The history of gardens embraces many aspects of former ancient societies. We see how gardens related to houses and other buildings, how they were used for leisure and as status symbols. It highlights the skills needed by gardeners for landscaping and installing water features, and the use of a gradually increasing range of plants available. A study of gardens involves the art and architecture of the different periods and ancient societies links to religion. The myths and the literature of each period gives a valuable insight into the way people in the past thought and used their gardens. We understand how people enjoyed the fresh air and plants growing in their gardens, how they used art and architecture to enhance their garden spaces.
From the earliest of times people have sought to grow and nurture plants in a garden area. However, there are variations between a garden cultivated solely to provide produce, and one which is both productive and decorative, and finally a purely ornamental garden. The latter will be the main focus of this book. This book will concentrate on evidence for gardens of the early cultures and periods of the ancient world. Each period will be examined in turn, from the beginning of civilisation right up to the fall of Byzantium in AD 1453. 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 centuries/millennia. Each period appears quite distinctive yet there are at times cross cultural links between them. In the process of gardening people may encounter common problems, and it can be interesting to discover how they develop comparable solutions to similar challenges, an example of this is how garden tools from any culture are easily recognisable because they have evolved to serve a common purpose.
Early civilisations were based on agriculture and lived in close contact with nature and the rhythms of the seasons. Both agriculture, and horticulture, were undertaken to ensure a family or community was self-sufficient. Agriculture developed into the large-scale cultivation of crops in fields, as opposed to horticulture which came to be practised in enclosed areas where special attention and care could be devoted to vegetables and the flowering plants growing there. Many vegetables and flowers require frequent watering and their needs meant that often specialised care was required to tend them. The gardener’s role was to provide food for the table but also in some cases to enhance the appearance of garden areas. Gardening and horticulture is a form of improvement on nature, a desire to nurture selected plants in specially cared for and well watered areas. Gardeners the world over improve their land/garden, and hope for a fertile and fruitful crop (of fruit, vegetables and flowers). Previous cultures and civilisations learnt by trial and error and in many cases they passed on the knowledge gained. When difficulties arose, people of each civilisation would also solicit aid from various deities or a god, those that were responsible for aspects of agri-horticulture and fertility. On the surface the deities of each culture appear to be different but many served a similar need. We have to remember that the people of the past were more religious and superstitious than today.
But what is a garden? In the past the concept of a garden was perhaps different to ours, due in part to the particular characteristics of individual societies. Over the centuries there were many forms of a garden and of necessity these changed over time. A garden, though, is essentially cultivated land that is used at least partly as an amenity, whether private or public. Gardens could be areas nurtured with care to provide vegetables and salad crops vital for self-sufficiency. In times of plenty such areas would form market gardens. Some cultures maintained groves that were seen as gardens. Yet others created expansive tree filled areas stocked with game, and these hunting parks were again viewed as a form of large garden. At times gardens were even created around funerary monuments. But, to many societies, a garden was a walled enclosure that could contain either a variety of trees or a combination of trees and flowers. It is when people have time, or workmen to do the work for them, that owners could aim to make their gardens aesthetically pleasing. When time and space allows, a place for relaxation can be made in the garden, be it a pavilion or an al fresco dining area, then the garden becomes an extension of the home. The garden can then be ornamented with specimen plants and sculptural objects. In many societies houses faced inwards around an open court that served as a light-well for surrounding rooms; these areas too were often turned into a garden inside the house. These gardens were then the lungs of the house and over time became areas that could be quite decorative. On large estates space could be made for extensive gardens around the dwelling. When carefully tended, all gardens can enhance the setting and surroundings of buildings. At best a garden is a place where people aim to capture the beauty of nature in a re-creation of their own form of paradise.
At certain locations evidence of ancient gardening and garden art has survived the intervening centuries. Sources are wide ranging, in each period examples of contemporary illustrations of gardens were used such as fresco paintings, sculptural reliefs, mosaics, and manuscript paintings where possible. These may depict stylised versions of contemporary gardens but they allow us to visualise how the people concerned saw their gardens. Sometimes elements within the garden scene are given prominence and these can indicate fashions in garden art. Illustrations of ancient gardens can be compared with descriptions surviving from ancient literary sources and inscriptions, be it a tale of a mythical garden (that sometimes preserves elements of contemporary or earlier gardens) or an actual garden. There is a rich selection of legends and myths relating to gardens and their plants, and because these add so much colour to our understanding of the cultures concerned several have been included in this book.
FIGURE 1. Pomegranate tree, mosaic detail. Umm Al-Rasas, Jordan, 6th century AD.
Ancient authors sometimes make a brief comment (or occasionally a long description) of a particular garden seen by them. In some cases people actually described their own garden, and the details given are enlightening. Also, we are fortunate that several ancient agri-horticultural manuals have survived and together with the herbals they can give an understanding of the plants grown during various periods and of their culture. Such evidence for gardens can be corroborated through archaeological investigations.
Garden archaeology is a relatively new discipline, one that can enhance an interpretation of the environment, and past societies. It is now possible to recover a surprising range of detailed information on early gardens. However, in the past archaeological projects concentrated on uncovering buildings and buried sculpture, and garden areas were generally overlooked. This was mainly because gardens and courtyards were considered to be just an empty space, as any likely features were deemed to be too ephemeral and unlikely to leave discoverable traces, but this is not always the case. On some sites old pathways though the garden can be revealed, and hard landscaping elements can be discovered such as evidence of statue bases or garden shrines and pavilions. The line of a garden wall can become apparent and post holes can provide evidence for fences or trellising. In many cases garden features are only preserved up to a low height, or foundation level, but there are exceptions such as if a garden pavilion was preserved because it was later reused for another purpose. At places like Pompeii however, the volcanic ash covered buildings and gardens and have enabled an in depth study of garden archaeology.
