I am an ancient Historian at Yale University, with appointments in the Departments of History and Classics. I am also a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School, and have a secondary appointment in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. My primary research has been focused on Papyrology, and the legal and economic history of the Ptolemaic period in Egypt. In the last four years my work has taken a new direction, the climate and environmental history of the pre-industrial world, integrating Paleoclimatic proxy records with historical analysis. My focus, with a great team of scientists and other historians, has been on ice core records and the volcanic forcing of the hydroclimate of east Africa, the source of the vital annual flood of the Nile. From this starting point we are building a new picture of the pre-industrial world by linking ice core records, other paleoclimate proxy records and historical data on environmental conditions and climatic change to establish the range of societal responses.
I have published four monographs: The Hauswaldt Papyri. A Family Archive from Edfu in the Ptolemaic Period. Demotische Studien, Vol. 12. Würzburg, 1997, Land and power in Ptolemaic Egypt. The structure of land tenure 332-30 BCE. Cambridge University Press, 2003, and The last pharaohs. Egypt under the Ptolemies, 305 – 30 BC. Princeton University Press, 2009. My new book, The Open Sea. The Economic Life of the Ancient Mediterranean World from the Iron Age to the Rise of Rome, has just appeared with Princeton University Press. I am in the process of completing a monograph on Hellenistic History for the University of Edinburgh Press, and am beginning a major new synthesis of Ancient History and climatic change.
I have also edited (with Ian Morris, Stanford University) a volume on economic history: The Ancient Economy: Evidence and Models. Stanford University Press, 2005, and Law and society in Egypt from Alexander to the Arab Conquest (330 BC-640 AD. Co-edited with J.G. Keenan & Uri Yiftach. Cambridge University Press. With R.J. Jasnow, The Demotic and Hieratic Papyri in the Suzuki Collection of Tokai University, Japan appeared in 2016. The edited volume in honor of Pierre Briant, Writing History in Time of War. Michael Rostovtzeff, Elias Bickerman and the "Hellenization of Asia" appeared in 2015 with Franz Steiner Verlag.
Before coming to Yale, I taught for 12 years at Stanford University and two years at Princeton University with a one-year stop as a Solmsen Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I have appointments in both the Classics and the History Departments at Yale, am a Professor in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (by Courtesy), and am also a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School. I am a collaborative member of Yale’s Program in Economic History, and co-coordinator of Yale's Archaia program. I received my B.A. from Ohio State, and an A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. I do a lot of cycling, and am obsessed with mountaineering.
I have published four monographs: The Hauswaldt Papyri. A Family Archive from Edfu in the Ptolemaic Period. Demotische Studien, Vol. 12. Würzburg, 1997, Land and power in Ptolemaic Egypt. The structure of land tenure 332-30 BCE. Cambridge University Press, 2003, and The last pharaohs. Egypt under the Ptolemies, 305 – 30 BC. Princeton University Press, 2009. My new book, The Open Sea. The Economic Life of the Ancient Mediterranean World from the Iron Age to the Rise of Rome, has just appeared with Princeton University Press. I am in the process of completing a monograph on Hellenistic History for the University of Edinburgh Press, and am beginning a major new synthesis of Ancient History and climatic change.
I have also edited (with Ian Morris, Stanford University) a volume on economic history: The Ancient Economy: Evidence and Models. Stanford University Press, 2005, and Law and society in Egypt from Alexander to the Arab Conquest (330 BC-640 AD. Co-edited with J.G. Keenan & Uri Yiftach. Cambridge University Press. With R.J. Jasnow, The Demotic and Hieratic Papyri in the Suzuki Collection of Tokai University, Japan appeared in 2016. The edited volume in honor of Pierre Briant, Writing History in Time of War. Michael Rostovtzeff, Elias Bickerman and the "Hellenization of Asia" appeared in 2015 with Franz Steiner Verlag.
Before coming to Yale, I taught for 12 years at Stanford University and two years at Princeton University with a one-year stop as a Solmsen Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I have appointments in both the Classics and the History Departments at Yale, am a Professor in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (by Courtesy), and am also a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School. I am a collaborative member of Yale’s Program in Economic History, and co-coordinator of Yale's Archaia program. I received my B.A. from Ohio State, and an A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. I do a lot of cycling, and am obsessed with mountaineering.
Happy times on the Kilimanjaro summit, its famous last glacier retreating in the background. That valuable, melting ice contains important historical information of the annual monsoonal rains that drove the Nile river flood. An International Mountain Guides trip, 100% summit, 100% adventure. I prefer this old summit sign compared to the new one.
Great video of a recent climb of one of my favs, the Kautz route on Rainier. I climbed it with IMG in 2014. Video by Keita Sakon. Great view of Mt St Helens at about 2:50.