Description

This book tours the evidence for earthquakes in various famous
archaeological and historical sites, mostly in the Mediterranean
region, and correlates the suspected earthquake damage
to the known seismic risks of each site. In some cases there are
written records of varying reliability; in others there is physical
evidence of earthquake occurrence; still others exhibit only suggestive
evidence and a candidate fault nearby. Every case is controversial,
and this book tries to examine both the causes of the
controversy and the far-reaching effects of earthquakes on human
society.
One of the greatest challenges I faced in writing this book was its
interdisciplinary—or, more precisely, multidisciplinary—nature.
“Interdisciplinary” is a buzzword these days in academia in general,
and particularly at Stanford University. It is an appealing idea
that is easy to explain but often diffi cult to execute. A key problem
is the need for an investigator or a writer to be able to span several
disciplines reliably when he or she is an expert in only one. In my
case, I found that branching out from earth sciences (which is my
core area of expertise) to archaeology, history, mythology, and
social sciences was a risky business. It was not only criticism from
others that made me nervous about publishing my ideas but my
worry that my knowledge and therefore understanding in those
disciplines is incomplete. To compensate for this defi ciency—at
least in part—I read a lot, and, most important, received encouragement
and advice from friends and colleagues outside the earth
sciences.