Geography Toward History: Studies in the Mediterranean Basin, Mesopotamia and Central Asia 9781463213633

Citation preview

GEOGRAPHY TOWARD HISTORY

Geography toward History Studies in the Mediterranean Basin, Mesopotamia and Central Asia

ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON

GORGIAS PRESS 2008

First Gorgias Press Edition, 2008 The special contents of this edition are copyright © 2008 by Gorgias Press LLC All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. Published in the United States of America by Gorgias Press LLC, New Jersey This edition is a facsimile reprint of the original editions published by the journals noted below each piece in the Table of Contents

ISBN 978-1-59333-861-9

GORGIAS PRESS 46 Orris Ave., Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA www.gorgiaspress.com

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standards. Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ....................................................................................... v List of Illustrations.................................................................................... vii Introduction: Introducing Ellsworth Huntington Barry Vann ........................................................................................... 1 The New Science of Geography Ellsworth Huntington ........................................................................ 7 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 45, No. 9 (1913)

PART ONE: THE NEAR EAST A DIALOGUE 1 Climatic Changes in the Nearer East A. T. Olmstead .................................................................................. 20 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 44, No. 6. (1912)

2

Climatic Changes in the Nearer East: A Reply Ellsworth Huntington ...................................................................... 28 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 44, No. 6 (1912)

ARTICLES 3 The Depression of Sistan in Eastern Persia.................................. 37 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 37, No. 5 (1905)

4

The Valley of the Upper Euphrates River and Its People .......... 48

5

Through the Great Cañon of the Euphrates River...................... 59

Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 34, No. 5 (1902) The Geographical Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Aug., 1902)

PART TWO: THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN GREECE AND ROME 6 Climatic Change and Agricultural Exhaustion as Elements in the Fall of Rome ...................................................................................... 85 The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Feb., 1917)

7

The Burial of Olympia: A Study in Climate and History ..........121 The Geographical Journal, Vol. 36, No. 6 (Dec., 1910)

ASIA MINOR 8 The Karst Country of Southern Asia Minor...............................142 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 43, No. 2 (1911)

9

Railroads in Asia Minor..................................................................159 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 41, No. 11 (1909)

PALESTINE 10 The Climate of Ancient Palestine. Part One...............................165 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 40, No. 9 (1908)

11 The Climate of Ancient Palestine. Part Two ..............................177 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 40, No. 10 (1908)

12 The Climate of Ancient Palestine. Part Three ............................189 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 40, No. 11 (1908)

13 The Future of Palestine..................................................................204 Geographical Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan., 1919)

NORTH AFRICA 14 The Libyan Oasis on Kharga ........................................................217 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society > Vol. 42, No. 9 (1910)

PART THREE: CENTRAL ASIA 15 Problems in Exploration................................................................241 The Geographical Journal, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Apr., 1910)

16 An Archipelago of Sand Dunes in a Lake of Central Asia .......266 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 40, No. 1 (1908)

17 The Mountains of Turkestan ........................................................274 The Geographical Journal, Vol. 25, Nos. 1 & 2 (Jan & Feb., 1905)

18 Archaeological Discoveries in Chinese Turkestan .....................314 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 39, No. 5 (1907)

19 The Rivers of Chinese Turkestan and the Dessication of Asia 320 The Geographical Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Oct., 1906)

20 Lop-Nor. A Chinese Lake. Part One. The Unexplored Salt Desert of Lop ..................................................................................336 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 39, No. 2 (1907)

21 Lop-Nor. A Chinese Lake. Part Two. The Historic Lake ........351 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, Vol. 39, No. 3 (1907)

PART FOUR: GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY 22 The Geographer and History ........................................................363 The Geographical Journal, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1914)

