This major new environmental history of the Mediterranean explores the changing relations between the natural world and human cultures in the region from the end of the last ice age. In the first part of the book, the author analyses how Mediterranean landscapes have been transformed over time by human agencies interacting synergistically with a dynamic environment. In the second part, he uses key themes to explore how each has influ-enced, and been influenced by, human agency. The book brings together evidence from diverse sources, including archaeology, historical documents and palaeoecol-ogy, to explore notions such as landscape dereliction and the search for pristine nature. Adopting an innovative approach and providing wider geographical, chronological and thematic coverage than existing works, the author brings to bear an historical perspective that is critical to understanding not only how the Mediterranean world has taken on its present form, but also how it might evolve in the future.