Garden archaeology was pioneered at Fishbourne in southern Britain by Barry Cunliffe and at Pompeii by Wilhelmina Jashemski. With today’s modern scientific techniques garden archaeologists are now able to uncover the location of a long buried garden pool, the direction of its water source and if there were any fountains there. On occasion the outline of plant beds can be defined, and depending on soil conditions, plant remains can also be recovered. Items like charred seeds, macrofossils (bits of bark or stem) and pollen can be extracted and examined leading to the identification of a number of plants that were grown in gardens. In addition, in some places, the outline of tree roots can be detected, mainly those of large trees. At Pompeii, however, a greater accuracy was possible. The volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius caused the city to be completely covered by volcanic debris, and once the ash covering the houses and gardens had been removed from areas under excavation the original ground surface of gardens were revealed. Garden archaeologists then cleared out the volcanic debris from voids underground left behind after the plant’s roots had decayed. Liquid plaster was poured into the cleared spaces, and when the plaster had hardened the soil was cleared away and the shape of the plant root could then be studied and a comparison made with modern equivalents to identify the species of tree or bush.
Modern garden archaeological principles are used to examine desiccated plant material (this is possible in the dry climate of Egypt, for instance). On waterlogged sites (e.g. in pits) the anaerobic conditions stop plant decay and preserve plant material and seeds. Once the ancient layers of garden soil has been taken away, however, evidence for plant material is greatly lessened, but in some cases not all is lost. In some cases traces of ancient flora can be recovered from overlooked pits, or other sealed deposits. Recent developments have been to explore if flora can be retrieved from oily residues in discarded ancient pottery, and from plaster remaining on water tanks, with exciting results (revealed in Chapters 2 and 3).
In different parts of the world local climatic conditions affect natural flora and fauna and these conditions were one of the main influences on the development of gardens and gardening in different societies. There are of course obvious differences between the hot lands and climate in the Egyptian desert and Nile Valley where Pharonic cultures developed, compared to the relatively lush countryside around Vesuvius in Italy cultivated by the Romans. So the plants available for cultivation of necessity differ from period to period. Some societies sought new species and once established this enlarged the flora of their country.
For each chapter I have provided a list of garden worthy plants that were known during that particular period (except for the Byzantine, which would be too similar to that of the Romans). Information on the flora of each region and period was gleaned from plants named in ancient literature discussing gardens, and by consulting herbal books. Some cultures also produced agricultural manuals that contained chapters on horticulture and these were a mine of information on plants used in the relevant periods. In each table of garden plants there is a list of the common names, and their botanical name. For the Roman period I have also provided a list of the ancient name for each one as it is interesting to see the evolution of our modern Latin botanical nomenclature. Extra columns show the nature of the source material for each plant, whether a particular one was discovered in contemporary literature, art, or by archaeological means. Where there was a wide plant distribution geographically between East and West, or in time (e.g. Classical Greece and Hellenistic Greece) then I have provided columns to distinguish these. Sadly little archaeology has been possible in closed societies and war zones, therefore there is little archaeological evidence available on paleo-botany for the eastern sites and therefore the relevant column for archaeology has been omitted for the Islamic plant list.
FIGURE 2. Sacro-Idyllic scene. Etching by W. Gell (Pompeiana vol. 2, 1835, opp. 159).
As previously mentioned the gardens studied here are those from the beginning of civilisation right up to the fall of Byzantium in AD 1453, which saw the end of Roman/Byzantine influence in the east. Byzantium was seen to have influenced early Islamic gardens hence their inclusion, and therefore as a balance it was thought necessary to review evidence for corresponding gardens of the medieval period in the west. For both of these periods, however, it was necessary to extend the time scale to the end of the fifteenth century so that evidence for the Islamic gardens of the Timurid dynasty in Persia could be considered. Likewise the Middle Ages could be regarded as having ended by about AD 1500.
One of my challenges was to find out if the Minoans and Etruscan peoples had gardens. For both of these cultures our knowledge is limited to archaeological discoveries, so it was interesting to see what hints could be found. Ancient artefacts can provide surprising results, and fragments of texts that can be deciphered do furnish some clues.
Between different periods and cultures we can notice a variety of spellings for some words. For instance the ancient Greek K is generally turned into a C by the Romans in Latin. Therefore the Greek town of Kyrene in North Africa is the Greek version and Cyrene is the more familiar name for this town. To avoid transliteration in the chapters I have chosen to use the spellings that would be correct for each period, but using our alphabet.
There are also different names for the deities that are common throughout the Graeco-Roman world, and to retain the ambience of each period I have chosen to keep the Greek names with their relevant spellings (such as Herakles) when discussing the Greek period, and when I am mentioning him in the Roman chapter he will be spelt Hercules, which is the more familiar Latin version of his name. It is noticeable that some of the gods and goddesses transmogrify over time and are given different names in different cultures, so we hear of the Greek Aphrodite changing into Turan as known to the Etruscans, or the Roman Venus.
Translations from other languages were sought, but it is perhaps surprising how much some of the spellings vary between different translations, and this is particularly noticeable when researching texts translated from Arabic or Persian. A variety of accents are used, and in some cases none. I have therefore sought to use the current word system if possible.
Having previously published a book on Ancient Roman Gardens my research also led to an interest in gardens of other ancient civilisations. I carried out further studies to look for evidence of gardening practices in earlier and later cultures to see if there was an element of continuity. I then gave a series of lectures titled ‘How did their Gardens Grow? Gardens of the Ancient World’ and this book is the fruits of all my labours.