23 Changes of Climate and History...................................................377 The American Historical Review, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jan., 1913)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Diagrams showing the rate of growth of the “Big Tress” of California at Different Periods............................................................................................................................34 Map of Sistan.....................................................................................................................38 Border between Persia and Afghanistan in the Sistan .................................................46 The Greater Cañon of the Euphrates River..................................................................61 A Ruined Bridge over the Muzur Su, near Mazzerd ....................................................63 Kellek on the Murad Su, near Ashvan. ..........................................................................65 Looking down the Euphrates from the old marble quarry near Keban Maden.......67 In the cañon below Keban Maden. ................................................................................71 Triple Rock, in the gorge an hour below Kedan Maden .............................................73 Fault in the gorge below Kedan Maden.........................................................................75 Kuzzlebad Kurd crossing the Euphrates on an inflated sheepskin ...........................77 Entrance to the Great Cañon at Kemur Khan, looking south. ..................................79 Looking up-stream in the canon of the Euphrates at Morfa, just south of the Gerger Ridge..................................................................................................................81 The Plain of Ægina, looking east towards Athens..................................................... 127 The Skironian cliffs, in Megara. ................................................................................... 127 The Temple of Hera at Olympia ................................................................................. 127 The Heræum, or chief shrine of Argolis..................................................................... 128 General view of modern village of Olympia .............................................................. 128 Fantastic cliffs of volcanis tuff in Phrygia. ................................................................. 143 Lake Bey Shehir.............................................................................................................. 144 A Greek Tomb in Phrygia. ........................................................................................... 147 A sink-hole in the limestone country where the water disappears underground .. 148 The Russian village in Lake Bey Shehir. ..................................................................... 149 The Gorge of Charshembeh, showing dense vegetation.......................................... 150 The Spring where Apollo flayed Marsyas ................................................................... 152 Turkish Peasants among the seats of the Council Chamber at Kara Baulo, in the forested area near Adalia........................................................................................... 154 The wooded mountains near Adalia............................................................................ 155 Map of the Railroads in Asia Minor ............................................................................ 161 Map of Syria and Surrounding Countries. .................................................................. 167 Hypotheses of Uniformity, Deforestation, Progressive Change, and Pulsatory Changes. ...................................................................................................................... 170 Map of Syria and Surrounding Countries ................................................................... 179 Map of Syria and Surrounding Countries. .................................................................. 191 Map of Damascus .......................................................................................................... 195 Plan of the Ruins of Palmyra........................................................................................ 196 Sketch map of Eurasia showing the position of Palestine in relation to the routes between Western Europe and India........................................................................ 206 Sketch map showing the geology and the ancient lakes of the Oasis of Kharga .. 219

Caravan routes to the Oasis of Kharga....................................................................... 222 Climatic Pulsations......................................................................................................... 237 Bagrash Kul, a lake in Central Asia ............................................................................. 267 Sketch map showing Ellsworth Huntington’s routes in Central Asia..................... 277 Jukuchak Valley, on the northern slope of the Tian Shan Plateau, at the lower limit of ancient glaciation................................................................................................... 279 A scene in the Ak Sai Basin east of Chatar Kul......................................................... 281 A glacial lake, elevation over 1,000 feet, in the Yak Tash Basin, Just south of Jukuchak Pass ............................................................................................................. 283 The mountains of Chinese Turkestan, looking eastward from Botmanak Pass.... 285 Bridge over the Kok Su, just east of Terek Pass, on the high-road from Kashgar to Ferghana...................................................................................................................... 287 The Terek Valley, just west of the Terek Pass, on the high-road from Kashgar to Ferghana...................................................................................................................... 289 The Valley of Khoja Ishken, among the Alai Mountains......................................... 295 Down the Valley of the Tengis Bai, in the Alai Mountains south of Margelan..... 297 Art Shepherds on the borders of Bukhara at the western end of the Alai Mountains ................................................................................................................... 299 The erection of a Khiriz Kibitka at a new encampment in the Alai Mountains ... 301 A village of the semi-nomadic Khirgiz of the Alai Basin ......................................... 303 The Bagai, or national game of the Khirgiz ............................................................... 305 Khirgiz women in holiday attire standing beside a Kibitka...................................... 307 Sketch map of East Turkestan ..................................................................................... 323 Sketch map of East Turkestan ..................................................................................... 337 Modern edition of an ancient Chinese map, after Wagner and Himly’s Wu-Chang-Fu map .................................................................................................... 352 Sketch map of East Turkestan ..................................................................................... 354 Diagram mapping tree growth among the Sequoia of California............................ 383

