Author: Maureen Carroll Publisher: Getty Publications ISBN: 9780892367214 Category : Gardening Languages : en Pages : 152
Book Description
The 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.
Author: Naomi F. Miller Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 9780812216417 Category : Gardening Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
Cultivation and land use practices the world over reflect many aspects of people's relationship to each other and to the natural world. The Archaeology of Garden and Field explores the cultivation of land from prehistoric times to the nineteenth century through excavation, experimentation, and the study of modern cultural traditions. The Archaeology of Garden and Field contains a wealth of information distilled from the combined experiences of the editors and contributors. Whether one's interest is the Old World or the New, prehistory or the present, this book provides a starting point for anyone who has ever wondered how archaeologists find and interpret the ephemeral traces of ancient cultivation.
Author: K. Sara Myers Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0197773206 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 313
Book Description
"Beginning with Cicero and Varro and ending with Statius and Pliny the Younger, this chapter offers a chronological investigation of the ways in which real and literary gardens developed from the first century BCE to the first century CE as a means of elite masculine self-representation and the reactions of elite Roman men to the increased social and cultural power of villa and horti estates and their grounds. Gardens served as powerful symbols of wealth and as creative displays of the cultural aspirations of their owners in ways that challenged traditional definitions of gardens and of Roman manliness. Since these large-scale 'gardens' are primarily associated with leisure (otium), authors are concerned with describing and justifying their activities in these sites as befitting Roman masculine ideals. We can trace a change in attitude towards leisure and the private display of wealth, and consequently gardens, largely attributed to changes in the socio-political circumstances of the Roman elite, in the works of Statius and his contemporary Pliny the Younger, who use laudatory descriptions of extensive villas and grounds as a means of expressing social and literary power"--
Author: Theoretical Archaeology Group (England). Conference Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521255264 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 176
Book Description
This book starts from the premise that methodology has always dominated archaeology to the detriment of broader social theory.
Author: Linda Farrar Publisher: Windgather Press ISBN: 1909686883 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 311
Book Description
From the earliest of times people have sought to grow and nurture plants in a garden area. Gardens and Gardeners of the Ancient World traces the beginning of gardening and garden history, from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, to the Minoans and Mycenaeans, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans, through Byzantine, Islamic and Persian gardens right up to the Middle Ages. It shows how gardens in each period were designed and cultivated. Evidence for garden art and horticulture is gathered from surviving examples of ancient art, literature, archaeology, actual period gardens that have survived the centuries and the wealth of garden myths associated with certain plants. These sources bring ancient gardens and their gardeners back to life, and provide information on which plants were chosen as garden worthy, their setting and the design and appearance of ancient gardens. Deities associated with aspects of gardens and the garden's fertility are featured - everyone wanted a fertile garden. Different forms of public and domestic gardens are explored, and the features that you would find there; whether paths, pools, arbors and arches, seating or decorative sculpture. The ideal garden could be like the Greek groves of the Academy in Athens, a garden so fine that it was comparable with that of the mythical king Alcinoos, the paradise contemplated by the Islamic world, or a personal version of a garden of Eden that Early Christians could create for themselves or in the forecourt of their churches. In general books on garden history cover all periods up to the present, often placing all ancient gardens in one chapter at the beginning. But there is so much of interest to be found in these early millennia. Generously illustrated with 150 images, with plant lists for each period, this is essential reading for everyone interested in garden history and ancient societies.
Author: Peter R. Schmidt Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0199684596 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 392
Book Description
Since the eighteenth century, the concept of prehistory was exported by colonialism to far parts of the globe and applied to populations lacking written records. Prehistory in these settings came to represent primitive people still living in a state without civilization and its foremost index, literacy. Yet, many societies outside the Western world had developed complex methods of history making and documentation, including epic poetry and the use of physical and mental mnemonic devices. Even so, the deeply engrained concept of prehistory--deeply entrenched in European minds up to the beginning of the twenty-first century--continues to deny history and historical identify to peoples throughout the world. The fourteen essays, by notable archaeologists of the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia, provide authoritative examples of how the concept of prehistory has diminished histories of other cultures outside the West and how archaeologists can reclaim more inclusive histories set within the idiom of deep histories--accepting ancient pre-literate histories as an integral part of the flow of human history.
Author: Penelope Allison Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1134625480 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 232
Book Description
This pioneering collection engages with recent research in different areas of the archaeological discipline to bring together case-studies of the household material culture from later prehistoric and classical periods. The book provides a comprehensive and accessible study for students into the material records of past households, aiding wider understanding of our own domestic development.
Author: Jon C. Lohse Publisher: University of Texas Press ISBN: 0292778147 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
Much of what we currently know about the ancient Maya concerns the activities of the elites who ruled the societies and left records of their deeds carved on the monumental buildings and sculptures that remain as silent testimony to their power and status. But what do we know of the common folk who labored to build the temple complexes and palaces and grew the food that fed all of Maya society? This pathfinding book marshals a wide array of archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic evidence to offer the fullest understanding to date of the lifeways of ancient Maya commoners. Senior and emerging scholars contribute case studies that examine such aspects of commoner life as settlement patterns, household organization, and subsistence practices. Their reports cover most of the Maya area and the entire time span from Preclassic to Postclassic. This broad range of data helps resolve Maya commoners from a faceless mass into individual actors who successfully adapted to their social environment and who also held primary responsibility for producing the food and many other goods on which the whole Maya society depended.
Author: Thomas W. Killion
Author: Maureen Carroll
Author: Naomi F. Miller
Author: K. Sara Myers
Author: Theoretical Archaeology Group (England). Conference
Author: Anthony Ernest Brown
Author: Linda Farrar
Author: Peter R. Schmidt
Author: Penelope Allison
Author: Jon C. Lohse