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The Dark Age of Greece was the gestation period of Greek culture and the incubation of the Mediterranean way of life. Greek colonization of the west, based on grains and wine, was the earliest specialized Mediterranean basin. Innovations were made in the arts, shipbuilding and bulk commerce, military tactics, the spread of iron, The use of waterproof plaster, and the use of the olive for food. Perhaps any period of cultural florescence is the result of germination in earlier, possibly unnoted, times. Depressions may be necessary to progress, because they provide a release from bureaucratic paralysis, and permit talented individuals to experiment with innovations. Innovations occur in politically fallow periods, and the spectacular events which fascinate historians are not conductive to human progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the ecology of Chondrilla juncea in the western Mediterranean. Relation to human disturbance, soil characteristics and other plant species; Relation to the organisms, Puccinia chondrillina, Erysiphe cichoracearum; Relation to various snail species, Leveilula taurica and Aceria chondrillae which damage or destroy the plant.

Looks into a period of disruption and social collapse accompanied by restless and aggressive movement of people in the Near East during 1200 B.C. Destruction of the cities and towns of Mycenaean Greece; Invasion of Egypt by the Sea peoples during the reign of Merenptah; Changes throughout the eastern Mediterranean; Decline in the trading between the Mycenaeans and the people of Cyprus.

All core evidence supports the conclusion that abyssal plains are sites of graded-bed sequences deposited from turbidity flows. The deposits appear to be present-day equivalents of thin- to mediumbedded, graded, flysch-type sands and silts of many ancient geosynclines and sedimentary basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on lithification caused by inorganic precipitation of high-magnesium calcite from several localities in the Mediterranean. Micritic calcite cement; Lithification of internal sediments and formation of open-space fillings within a sublittoral algal framework; Gradual obliteration of the biogenic structures.

Delves into irrigation in the Mediterranean region. Discussion of the irrigation of terraced lands; Analysis of the relationship between irrigation and reclamation of wetlands; Examination of the ancient irrigation laws.

Livestock-raising in the ancient Mediterranean world bore the unmistakable influence of its environment. It was conditioned primarily by the summer drought. This destroyed pasturage in the lowlands for two to six months, according to the latitude and permitted the rooted herbage to survive only on swampy coastal belts, deltaic flats and mountain-locked lake basins in which the ground-water table was high. Such choice but limited spots furnished the wet meadows or marsh pastures which the ancients reserved for their brood mares, horses and fine cattle.

Discusses the climatic and geographic influences on ancient forests and the lumber trade in the Mediterranean Basin. Type of vegetation whose common physiognomy reflects the prevailing climatic conditions; Location of the Mediterranean vegetation; Fluctuations in the life conditions of the region.

The barrier boundaries long exercised a dominant influence upon Mediterranean history. For ages they confined that history within the narrow limits of the basin, except where a few natural openings offered pathways to regions of contrasted climate and production beyond. These breaches in the barrier were varied in their geographical character, but all have focused upon themselves the historical events of wide areas. They have crowded into their narrow channels streams of trade, migration, colonization, and conquest, they have drawn these from remote sources and directed them to equally remote destinations.

This article provides information on Corsica, France. The study of the human geography of Corsica is a study of the interaction of several main factors in the environment on the life of its people. The main mass of the island is a small and compact area a little less than 100 miles from north to south. The small size and mountainous character of the island have kept its population small and have prevented it from being at any time a strong power. While its location has exposed its shores to invasion by all the people who have sailed the Western Mediterranean. The chief internal division in Corsica is marked by the high range across the island which forms the main water parting. The soils of the granite areas are usually poor and thin, they are exposed to the very vigorous denudation and rain-wash and poorly protected by the open vegetation which is adapted to survive the long dry spells of the Mediterranean summer. The Mediterranean character of Corsica is very strongly marked in its vegetation. The dominant association is that of the marquis, which occupies a little more than half of the total surface. The most important cultivated plants of Corsica are trees, a condition favoured both by the climate and the ruggedness of so much of the island, where level surfaces are few and small in extent.