INTRODUCING ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON When the ancient Greek scholar Eratosthenes sat down to describe the earth, he coined “geography” to describe his activity. Since then, understanding and explaining human-environmental relationships has been a fundamental exercise of those fortunate enough to be called geographers. Nowadays, professional geographers and others interested in the products of our trade are witnessing an interesting intellectual era that nurtures two conflicting visions of the future and discoveries yet to be made. On the one hand, there are those who see a bright future full of promise. To them, humans possess an incredible capacity to overcome nature’s limitations. They believe that, through technological innovations, virtually all things are possible. It follows that cities can be engineered better, swamps can be drained, fields can be irrigated, new treatments for dreaded diseases can be found, and humans will some day find a way to overcome even alien environments on distant planets. Yet, for many other people, that vision is tarnished by a heightened concern for the consequences of ill-conceived human-environmental interactions that manifest themselves in increased global temperatures and impacts on terrestrial and aquatic habitats. The latter vision seems to be gaining momentum in the media and political arenas. In response to an international concern for the future of life as we know it, governments and international organizations, including some corporations, are adopting policies that promise to safeguard habitats, people, and infrastructure from hurricanes, tsunamis, acid rain, ground and surface water contamination, as well as threats from intergalactic objects such as meteorites and asteroids, for, as most primary school children know, nature killed the dinosaurs. That knowledge leads us logically to ask the question: will nature end our existence on spaceship earth? There is a particularly intense and widespread fear of the consequences of global warming. In some of the proposed and enacted legislations, such as the Kyoto Protocol produced by the United Nations Framework Convention, emerging policies are designed to reign in various spill-over costs associated with fixing environmental problems associated with unbridled

1

2 and thus uncontrolled capitalism. Those who hold a more optimistic view of the future often see actions such as these as red meat for the media’s hungry news hounds that are keen to sniff out sensational stories for the public’s consumption. Nonetheless, the logic behind government actions and popular press coverage is thus based on the notion that nature is telling us to stop, drastically curtail, or modify the manner in which we exploit the earth and its resources. In short, we must seek out new ways to live in harmony with the forces of nature that, if we fail to respond effectively, will spell our doom. Sustainability, which is another way of expressing the need for living in a state of environmental harmony, is the key theme that guides some of the developed world’s emerging economic and environmental policies. To the chagrin of many, however, the United States has been slow to respond to the public’s demand for action to cool a planet made red hot by the exploitive actions of humanity. The notion that the environment influences and even determines the culture of people, which would be the obvious outcome of new legislation designed to curtail environmental impacts, is an idea that many geographers cast aside decades ago. Among the late nineteenth and early twentieth century proponents of environmental determinism to be cast aside in favor of the human-empowering paradigm known as possiblism was the American geographer Ellsworth Huntington (1876-1947). While some of his more ambitious conclusions about human and environmental interactions have lost some of their currency in today’s intellectual and politically correct marketplace, his descriptions of past environments and his contribution to the development of the discipline are indispensable. His reasoning is also similar to the logic that spurs on those who today hold a concerned view of the future. Much is owed to Ellsworth Huntington, who tirelessly labored as a professor at Euphrates College in Turkey from 1897 to 1901 and at Yale University from 1907 to 1917. Nonetheless, his contribution to the field must be framed in the historical context in which he lived and the giants on whose shoulders he stood. Ellsworth Huntington’s Place in Geography If scholarly production is any indication of a person’s love and dedication to a discipline, then Ellsworth Huntington had few peers. He and his American colleague Ellen Churchill Semple (1863-1932) drew great insight and inspiration from members of the German school of geography, most notably Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904). Each, like Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) before them, wanted to make geography a respectable science. Huntington, at least, was keenly sensitive to the criticisms historians threw

