand the relationship between ancient and 
modern environmental challenges

8. Students will learn how historians and archaeologists answer 
questions about the past through evidence-based research

9. Students will produce writing and research appropriate to the 
subject matter of the course and to the disciplines of classics 
and archaeology

I.  Scientific and historical methods for environmental history

II. Maps and Oikoumene: Conceptions of the environment in 
Antiquity

III. Climate change and response in Antiquity

IV. Volcanos in Antiquity

V. Earthquakes in Antiquity

VI. Rivers in Antiquity

VII. Floods and irrigated landscapes in Antiquity

VIII. Urban water systems in Antiquity

IX. Food systems and famine in Antiquity

X. Plague in Antiquity

XI. Environmental impacts of war in Antiquity

XII. Resource extraction and pollution in Antiquity