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| The First Eden | |
 The First Eden DVD cover |
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| Picture format | 4:3 |
|---|---|
| Audio format | Mono |
| Episode duration | 55 minutes |
| Producer(s) | Andrew Neal |
| Presented by | David Attenborough |
| Music by | Carl Davis |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| First shown on | BBC One |
| Original run | 8 March 1987– 29 March 1987 |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| IMDb profile | |
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. 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.[1] Attenborough undertook the project in between his 'Life' series The Living Planet (1984) and The Trials of Life (1990).
Contents |
Episodes
1. "The Making of the Garden"
The geologic processes that formed the Meditteranean ocean. Deposition of salt precipitate through the evaporation of brine. Northward movement of Africa sealed the entrances to the Mediterranean in the East and the West 20? million years ago and caused the basin to dry out. Drilling cores from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean show a 1 1/2 kilometre thick layer of salt under 100 meters of sediment. Five and a half million years ago the Atlantic Ocean broke through the Straits of Gibraltar. Atlantic fish and other animals swam in to colonise the newborn sea. Multi species dolphin pod, sperm whales, Monk Seal (indgenous), Loggerhead turtles. Mount Etna volcano, limestone islands, Malta. Island animals and plants evolved in isolation. Dwarf hippopotamus and elephants (now extinct) had no need for large size because of a lack of predators and because of limited vegetation. Majorca midwife toad threatened with extinction by introduced snakes. 5 1/2 million years ago there were forests on islands and all around the mainland shores of the sea. On the African shore (where it is very much hotter today) forests have died out except in the Atlas Mountains. Atlas Mountains Macaque monkeys and their social baby minding. Springtime skies full with birds. Migration to northern shores and northern Europe. Migration routes established by end of ice age 2 1/2 million years ago. The Martin which weighs only a few ounces crosses the width of the Sahara. Oases are staging posts where birds may stay for several days building up strength. European shore and springtime has arrived. Wildflowers, seasonal and perennial. Pollination by insects. Birds have travelled to feed on insects. Bee eaters nesting in sand banks in colonies. Spoonbills in Spain, stalks and flamingos. Plant ways of dealing with summer dehydration. Sage oil film reduces evaporation from leaves and repels goats, proterium develops spines in summer, capers produce enormous suction in their roots and extract the last vestiges of soil moisture. Lizards. Snakes, Montpelier snake. High summer in the pine and olive woods with noisy Cicadas. Crickets, grasshoppers and other insects hunted by spiders, scorpions and centipedes. The island of Rhodes and Jersey Tiger moths. Tortoises hibernate underground. Cold winters prevent most African species from living in Europe. Fruit bats in Cyprus cave. Porcupine shelters underground in winter. Rock Hyrax may spread to Europe. 28,000-year-old flint tools of increasing quality over time found in cave in eastern Spain. Cave drawings of horse and deer. Coniferous forest spread as ice age retreated. Bison, Ibex. Wolf, the first animal to be tamed by man, hunting cooperation. Wooded valley in Spain 10,000 years ago, painting on cliffs of deer, stags, Ibex, wild bull, people, hunting scenes, bees nest. Around this time at the eastern end of the Mediterranean people were learning new ways of living.
2. "The Gods Enslaved"
3. "The Wastes of War"
Deserts of Jordan. The Bedouin. Wild Horses. 3000 B.C. Horses Used to pull carts and wagons 4th century mass migrations of Huns Visigoths Vandals. Rise of Islam. Arabic hunting with falcons. Medieval attitudes and beliefs about animals credited some with extraordinary powers. The Crusades. The spread of the black rat and plague. Forests of Spain and Italy cut down for Merino sheep grazing. Venetian shipbuilding. The battle of the Lepanto. Shortage of timber. End of 15th century shipbuilding moved to Spain for timber. End of 16th century shipbuilding moved to Northern Europe for Baltic Forest timber. Spanish riding school.
4. "Strangers in the Garden"
Suez Canal proposal and construction. Invasive marine animal and plant species move from Red Sea to Mediterranean over 100 species and growing. North American aphids moved to France and attack grapevines. 1940s Jacques Cousteau invention of scuba mask opens a whole new under water world. Increased fishing led to overfishing. Trawling for fish. Increasingly big and expensive boats throw away 70% of their catch. Pollution of water by oil and untreated sewage. Fish nursery grounds. Seagrass meadow community dying due to sewage and sediment. By the 1970s it was clear that the Mediterranean was dying and in 1985 a multinational conference outlawed oil dumping and established over 200 pollution monitoring stations - more needs to be done. Lands maltreated since Roman and Grecian times, rich farming lands wrecked by deforestation and erosion. Egyptian dams evaporate one third of water and remove fertile silt from water, chemical fertilisers used as a substitute and in conjunction with pesticides may cause extinction of birds such as the Bald Ibis. Israeli cultivation of desert land. Forest destruction by fire. Draining of wetlands. Tourism on the southern coast of France. Loggerhead turtle egg laying affected by human population. Tunisian lake birdlife and development pressures. Original European forest remnants in Yugoslavia and Greek river delta. Remote islands. Monk Seal. Final piece to camera.
Quotes
2. "The Gods Enslaved"
49 min 40 sec
(Reference to the port city of Leptis)
| “ | And yet, today the harbour is silted up, most of the city lies buried beneath sand dunes and the land has become a desert. As the population had grown and more people wanted more fields, so more of the forest that once stood around the city was cut down, until eventually it was all gone. With no roots to hold the soil, and no attempt to conserve it, it was carried away by the wind and the rain. | ” |
50 min 10 sec
| “ | And this is where it went. In places all around the eastern Mediterranean the sea is separated from the mainland by strips of flat marshy land like this. Made up of the soil that once clothed the hills beyond. All this was deposited during the last 2000 years. This is the marsh that now separates the sea from the city of Ephesus. These ruined buildings mark the edge of the quay where once merchant ships lay moored. As the harbour died so did the trade upon which the cities wealth was based, and so well ultimately did Ephesus itself. What was once one of the most splendid cities in the Roman Empire fell into decay and was abandoned. | ” |
52 min 20 sec
| “ | It used to be said, that in places like this, nature eventually failed to support man, the truth is exactly the reverse, here man failed to support nature. 10,000 years ago man regarded the natural world as divine, but as he domesticated animals and plants so nature lost some of its mystery and appeared to be little more than a larder that could be raided with impunity. | ” |
4. "Strangers in the Garden"
52 min 25 sec
Final piece to camera for series.
| “ | It was in the lands around this sea, that some 10,000 years ago, human beings first discovered how to tame animals and cultivate plants. Could it be here too that they also first learned from the mistakes they made during that process, that nations no matter what their political philosophy or economic circumstances or religious beliefs recognize that they simply had to get together and agree, if they were to save these wild landscapes and the animals and plants that live in them. That that perhaps, is just one more lesson that the Mediterranean could offer to the world. For surely these things are among our most precious possessions, the last glimpses we have of mankind's first eden. | ” |
References
- ^ The First Eden DVD
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| The Life series Life on Earth | The Living Planet | The Trials of Life | Life in the Freezer | The Private Life of Plants The Life of Birds | The Life of Mammals | Life in the Undergrowth | Life in Cold Blood
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