The First Eden
Encyclopedia
The First Eden: The Mediterranean World and Man is a BBC documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough
, first transmitted in the UK
from 8 March 1987.
It comprises four programmes, each of 55 minutes' duration, which describe man's relationship with the natural habitats of the Mediterranean
, and is a glorious portrait of the landscape, wildlife and plants of the Mediterranean. From the earliest human settlements to the cities of today, from the forests of the North African shore and the Middle East to Southern Europe, this series tells the dramatic story of man and nature at work.
The series was produced by Andrew Neal, in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
and WQED Pittsburgh
. The music was composed and conducted by Carl Davis
.
Attenborough undertook the project in between his 'Life' series The Living Planet
(1984) and The Trials of Life
(1990).
Attenborough opens the series at the Dead Sea
, where the hot climate and intense evaporation mimic conditions that were replicated on a much larger scale when the newly-formed Mediterranean basin
dried out. Around 5.5 million years ago, the Atlantic
flooded the basin, allowing marine life to recolonise the new sea. Mountains became islands: some of them volcanic, others formed of limestone. Common species marooned on these islands evolved into new varieties. In a Maltese
cave, Attenborough discovers fossil teeth from dwarf elephant
s. Most are only known from fossils, but one species, the Mallorcan midwife toad
, has recently been discovered. Attenborough abseils down to a secluded pool to find it. In Europe, blooming wildflowers signal the arrival of spring. This triggers the emergence of insects, and in turn, the arrival of insectivorous birds such as roller
s and bee-eater
s. After the Mediterranean Sea
formed, the climate continued to warm, forcing many birds to extend their migration routes between Europe and Africa. Exotic arrivals include spoonbills, white stork
s and flamingo
s. Reptiles are most active during the hot summers. Attenborough catches a Montpellier snake and describes its hunting behaviour. Some creatures, including chameleon
s, crested porcupine
s and fruit bat
s have colonised Europe from Africa. Rock hyraxes, which have reached Israel
, may soon join them. The arrival of humans, 28,000 years ago, is known from flint tools and rock etchings found in Spanish caves. Later cliff paintings demonstrated that Mediterranean man was still living in hunter-gatherer
societies 10,000 years ago, but that would soon change.
Attenborough explores the influence of the first Mediterranean civilisations, placing the symbolism of the bull
at the centre of his narrative. Cave painting
s in France and Spain and Egyptian hieroglyph
s both reveal cultures that revered the wild bull for its fertility and strength. The Ancient Egypt
ians deified many animals, including the living bull-god
Apis
, and accorded it the same ceremonial burial as their Pharaoh
s. Attenborough describes the ritual from the Temple of Apis in Memphis
. At Saqqara
, more than 4 million mummified sacred ibises were brought as offerings by devotees. Crop cultivation began in the Nile Delta
, but the Minoans were the first to harvest olive
s, using oxen-powered mills to crush them. They were also skilled fishermen, whose traditional methods for catching octopus
and tunny
are still practised by modern North Africans. Attenborough explains how Cretan men pitted themselves against bulls in specially-built arenas. The Romans
were passionate hunters, using wild animals ransacked from their Empire
for entertainment, but they also held the bull in special regard. The statue of Artemis, salvaged from the Temple of Ephesus, is adorned with bulls' testes. Of more than 600 Roman cities along the North African coast, Leptis Magna
was the greatest. Its wealth was built on trading livestock and produce harvested from the surrounding fertile lands; figs, olives and grain. But in deforesting
the land the Romans precipitated their own demise. Although humans had enslaved and subdued the bull, Attenborough concludes that they had yet to learn the value of the natural world.
