Provenance

Where it was written down first

Every place in this course where an idea sold as a permaculture innovation turns up in a text written centuries or millennia earlier. The point is not to say permaculture stole anything. The point is that a designer who knows the lineage can go and read the original, and the original is usually better.

97 attestations

Who wrote it	When	Lesson
Cato	c. 160 BCE	Why This Course Exists
The Instructions of Shuruppak	c. 2600-2500 BCE	How This Course Works
Xenophon	c. 390 BCE	What a PDC Actually Is
Varro	c. 37 BCE	Three Frames: Subsistence, Anti-Capitalism, Solarpunk
Varro	c. 37 BCE	What Permaculture Is
Cato	c. 160 BCE	The Three Ethics
Hesiod, Works and Days	c. 700 BCE	The Three Ethics
Columella	c. 60 CE	The Design Principles
Cato	c. 160 BCE	The Design Principles
Varro	c. 37 BCE	The Design Principles
Cato	c. 160 BCE	The Design Principles
Instructions of Shuruppak	c. 2500 BCE	The Design Principles
Columella	c. 60 CE	The Design Principles
Virgil, Georgics	c. 29 BCE	Observation and Site Analysis
Columella	c. 60 CE	Observation and Site Analysis
Columella	c. 60 CE	Observation and Site Analysis
Varahamihira, Brihat Samhita	c. 550 CE	Climate and Microclimate
Columella	c. 60 CE	Climate and Microclimate
Varahamihira, Brihat Samhita	c. 550 CE	Water in the Landscape
Columella	c. 60 CE	Water in the Landscape
Cato	c. 160 BCE	Water in the Landscape
Columella	c. 60 CE	Soil
Theophrastus	c. 300 BCE	Soil
Theophrastus	c. 300 BCE	Plants, Polyculture and Guilds
Varro	c. 37 BCE	Animals in the System
Xenophon	c. 370 BCE	Zones, Sectors and the Design Process
Columella	c. 60 CE	Structures and Appropriate Technology
Varro	c. 37 BCE	What Yield Actually Means
Instructions of Shuruppak	c. 2500 BCE	The Deep History of Agriculture
The Geoponica	10th century CE	Mesopotamia and the First Salinization
Hesiod, Works and Days	c. 700 BCE	Hesiod, Xenophon and the Greek Farm
Xenophon, Oeconomicus	c. 400 BCE	Hesiod, Xenophon and the Greek Farm
Cato, De Agri Cultura	c. 160 BCE	Cato, Varro, Columella and the Roman Farm
Columella, De Re Rustica	c. 60 CE	Cato, Varro, Columella and the Roman Farm
Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants	c. 300 BCE	Pliny, Theophrastus and the First Natural History
Pliny the Elder, Natural History	c. 77 CE	Pliny, Theophrastus and the First Natural History
The Geoponica	10th century CE	The Geoponica and Byzantine Farming
Varahamihira, Brihat Samhita	6th century CE	The Arabic Agricultural Revolution
Ibn Wahshiyya, Nabataean Agriculture	c. 904 CE	The Arabic Agricultural Revolution
Ibn al-Awwam, Kitab al-Filahat	12th century CE	The Arabic Agricultural Revolution
Capitulare de villis	c. 800 CE	Medieval European Husbandry
Walter of Henley, Boke of Husbandry	13th century	Medieval European Husbandry
Fitzherbert, Book of Husbandry	1523	Medieval European Husbandry
Crescenzi	c. 1305	Crescenzi and the Italian Villa
Andean andenería	c. 1000 to 1533 CE	Terracing in the Highlands
Ifugao rice terraces	c. 100 BCE onward	Terracing in the Highlands
Qanat, Persia	c. 1000 BCE	Water Harvesting in the Drylands
Geoponica	10th century CE	Water Harvesting in the Drylands
The milpa, Mesoamerica	established by c. 1000 CE	The Milpa and American Polyculture
Eastern Agricultural Complex	from c. 1800 BCE	The Milpa and American Polyculture
Hesiod	c. 700 BCE	The Commons and Traditional Knowledge
Upland swidden and root-crop systems, Southeast Asia, over roughly two millennia		The Commons and Traditional Knowledge
Open-field commons, medieval Europe		The Commons and Traditional Knowledge
Crescenzi	c. 1305	The Alternative Agriculture Lineage
Mesopotamian irrigation, Sumer	3rd millennium BCE	What Did Not Work
Columella	c. 60 CE	What Did Not Work
Instructions of Shuruppak	c. 2500 BCE	The Attribution Problem
Ibn Wahshiyya	c. 904 CE	The Attribution Problem
Xenophon, Oeconomicus	c. 362 BCE	What a Subsistence System Is
Cato, De Agricultura	c. 160 BCE	The Subsistence Equation
Cato, De Agricultura	c. 160 BCE	The Ten Thousand Square Foot Food System
Virgil, Georgics	c. 29 BCE	The Staple Triad: Grain, Legume, Oil
Hesiod, Works and Days	c. 700 BCE	Grains Without Guilt
Cato, De Agricultura	c. 160 BCE	Vegetables and the Hundred Square Metres
Varro, Rerum Rusticarum	c. 37 BCE	Animals at Household Scale
Columella	c. 60 CE	Preservation and Storage Without Fossil Energy
Columella	c. 60 CE	Tools and the Honest Hours
Hesiod	c. 700 BCE	Tools and the Honest Hours
Columella	c. 60 CE	Calorie and Yield Accounting
Cato	c. 160 BCE	Carrying Capacity and the Fat Problem
Hesiod	c. 700 BCE	Resilience, Failure and Redundancy
Cato	c. 160 BCE	Sufficiency and the Fair Price
Columella, De Re Rustica	c. 60 CE	The Pyramid
Varro, De Re Rustica	c. 37 BCE	Enclosure
Cato, De Agri Cultura	c. 160 BCE	The Land Access Crisis
Xenophon, Oeconomicus	c. 370 BCE	The Influencer Economy
Cato, De Agri Cultura	c. 160 BCE	Enough Is a Fine Amount to Have
Cato, De Agri Cultura	c. 160 BCE	Markets Are Fine, Pyramid Schemes Are Not
Varro, De Re Rustica	c. 37 BCE	The Commons
Cato, De Agri Cultura	c. 160 BCE	Non-Seizable Production
Columella, De Re Rustica	c. 60 CE	Degrowth and the Growth Trap
Columella, De Re Rustica	c. 60 CE	What This Course Is Not Saying
Capitulare de villis	c. 800 CE	What Solarpunk Is
Cato	c. 160 BCE	Appropriate Technology and Energy Descent
Cato	c. 160 BCE	Mutual Aid and the Community You Already Have
Columella	c. 60 CE	The Local Food System
Cato	c. 160 BCE	Design for Repair and the Long Haul
Varro, On Agriculture	37 BCE	The Brief
Cato, On Farming	c. 160 BCE	Site Survey and Sector Analysis
Columella, On Farming	c. 60 CE	Water Design
Columella, On Farming	c. 60 CE	Soil and Fertility Plan
Cato, On Farming	c. 160 BCE	Crop and Livestock Plan
Cato, On Farming, c. 160 BCE, and Pliny, Natural History	77 CE	Calorie Accounting
Hesiod, Works and Days	c. 700 BCE	Labour and Calendar
Cato, On Farming	c. 160 BCE	Economics: Costs, Surplus and Fair Price
Cato, On Farming	c. 160 BCE	Red Team Your Own Design
Xenophon, Oeconomicus	c. 360 BCE	Submit and Defend