Earthly Paradises: Ancient Gardens in History and ArchaeologyThe cultivation of gardens played an integral role in both the public and private spheres of the ancient world. Whether grown as sources of food, symbols of wealth and prestige, or as dwellings for the gods, gardens were nurtured at every level of society. In this beautifully illustrated book, Maureen Carroll examines the most recent evidence for the existence, functions, and designs of gardens from the second millennium B.C. to the middle of the first millennium A.D. in the cultures of the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and the provinces of the Roman Empire. She looks at gardens in their many forms, including house gardens, orchards and parks, sacred gardens and cemetery gardens, and dedicates a chapter to gardens in ancient poetry. She also discusses ancient horticultural practices and the role of gardeners, concluding with a chapter on the survival of ancient gardening traditions in the Islamic and Byzantine worlds, and the perception and depiction of paradise in those cultures. Evidence is drawn from archaeological excavations, which can reveal the remains of gardens that were never mentioned in written sources, as well as from textual, pictorial, and environmental sources. Illustrated with delightful images from tomb and wall paintings, sculptural reliefs and manuscripts, as well as with informative reconstructions and plans, this book provides fascinating insights into the earthly paradises of antiquity. Book jacket. |
Contents
Preface | 6 |
Ancient gardens and the evidence | 8 |
Utilitarian and ornamental house gardens | 20 |
Orchards groves and parks | 40 |
Sacred gardens 828 | 60 |
Gardens of the dead | 72 |
Gardeners and gardening | 80 |
Plants of the ancient world | 96 |
Gardens in ancient poetry | 114 |
Gardens and paradises | 122 |
Notes | 134 |
Gardens to visit | 136 |
| 138 | |
| 142 | |
Photographic acknowledgements | 144 |
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Common terms and phrases
agricultural Alexandria Amarna ancient Egypt ancient gardens ancient world archaeological areas Ashurbanipal Assyrian Athens box hedges British Museum building built Byzantine Carroll-Spillecke 1989 chapter Chedworth Roman villa Classical Conimbriga courtyard garden cult cultivated date palms depicted Egyptian estates excavated fertility Fishbourne Fishbourne Roman Palace flowers fountains fourth century BC fruit trees funerary garden fig garden planted Godden goddess Greece Greek gymnasia Hadrian's villa Hellenistic herbal Herculaneum irrigation Islamic Italy Jashemski Kourion land Maureen Carroll medieval Meketre Mentuhotep II Mirgissa monumental myrtle olive Oplontis paintings palace paradeisoi Pasargadae peristyle peristyle garden pharaoh plane trees planting pits pleasure gardens Pliny plots pomegranate Pompeii pool pots Reconstruction relief remains replanted rivers Roman garden Roman houses Roman period Roman villa Rome roots rows royal park sacred gardens sanctuary shrubs sources surrounded sycomore trees tamarisk temple garden Thebes Theophrastos third century tomb utilitarian garden vegetation Vettii vines vineyards wall