The relationship between man and horse
has a long history in the Mediterranean region. A passion for horses spread west from Central Asia
, but took a while to become established as a pastoral way of life returned. The Roman Empire was replaced by marauding Huns
, Visigoths and Vandals
. In the seventh century, Arabian cavalrymen took Jerusalem and arrived in Spain to spread the word of the Qur'an
. They established bases at Córdoba
and Granada
, bringing orange tree
s and peacock
s for the gardens of their impressive mosques. The Arabs brought their falconry
skills too. The birds are used to this day to catch desert animals such as hare
s and Houbara bustard
s. Many attitudes towards animals stemmed from pre-Christian beliefs. Fire salamander
s were suspected of having magical powers, while the mandrake
was thought to be deadly to those who harvested its roots. Even today, Cocullo
holds an annual festival of snakes, the animals thought to bring protection. Attenborough visits the impregnable Krak des Chevaliers
in Syria
to discuss the Crusades
. Black rat
s carried on the retreating Christian army’s ships spread plague
through Europe, killing a third of the population. During the Middle Ages
the forests of Southern Europe were cleared. Attenborough discusses the deforestation caused by Spanish Merino sheep
grazing and the Venetian shipbuilding industry. Despite the advent of the internal combustion engine
, horses still play an important role in European culture. The final scenes show thoroughbreds racing at Newmarket
and a performance by the Spanish Riding School
in Vienna
.
The final episode examines man's impact on the Mediterranean during the twentieth century. Attenborough dines on red soldierfish in Cyprus
, one of a hundred or so species to have colonised the Mediterranean from the Red Sea
, via the Suez Canal
. Other invaders have been less welcome. The Phylloxera
aphid from North America attacked French grapevines, and only by importing insect-resistant rootstock from the USA was a total catastrophe averted. The growth of tourism has led to uncontrolled development of hotels and marinas, squeezing out natural inhabitants of the coast such as Mediterranean monk seal
s and loggerhead turtles, who come ashore to lay their eggs. The sea is in danger of becoming barren due to overfishing
and pollution. Attenborough dives beneath the surface to demonstrate the difference between a thriving seagrass
ecosystem and one smothered in sedimentation from untreated sewage. Meanwhile, in Egypt, he looks at the damaging effects of damming the Nile
, which include reduced productivity, a collapse of Egypt's sardine
fishery and population displacement. The shooting of millions of migrating birds, draining of wetlands and deliberately-started wildfires add to the pressures on the natural world. There are, however, still a few places where the Mediterranean has been left unspoilt. One is Plitvice in Croatia
, whose mixed forests provide shelter for many creatures driven or hunted out elsewhere. In the uninhabited Sporades Islands
east of mainland Greece, Mediterranean rarities such as Audouin's gull
, Eleonora's falcon
and the European black vulture can still breed freely.
2-disc DVD (BBCDVD2402) on 27 August 2007. The series forms part of the Region 2 DVD encylcopaedia Life on Land
, which was released on 3 November 2008. It is also available (albeit without the final episode) on the Region 1 and Region 4 BBC Atlas of the Natural World
DVD box sets.
The accompanying book, The First Eden: The Mediterranean World and Man by David Attenborough (ISBN 0-002-19827-4), was published by Collins on 9 March 1987.
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years...
, first transmitted in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
from 8 March 1987.
It comprises four programmes, each of 55 minutes' duration, which describe man's relationship with the natural habitats of the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, and is a glorious portrait of the landscape, wildlife and plants of the Mediterranean. From the earliest human settlements to the cities of today, from the forests of the North African shore and the Middle East to Southern Europe, this series tells the dramatic story of man and nature at work.
The series was produced by Andrew Neal, in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
and WQED Pittsburgh
WQED (TV)
WQED is a Public Broadcasting Service member Public television station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Established April 1, 1954, it was the first community-sponsored television station in the United States as well as the fifth public TV station...
. The music was composed and conducted by Carl Davis
Carl Davis
Carl Davis CBE is an American born conductor and composer who has made his home in the UK since 1961. In 1970 he married the English actress Jean Boht....
.
Attenborough undertook the project in between his 'Life' series The Living Planet
The Living Planet
The Living Planet: A Portrait of the Earth is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 19 January 1984....
(1984) and The Trials of Life
The Trials of Life
The Trials of Life: A Natural History of Behaviour is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 4 October 1990....
(1990).
Episodes
1. "The Making of the Garden"
- UK broadcast 8 March 1987
Attenborough opens the series at the Dead Sea
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
, where the hot climate and intense evaporation mimic conditions that were replicated on a much larger scale when the newly-formed Mediterranean basin
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...
dried out. Around 5.5 million years ago, the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
flooded the basin, allowing marine life to recolonise the new sea. Mountains became islands: some of them volcanic, others formed of limestone. Common species marooned on these islands evolved into new varieties. In a Maltese
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
cave, Attenborough discovers fossil teeth from dwarf elephant
Dwarf elephant
Dwarf elephants are prehistoric members of the order Proboscidea, that, through the process of allopatric speciation, evolved to a fraction of the size of their immediate ancestors...
s. Most are only known from fossils, but one species, the Mallorcan midwife toad
Mallorcan midwife toad
The Majorcan Midwife Toad is an Amphibian of the order Anura and in the family Discoglossidae. It is exclusively endemic to the Balearic Island of Majorca in the Mediterranean Sea...
