Abstract
The famed ancient herb, known to the Romans as silphium (Greek silphion), is widely regarded as the first recorded instance of human-induced species extinction. Modern scholars have largely credited direct exploitation (e.g., over-harvesting; over-grazing) as the primary cause of silphium's extinction, due to an overwhelming demand for the plant in ancient times. Recent research has revealed strict cold-stratification requirements for the germination of silphium's closest living relatives, revealing the likelihood that silphium shared these same germination requirements. Documented environmental changes in ancient Cyrenaica (e.g., widespread deforestation; cropland expansion) likely resulted in accelerated rates of desertification throughout the region as well as the direct disturbance of silphium's habitat, effectively eliminating the necessary conditions for silphium's successful germination and growth within its native range. Contrary to previous conclusions, this evidence suggests that anthropogenic environmental change was instead the dominant factor in silphium's extinction, marking silphium as the first recorded instance of human-induced climate-based extinction.
Highlights
In his renowned work, Naturalis Historia (77 CE), Pliny the Elder famously declared that the once-beloved North African herb, known to the Romans as silphium (Greek silphion), “no longer exists” (Bostock and Riley, 1855), making it the first species in written history to have been knowingly driven to extinction by humankind (Parejko, 2003)
The facts that the closest likely relatives to silphium are present in colder climates outside of North Africa, and that the remaining species in North Africa are poor matches to silphium, further support the notion that silphium’s successful germination was highly dependent upon environmental conditions conducive to cold-stratification. This conclusion upholds our central contention that a localized change in climate due to deforestation and cropland expansion was a major, if not the dominant, factor in silphium’s extinction
No single factor can be solely faulted for the extinction of silphium, but rather a deadly convergence of many
Summary
Naturalis Historia (77 CE), Pliny the Elder famously declared that the once-beloved North African herb, known to the Romans as silphium (Greek silphion), “no longer exists” (Bostock and Riley, 1855), making it the first species in written history to have been knowingly driven to extinction by humankind (Parejko, 2003). Given that silphium’s classification as a large Ferula-like species is well-established (Hort, 1916; Amigues, 2004), it is reasonable to speculate that silphium shared the germination requirements of its closest living relatives (e.g., F. drudeana and F. asafoetida) and other related species, as shown in the modern scientific literature This conclusion is strongly supported by the written testimonies of Theophrastus and Pliny regarding silphium’s own germination difficulties. The decline of silphium [from its “golden age” in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE (Amigues, 2004) to its reported extinction in the 1st century CE (Bostock and Riley, 1855)], was both hyperlocal and comparatively rapid, and more detailed examinations of ancient microclimatic changes in silphium’s narrow range would be necessary to provide any quantitative data of significant relevance One such source comes to us in the form of a palynological study that analyzed pollen and spore samples isolated from sediment deposits in the Jebel al-Ahdar region—the first investigation of its kind in Cyrenaica. This conclusion upholds our central contention that a localized change in climate due to deforestation and cropland expansion was a major, if not the dominant, factor in silphium’s extinction
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