This paper discusses the existence of an open-field type of cultivation in Mediterranean lands and in the Atlantic Coastal lands of south west Europe. In certain islands of Brittany, France traces of an open-field type of cultivation still exist. Exposure to the westerly winds retards, and in many cases entirely prevents, the growth of trees, but in sheltered spots they may be found, as well as such sun-loving plants as mimosa, myrtle and vine. The islanders are occupied with fishing and farming. In the Balearic Islands also, the Minorcans are fishermen, while the Mallorcans have been enterprising navigators from earliest times. In all these islands the sillon is the basis of land tenure, and many sillons are cultivated in common. Communal methods of working were also characteristic of other occupations in the islands. The fertility of the soil is maintained by the application of manure in the form of seaweed, and there are very strict regulations concerning the cutting of this plant. In Ile d' Arz, France, with a two-field scheme, the ancient jachère morte has been replaced by the Jachère verte or green fallow. Barley and wheat, both varying in their species as much as the soil varied in its composition, were the cereals most usually grown. The mountains in Greece have limited the extent of the fertile land, and the dry climate has limited its green pastures.

The article focuses on physical features of the Near East which makes it evident that the potentialities of this great area should be judged according to the standards that are valid there, not necessarily in Western Europe or in the United States. It is that part of the world which lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, south of Turkey and north of Egypt, forming virtually a cultural unit. This part of the world, a substantial area, has been the cradle of civilization. This is a region of great trading centers rather than of thriving agricultural development on rich farmland. The Near East enjoys what is customarily known as a Mediterranean type of climate, but there are many variations of this type which are caused by the structural differences of the area. The farmer is never allowed to forget his proximity to the desert, from which a hot wind may suddenly blow. A dominating fact of life in the Near East is that there are two ways of life, climatically induced but diametrically opposed to each other, the life of the settled husband man, who is anchored to the soil, and the life of the nomadic herdsman, who is ever on the move in search of pasture for his animals. The naive Occidental cannot but be influenced by his own concepts of the low productivity of the land as at present exploited by the Near Eastern fellahin.

This article presents information on the strategic importance of the Mediterranean. It is informed that France is interested in the Mediterranean as the chief means of communications with the three French possessions lying directly opposite Marseilles along the coast of North Africa. Italy's geopolitical strength before World War II was bolstered by possession of the large colony of Libya which, though poor, separated Egypt and Tunisia, and was capable of supporting an army; of the large, fortified island of Sardinia, flanking the east side of the French route to North Africa; and of the twelve Dodecanese Islands, between Greece and Turkey. Thus Italy effectively dominated the center of the Mediterranean. Throughout history, the traffic across the Mediterranean at its central narrows has been so heavy as to create the impression of a bridge. During World War II, this was the route by which the Nazis, under protection of Sicilian-based planes, poured reinforcements into Tunisia. It is further reported that the Sicilian Channel marks the Mediterranean's division into a well-watered triangular western basin and an oval eastern basin, twice as large, where drought brings the desert in many places almost to the sea.

Discusses the Mediterranean dimension of the European Economic Community (EEC). EEC agreement with countries that border the Mediterranean; Renegotiation within a year of enlargement; Test of how the Community of Ten handles external relations; Community of Six's network of trade arrangements.

The article focuses on views of Joseph Needham, master of Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge, Great Britain, on China. Joseph Needham, now Master of Gonville and Caius College, held for over thirty years the Sir William Dunn Readership in Biochemistry at Cambridge. After the publication of an early magnum opus in science the humanist in him has gradually overwhelmed the scientist. It seems to follow in principle that where there were contacts, direct or indirect, between the Mediterranean region and China before the great opening of the sea trade routes, they were necessarily to the advantage of the former rather than of the latter, and that if a technological innovation or a scientific principle appears earlier in China than it does in Europe, it is because Europe derived it from China. To account further for the one-way flow, Needham seems to speak of the isolation of China as acting in one sense, and he refers to Chinese reluctance to admire anything coming from abroad. If Needham is wholly right in his views, the Chinese civilization was markedly superior in machine-building and the industrial use of machines until the European Renaissance, when the West began to move forward on the basis of its indebtedness to the East.