, has recently been discovered. Attenborough abseils down to a secluded pool to find it. In Europe, blooming wildflowers signal the arrival of spring. This triggers the emergence of insects, and in turn, the arrival of insectivorous birds such as roller
European Roller
The European Roller, Coracias garrulus, is the only member of the roller family of birds to breed in Europe. Its overall range extends into the Middle East and Central Asia and Morocco....
s and bee-eater
European Bee-eater
The European Bee-eater, Merops apiaster, is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It breeds in southern Europe and in parts of north Africa and western Asia. It is strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa, India and Sri Lanka...
s. After the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
formed, the climate continued to warm, forcing many birds to extend their migration routes between Europe and Africa. Exotic arrivals include spoonbills, white stork
White Stork
The White Stork is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on its wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to end of tail, with a wingspan...
s and flamingo
Greater Flamingo
The Greater Flamingo is the most widespread species of the flamingo family. It is found in parts of Africa, southern Asia , and southern Europe...
s. Reptiles are most active during the hot summers. Attenborough catches a Montpellier snake and describes its hunting behaviour. Some creatures, including chameleon
Chamaeleo chamaeleon
The Common Chameleon is the only species of Chamaleonidae of Europe.-Subspecies:Four sub-species are identified:*Chamaeleo chamaeleon chamaeleon*Chamaeleo chamaeleon musae*Chamaeleo chamaeleon orientalis*Chamaeleo chamaeleon rectricrista...
s, crested porcupine
Crested Porcupine
The crested porcupine is a species of rodent in the Hystricidae family.It is extant in mainland Italy, Sicily, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.-Physical Attributes:...
s and fruit bat
Egyptian fruit bat
The Egyptian Fruit Bat or Egyptian Rousette is a species of Old World fruit bat found throughout Africa, except in the desert regions of the Sahara, and throughout the Middle East, as far east as Pakistan and northern India...
s have colonised Europe from Africa. Rock hyraxes, which have reached Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, may soon join them. The arrival of humans, 28,000 years ago, is known from flint tools and rock etchings found in Spanish caves. Later cliff paintings demonstrated that Mediterranean man was still living in hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
societies 10,000 years ago, but that would soon change.
2. "The Gods Enslaved"
- UK broadcast 15 March 1987
Attenborough explores the influence of the first Mediterranean civilisations, placing the symbolism of the bull
Bull
Bull usually refers to an uncastrated adult male bovine.Bull may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Bull , an original show on the TNT Network* "Bull" , an episode of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...
at the centre of his narrative. Cave painting
Cave painting
Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest European cave paintings date to the Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known...
s in France and Spain and Egyptian hieroglyph
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...
s both reveal cultures that revered the wild bull for its fertility and strength. The Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
ians deified many animals, including the living bull-god
Bull (mythology)
The worship of the Sacred Bull throughout the ancient world is most familiar to the Western world in the biblical episode of the idol of the Golden Calf. The Golden Calf after being made by the Hebrew people in the wilderness of Sinai, were rejected and destroyed by Moses and his tribe after his...
Apis
Apis (Egyptian mythology)
In Egyptian mythology, Apis or Hapis , was a bull-deity worshipped in the Memphis region.According to Manetho, his worship was instituted by Kaiechos of the Second Dynasty. Hape is named on very early monuments, but little is known of the divine animal before the New Kingdom...
, and accorded it the same ceremonial burial as their Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
s. Attenborough describes the ritual from the Temple of Apis in Memphis
Memphis, Egypt
Memphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are located near the town of Helwan, south of Cairo.According to legend related by Manetho, the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes around 3000 BC. Capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, it remained an...
. At Saqqara
Saqqara
Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb due to its rectangular base, as well as a number of...
