The "Graduiertenkolleg 1876" in Mainz examined how concepts of humans and nature developed in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe from 100,000 BC to the Middle Ages. The aim of the conference papers collected in this volume is to study such fundamental components of concepts of humans and the natural environment that can be regarded as relatively universal across cultures.
The eight interdisciplinary contributions start with an article by the ethnologist Christoph Antweiler on the universality of world concepts in modern cultures. One chapter explores possible concept formations in the early phases of human development. This is followed by three philological-archaeological contributions on concepts of the sea in the Near East as well as medical concepts and concepts of the human semen in the Near East and Egypt. Two papers deal with concepts of the body in Greek antiquity, as they can be derived from pictorial representations on Phlyax-vases, and with the category "animal". An article on the role of zoology in medieval German literature is closely connected. In an epilogue, the insights gained are summarized and an attempt is made to evaluate them with a view to the universality of the concepts dealt with.