Earthly paradises
Subtitle: ancient gardens in history and archaeology
By: Maureen Carroll.
Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Language: eng
Number of pages: 144
Subjects: Gardens -- History; Historic gardens; Excavations (Archaeology)
Description: "In this 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."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-141) and index.
Originally published: London : British Museum Press, 2003.
Table of contents: title: Ancient gardens and the evidence; title: Utilitarian and ornamental house gardens; title: Orchards, groves and parks; title: Sacred gardens; title: Gardens of the dead; title: Gardeners and gardening; title: Plants of the ancient world; title: Gardens in ancient poetry; title: Gardens and paradises.