, more than 4 million mummified sacred ibises were brought as offerings by devotees. Crop cultivation began in the Nile Delta
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
, but the Minoans were the first to harvest olive
Olive
The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...
s, using oxen-powered mills to crush them. They were also skilled fishermen, whose traditional methods for catching octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
and tunny
Northern bluefin tuna
The Northern bluefin tuna is a species of tuna in the Scombridae family. It is variously known as the Atlantic bluefin tuna, giant bluefin tuna and formerly as the tunny. Atlantic bluefin are native to both the western and eastern Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean Sea...
are still practised by modern North Africans. Attenborough explains how Cretan men pitted themselves against bulls in specially-built arenas. The Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
were passionate hunters, using wild animals ransacked from their Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
for entertainment, but they also held the bull in special regard. The statue of Artemis, salvaged from the Temple of Ephesus, is adorned with bulls' testes. Of more than 600 Roman cities along the North African coast, Leptis Magna
Leptis Magna
Leptis Magna also known as Lectis Magna , also called Lpqy, Neapolis, Lebida or Lebda to modern-day residents of Libya, was a prominent city of the Roman Empire. Its ruins are located in Khoms, Libya, east of Tripoli, on the coast where the Wadi Lebda meets the sea...
was the greatest. Its wealth was built on trading livestock and produce harvested from the surrounding fertile lands; figs, olives and grain. But in deforesting
Deforestation during the Roman period
The rise and fall of the Roman Empire encompasses the time when Rome was the leading contributor to deforestation in the Mediterranean. Whereas the Mediterranean was largely "prehistoric" in 1000 BC, it was definitely "historic" by 500 AD. Roman geographical and population expansion spread methods...
the land the Romans precipitated their own demise. Although humans had enslaved and subdued the bull, Attenborough concludes that they had yet to learn the value of the natural world.
3. "The Wastes of War"
- UK broadcast 22 March 1987
The relationship between man and horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
has a long history in the Mediterranean region. A passion for horses spread west from Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, but took a while to become established as a pastoral way of life returned. The Roman Empire was replaced by marauding Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, Visigoths and Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
. In the seventh century, Arabian cavalrymen took Jerusalem and arrived in Spain to spread the word of the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. They established bases at Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
and Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, bringing orange tree
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
s and peacock
Indian Peafowl
The Indian Peafowl or Blue Peafowl is a large and brightly coloured bird of the pheasant family native to South Asia, but introduced and semi-feral in many other parts of the world...
s for the gardens of their impressive mosques. The Arabs brought their falconry
Falconry
Falconry is "the taking of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained raptor". There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle...
skills too. The birds are used to this day to catch desert animals such as hare
Hare
Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...
s and Houbara bustard
Houbara Bustard
The Houbara Bustard, Chlamydotis undulata, is a large bird in the bustard family.-Description:The Houbara Bustard is a small to mid-sized bustard. It measures in length and spans across the wings. It is brown above and white below, with a black stripe down the sides of its neck. In flight, the...
s. Many attitudes towards animals stemmed from pre-Christian beliefs. Fire salamander
Fire Salamander
The fire salamander is probably the best-known salamander species in Europe. It is black with yellow spots or stripes to a varying degree; some specimens can be nearly completely black while on others the yellow is dominant. Shades of red and orange may sometimes appear, either replacing or mixing...
s were suspected of having magical powers, while the mandrake
Mandrake (plant)
Mandrake is the common name for members of the plant genus Mandragora, particularly the species Mandragora officinarum, belonging to the nightshades family...
was thought to be deadly to those who harvested its roots. Even today, Cocullo
Cocullo
Cocullo is a comune and town in the Province of L'Aquila, located in the Abruzzo region of Italy. As of 2007 its population was of 285.-Geography:The village is situated in the Peligna Valley, between the towns of Avezzano and Sulmona...
holds an annual festival of snakes, the animals thought to bring protection. Attenborough visits the impregnable Krak des Chevaliers
Krak des Chevaliers
Krak des Chevaliers , also Crac des Chevaliers, is a Crusader castle in Syria and one of the most important preserved medieval castles in the world. The site was first inhabited in the 11th century by a settlement of Kurds; as a result it was known as Hisn al Akrad, meaning the "Castle of the...
in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
to discuss the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
. Black rat
Black Rat
The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...
s carried on the retreating Christian army’s ships spread plague
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
through Europe, killing a third of the population. During the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
the forests of Southern Europe were cleared. Attenborough discusses the deforestation caused by Spanish Merino sheep
Merino
The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...
