Author’s Prologue shouldbestressedthatallthreeoftheseversionsoftheBible,ascanonical
assemblagesoftexts,areproductsoftheclassicalworld:thelatestbookof
theHebrewBible(Daniel),wascomposedinthesecondcentury..,and
theHellenisticperiodsawthetranslationof it,andofalltheotherbooks,
intoGreek;andboththe‘‘OldLatin’’andtheVulgate,asLatinversionsof
theBible,areproductsoftheRomanEmpire.
Thefactthatcontinuoususeoftexts,paganandChristian,inGreekand
Latin,linksusdirectlytotheclassicalworld,andthatthereisnowayinwhich
weeithercanescapetheirinfluenceorshouldseekto,doesnotmeanthatwe
shouldnottrytolookbeyondthem,todiscernthematerialdevelopmentof
humanlifeandsettlementinthewholevastrangeofdifferentareaswhich
atonetimeoranothercamewithintheorbitofGraeco-Romancivilisation.
VastregionsoftheGraeco-Romanworldareinanycasehardlyilluminated
byany literary texts,or, if theyare so at all, it is only by passing allusions
to peripheral societies made by writers from the main stream of the clas-
sicaltradition.Atotalhistoryof humansocietyinalltheareasconcerned,
from southern Scotland to northern India—something which is currently
(andforallforeseeablefutures)completelyunattainable—wouldhavetoen-
compass the fundamental issues of nutrition and of interactions with the
physicalworldwithwhichIbegan,andwouldinvolveanunderstandingof
animmenseseriesofcomplexquestions:health,patternsofdisease,expecta-
tionoflife,demography,familystructure,housing,andsanitation.Beyond
these would lie the question of dependence on household production for
subsistence,oralternativelyofaccesstomarketsforfood,anddependence
orotherwiseonthemarketforaccesstomanufacturedgoods,furniture,or
clothing.Asindicatedalready,virtuallytheentiregeographicalareawhich
sawtheflourishingofGraeco-Romancivilisation,aperiodwhichinterms
ofhumanhistoryisveryrecentindeed,hasleftavaststockofphysicalevi-
dence,frompotsherdstobuildingstoorganicremains,whichispotentially
relevanttoallthesequestions.Butoneneedonlysketchtheidealofanswer-
ing fundamental questions of human life in theway suggested to make it
obviousthatallthatcanbehopedforatthemomentispartialstudies,often
ofwhatareinfactverysmallarchaeologicalsites,andwhichatbestcangive
onlyverylimitedandlocalisedanswers.
Nonetheless,thepurposeofspellingouttheseunattainableidealsisthat
thewiderbackgroundofouralmostall-embracingignoranceshouldbekept
inmindwhenwethinkofthemorelimited,butstillenormouslyextensive,
evidencewhichwedohave—evidencewhichisaccessible,whichinitselfcan
beunderstood,andwhichwillyieldatleastpartialandsuggestiveanswers
tomajorquestions.