In the millennia since the rise of the world’s first cities, human beings living in large, sedentary groups have struggled to manage the complex entanglements of ecology, economy, politics, and culture necessary to keep food flowing into urban settlements. Many cities have faced particular challenges due to the precariousness of their immediate environments: ancient as well as modern urbanites have faced water stresses, climatic fluctuations, and various forms of degradation attributable to human activity. Historic documents and archaeological data can reveal the ways in which cities have succeeded or failed in feeding themselves over the long term. Studying these data is important since modern environmental and urban records cover relatively short time frames, while we as a species need to assess the sustainability of our food production and distribution strategies across centuries and in the face of climate change. This project uses diverse data to investigate urban provisioning strategies and sustainability in climatically unstable regions. We stress that learning about the past, relating it to the present, and considering the needs of the future requires a strongly interdisciplinary team. 

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