grazing and the Venetian shipbuilding industry. Despite the advent of the internal combustion engine
Internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
, horses still play an important role in European culture. The final scenes show thoroughbreds racing at Newmarket
Newmarket Racecourse
The town of Newmarket, in Suffolk, England, is the headquarters of British horseracing, home to the largest cluster of training yards in the country and many key horse racing organisations. Newmarket Racecourse has two courses - the Rowley Mile Course and the July Course. Both are wide, galloping...
and a performance by the Spanish Riding School
Spanish Riding School
The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses, which perform in the Winter Riding School in the Hofburg...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
.
4. "Strangers in the Garden"
- UK broadcast 29 March 1987
The final episode examines man's impact on the Mediterranean during the twentieth century. Attenborough dines on red soldierfish in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, one of a hundred or so species to have colonised the Mediterranean from the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, via the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
. Other invaders have been less welcome. The Phylloxera
Phylloxera
Grape phylloxera ; originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae; commonly just called phylloxera is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America...
aphid from North America attacked French grapevines, and only by importing insect-resistant rootstock from the USA was a total catastrophe averted. The growth of tourism has led to uncontrolled development of hotels and marinas, squeezing out natural inhabitants of the coast such as Mediterranean monk seal
Mediterranean Monk Seal
The Mediterranean monk seal is a pinniped belonging to the Phocidae family. At some 450-510 remaining individuals, it is believed to be the world's second-rarest pinniped , and one of the most endangered mammals in the world.It is present in parts of the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic...
s and loggerhead turtles, who come ashore to lay their eggs. The sea is in danger of becoming barren due to overfishing
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
and pollution. Attenborough dives beneath the surface to demonstrate the difference between a thriving seagrass
Seagrass
Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , all in the order Alismatales , which grow in marine, fully saline environments.-Ecology:...
ecosystem and one smothered in sedimentation from untreated sewage. Meanwhile, in Egypt, he looks at the damaging effects of damming the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
, which include reduced productivity, a collapse of Egypt's sardine
Sardine
Sardines, or pilchards, are several types of small, oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae. Sardines are named after the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, around which they were once abundant....
fishery and population displacement. The shooting of millions of migrating birds, draining of wetlands and deliberately-started wildfires add to the pressures on the natural world. There are, however, still a few places where the Mediterranean has been left unspoilt. One is Plitvice in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, whose mixed forests provide shelter for many creatures driven or hunted out elsewhere. In the uninhabited Sporades Islands
Sporades
The Sporades are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. It consists of 24 islands, of which four are permanently inhabited: Alonnisos, Skiathos, Skopelos and Skyros.-Administration:...
east of mainland Greece, Mediterranean rarities such as Audouin's gull
Audouin's Gull
The Audouin's Gull is a large gull restricted to the Mediterranean and the western coast of Saharan Africa. It breeds on small islands colonially or alone, laying 2-3 eggs on a ground nest...
, Eleonora's falcon
Eleonora's Falcon
Eleonora's Falcon is a medium-sized falcon. It belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Hypotriorchis. The Sooty Falcon is sometimes considered its closest relative, but while they certainly belong to the same lineage, they do not seem...
and the European black vulture can still breed freely.
DVDs and book
The First Eden was released as a Region 2DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
2-disc DVD (BBCDVD2402) on 27 August 2007. The series forms part of the Region 2 DVD encylcopaedia Life on Land
Life on Land
David Attenborough's Life on Land: A DVD Encyclopaedia is a DVD box set of nature documentaries made by the BBC Natural History Unit. It comprises six series spread across 15 discs, all of them written and presented by David Attenborough, and together forming a comprehensive introduction to the...
, which was released on 3 November 2008. It is also available (albeit without the final episode) on the Region 1 and Region 4 BBC Atlas of the Natural World
BBC Atlas of the Natural World
The BBC Atlas of the Natural World is the title of two compilations of DVDs consisting of eight separate nature documentary series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit between 1987 and 2005. The boxed sets, each consisting of 4 series and 6 DVDs, are subtitled “Western Hemisphere and...
DVD box sets.
The accompanying book, The First Eden: The Mediterranean World and Man by David Attenborough (ISBN 0-002-19827-4), was published by Collins on 9 March 1987.