Project description
Reconstructing human-bird relations in the Greco-Roman world
Bird populations and their relationship with humans have long shaped cultural traditions, environmental knowledge and everyday practices. However, ancient perceptions of birds and human-animal interaction remain underexplored. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the OrniKosmos project examines the Ixeutika, a rare Greco-Roman text on bird hunting preserved in a Late Antique prose paraphrase. It describes 71 terrestrial and marine bird species. Looking behind the text, the project reconstructs the cultural ecology by integrating philology, eco-ethology and environmental history. It explores habitats, myths, local traditions and the relationship between folk knowledge and specialised expertise, while analysing cultural representations of predatory practices. The research offers the first eco-historical reconstruction of Greco-Roman human-bird relations.
Objective
This project reconstructs the intriguing cultural representations shaping relations between human communities and bird populations in the Greco-Roman world, through a detailed study of the Ixeutika, a unique classical text devoted to bird hunting, surviving in a Late Antique prose paraphrase (4th–6th c. CE). While book three describes capture techniques and human–bird interaction, the first two books portray the habitats and behaviors of 71 terrestrial and marine species.
The Ixeutika is a singular cultural product in which literary traditions, folk hunting practices, and environmental and ethological knowledge are interwoven. Beyond philological analysis, interpreting this text requires reconstructing a comprehensive cultural ecology, combining species-specific information with eco-ethological data. Contemporary ethology proves essential for clarifying obscure or seemingly fanciful passages that in fact encode naturalistic observation.
The project will contribute to the developing field of environmental humanities by offering the first eco-historical reconstruction of Greco-Roman human–bird relations. In it I pursue three objectives: (1) to reconstruct the cultural ecosystem reflected in the treatise, including geographical settings, habitats, mythical narratives, and local traditions; (2) to examine the interplay between folk knowledge and specialized expertise; (3) to analyze the cultural representations of predatory dynamics underlying capture practices.
By integrating philology with eco-ethology and environmental history, I shed light on a neglected but essential aspect of ancient cultures and demonstrate how ancient societies conceptualized their interaction with a vital component of the biosphere. An interdisciplinary approach ensures relevance beyond classical studies, contributing to debates on sustainability, biodiversity, human–animal relations, and cultural perceptions and representations.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences marine biology
- humanities history and archaeology history
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences meteorology biosphera
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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75006 Paris
France
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