Introducing Ellsworth Huntington

3

at his approach to geography. As his writings show, he responded to those critiques positively and used them to embrace more empirical ways on which to base cause and effect relationships. His evolving awareness and its impact on his perceptions was a major departure from the encyclopedic conception of geography established in Greece during the 3rd century BCE. Huntington, Semple, and their German predecessors were certainly products of their times. The prevailing views of most scholars who regarded themselves as social scientists were borrowed from their co-workers in the natural sciences. They reasoned that there must be laws that govern the social world, just as there are in the natural world. Perhaps no supposition appealed to these social scientists more than the theory of evolution advanced by Charles Darwin, especially his ideas on species’ adaptations through natural selection and environmental conditions made famous in his On the Origin of Species released in 1859. Darwin’s ideas on competition within species and the corresponding notion of the survival of the fittest laid the groundwork for explaining global inequalities in wealth and culture. Sociologists, like geographers, borrowed the theory and explained macroeconomic patterns and other cultural variations with an evolutionary model handily called “Social Darwinism.” In an age of striking global inequalities, some scholars and unfortunately political leaders latched on to the idea, as it seemed to explain Anglo-American and European achievements in medicine, transportation, military prowess, and institutionalized morality. The paradigm encouraged an already existing European ethnocentrism, and seemed to grant license to political leaders to subjugate and rule over “lesser” peoples who were thought to be less evolved. Geographers in the middle of the nineteenth century, unlike sociologists and historians, saw the environment as the primary reason for explaining cultural, including economic, patterns around the world. Huntington certainly helped to advance and, as you will see in what follows, dismantle environmental determinism. Along the way, he was instrumental in making geography apply scientific rigor, so it would make conclusions based on systematic evaluations of evidence. The geography he left behind was richer than the exploring and encyclopedic-like discipline he entered at the beginning of his career. No doubt the use of concepts and terms borrowed from biology, especially ecology, gave the discipline a veneer of academic respectability that added to its social prestige in academic halls, especially those located in major European and North American cities. Sadly, a review of recently published geography textbooks and specialized works on historical geography shows that information about Huntington has been nearly purged from their pages. When he is mentioned, Hunt-

4 ington is given a restrictive place among the likes of Semple, Carl Ritter, von Humboldt, and even Thomas Malthus. This is unfortunate on two fronts: first, his lengthy list of publications includes dozens of refereed articles and several books that, because they span the decades in which geography’s favored paradigm changed from environmental determinism to possiblism and then into the cultural landscape approach made famous by Carl Sauer (1889-1975), the corpus of his work provides us with a systematic description of the thought processes that went behind those disciplinary machinations. In short, they reveal much about the discipline’s history and its development. Secondly, his descriptions of places located in the Mediterranean basin provide us with vivid depictions of past geographies, and that exercise, less some of his sweeping conclusions, continues to be a respectable activity for historical geographers.1 As you read Huntington’s own words spread out on the pages that follow, keep in mind that later in his career he softened his views on environmental determinism as he helped the discipline to take on a more modern approach to human-environmental relationships, especially some of the logic behind the contemporary concern for global warming. If you stay the course and read and reflect on the body of his work, you will see the thoughts and indeed the reflective feelings of a man who wanted to use science to make the world a better place. As he summed up his hopeful philosophy in the middle of his writing career, “With the friendly help and criticism of our sister sciences we are advancing not only the time when geographical environment will be recognized as one of the great fundamental factors in the evolution of human character, but toward the time when we shall be able to show the processes by which it plays its part. When that is accomplished … knowledge of geographical laws will be of primary importance in enabling us to discover how certain evil traits of character may be eradicated and good ones fostered in their stead. Geography will be so interwoven with history that the two will be inseparable”.2 Although geography and history remain somewhat disconnected, his goals for social change, which were not unlike the hopes and aspirations of August Comte (1798-1857) who felt that all metaphysical faiths would give way to a social 1 See Chris Philo, “History, Geography, and the Still Greater Mystery of Historical Geography,” in Human Geography: Society, Space, and Social Science, ed. Derek Gregory, Ron Martin, and Graham Smith (Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 1994), 258. 2 This is quoted from page 32 of his article entitled “The Geographer and History,” The Geographical Journal 43, No. 1 (1914): 19-32.

