Since the dawn of humanity, people have developed concepts about themselves and the natural world in which they live. This volume aims at investigating the construction and transfer of such concepts between and within various ancient and medieval cultures. The single contributions try to answer questions concerning the sources of knowledge, the strategies of transfer and legitimation as well as the conceptual changes over time and space. After a comprehensive introduction, the volume is divided into three parts: The contributions of the first section treat various theoretical and methodological aspects. Two additional thematic sections deal with a special field of knowledge, i.e. concepts of the moon and of the end of the world in fire.

Everyone who investigates pre-modern concepts of nature cannot avoid a critical reflection on the ancient understandings of it. Here, "nature" is understood in the sense of a seemingly untouched space, largely independent of human culture. While this concept of "nature" is prevalent in modern times, the reconstruction of ancient ideas is difficult in that concepts of nature, if at all present, emphasize other aspects. For example, the Greek term in pre-Hellenistic times defines the nature of a thing rather than an untouched environment. A word for "nature" in this sense has not been handed down to us in the remaining texts of the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquity. Nevertheless, such concepts can certainly be reconstructed from descriptions of nature to be found in literature and the representations of natural elements in art. The present volume aims at identifying these concepts of nature in texts as well as in archaeological remains of the Ancient Near Eastern and the Greek culture from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Contributions from the fields of archaeology and philology are juxtaposed for each time period in chronological order. This arrangement provides a good overview of the concepts of nature prevailing throughout different period and cultures. | Der Begriff "Natur" wird in modernen, mitteleuropaischen Gesellschaften meist im Sinne eines vermeintlich unberuhrten Raumes verstanden, der weitgehend unbeeinflusst von menschlicher Kultur ist. Fur vormoderne Kulturen lassen sich solche Vorstellungen bzw. Konzepte sehr viel schwieriger nachweisen, da beispielsweise ein Wort fur "Natur" mit der eben genannten Bedeutung in den erhaltenen Texten des Alten Orients und der griechischen Antike so nicht uberliefert zu sein scheint. Gleichwohl werden durchaus Naturelemente in der antiken Literatur, der Flachenkunst sowie in antiken Monumenten beschrieben bzw. abgebildet sowie als integrative Bestandteile genutzt und funktionalisiert. Daraus lassen sich Konzepte von "Natur" herausarbeiten und rekonstruieren. Der vorliegende Band moechte solche "Naturkonzepte" in Texten, Artefakten und Denkmalern des Alten Orients und des griechischen Kulturraumes von der Archaik bis in den Hellenismus identifizieren und einen UEberblick uber die jeweils in einem bestimmten Zeit- und Kulturraum vorherrschenden Vorstellungen sowie deren diachrone Entwicklung geben.