Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive study of timber supply and demand in the Near East and the world of ancient Greece and Rome. Drawing from a wide range of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources, Meiggs traces changing patterns in their historical setting, and examines the timber requirements of fleets and armies, building, agriculture, and sculpture and furniture. He also draws a tentative outline of the structure of the timber trade, with special emphasis on transport, and determines that the part played by Greece and Rome in deforestation has been greatly exaggerated.