Introducing Ellsworth Huntington

5

religion that he named sociology, are still with us. Modern-day scientists and politicians who believe that nature is responding negatively to human actions likewise hope that scientific knowledge and policies based on the workings of the human-environmental interchange will brighten the future of life on planet earth.

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

[33]

[34]

[35]

[37]

[38]

[39]

[40]

[41]

[42]

[43]

[44]

[45]

[46]

[47]

[48]

[49]

[50]

[51]

[52]

[53]

[54]

[55]

[56]

[57]

[59]

[60]

[61]

[62]

[63]

[64]

[65]

[66]

[67]

[68]

[69]

[70]

[71]

[72]

[73]

[74]

[75]

[76]

[77]

[78]

[79]

[80]

[81]

[85]

[86]

[87]

[88]

[89]

[90]

[91]

[92]

[93]

[94]

[95]

[96]

[97]

[98]

[99]

[100]

[101]

[102]

[103]

[104]

[105]

[106]

[107]

[108]

[109]

[110]

[111]

[112]

[113]

[114]

[115]

[116]

[117]

[118]

[119]

[120]

[121]

[122]

[123]

[124]

[125]

[126]

[128]

[129]

[130]

[131]

[132]

[133]

[134]

[135]

[136]

[137]

[138]

[139]

[140]

[141]

[142]

[143]

[144]

[145]

[146]

[147]

[148]

[149]

[150]

[151]

[152]

[153]

[154]

[155]

[156]

[157]

[159]

[160]

[161]

[162]

[163]

[164]

[165]

[167]

[168]

[169]

[170]

[171]

[172]

[173]

[174]

[175]

[176]

[177]

[179]

[180]

[181]

[182]

[183]

[184]

[185]

[186]

[187]

[188]

[189]

[191]

[192]

[193]

[194]

[195]

[196]

[197]

[198]

[199]

[200]

[201]

[202]

[204]

[205]

[206]

[207]

[208]

[209]

[210]

[211]

[212]

[213]

[214]

[215]

[217]

[218]

[219]

[220]

[221]

[222]

[223]

[224]

[225]

[226]

[227]

[228]

[229]

[230]

[231]

[232]

[233]

[234]

[235]

[236]

[237]

[241]

[242]

[243]

[244]

[245]

[246]

[247]

[248]

[249]

[250]

[251]

[252]

[253]

[254]

[255]

[256]

[257]

[258]

[259]

[260]

[261]

[262]

[263]

[264]

[265]

[266]

[267]

[268]

[269]

[270]

[271]

[272]

[274]

[275]

[276]

[277]

[278]

[279]

[280]

[281]

[282]

[283]

[284]

[285]

[286]

[287]

[288]

[289]

[290]

[291]

[292]

[293]

[294]

[295]

[296]

[297]

[298]

[299]

[300]

[301]

[302]

[303]

[304]

[305]

[306]

[307]

[308]

[309]

[310]

[311]

[312]

[314]

[315]

[316]

[317]

[318]

[320]

[321]

[322]

[324]

[325]

[326]

[327]

[328]

[329]

[330]

[331]

[332]

[333]

[334]

[335]

[336]

[337]

[338]

[339]

[340]

[341]

[342]

[343]

[344]

[345]

[346]

[347]

[348]

[349]

[351]

[352]

[353]

[354]

[355]

[356]

[357]

[358]

[359]

[360]

[363]

[364]

[365]

[366]

[367]

[368]

[369]

[370]

[371]

[372]

[373]

[374]

[375]

[376]

[377]

[378]

[379]

[380]

[381]

[382]

[383]

[384]

[385]

[386]

[387]

[388]

[389]

[390]

[391]

[392]

[393]

[394]

[395]

[396]