{"title":"Prestigious early Roman gardens across the Empire: the significance of gardens and horticultural trends evidenced by pollen","authors":"D. Langgut","doi":"10.1080/01916122.2022.2089928","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The present study has two main goals. The first is to reconstruct the botanical components that grew in the impressive garden of Villa Arianna (Stabiae). The garden, which was extensively destroyed and covered by tephra ash in 79 CE, is considered the largest peristyle garden in the Vesuvian region. Its plants were revealed based on a unique palynological-archaeological method involving the extraction of pollen from plaster attached to structures that faced the garden. The second aim is to compare this prestigious garden with other early elite Roman gardens, located in the eastern part of the Empire, to trace the importation of plants, horticultural trends, etc. For this purpose, gardens of Herod the Great, the client king of Judaea, which the author recently studied palynologically (in Caesarea, Herodium and Jericho), were compared with the new pollen results of Villa Arianna. The comparison between the gardens’ botanical components and their different landscapes led to the following conclusions: (1) Plants were imported from both ends of the Empire as elite products (rather than cash crops). Hazelnut (Corylus) and cedar (Cedrus) were introduced from west to east, while the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) was introduced along an east-west axis. (2) The gardening trend of tree dwarfism was observed both at Villa Arianna and Jericho. (3) The gardens flourished in challenging habitats. At Villa Arianna and Caesarea, efforts were devoted to sustaining splendid gardens in the relatively harsh, saline Mediterranean Sea environment; at Herodium and Jericho, special efforts were required for the success of Mediterranean plants in semi-arid climate. (4) Herod’s mausoleum garden in Herodium, whose dark evergreen trees on the whitish slopes of the artificial tumulus could be seen from the Temple in Jerusalem, may have been inspired by the architectural arrangement of the Pantheon and the Mausoleum of Augustus, the patron of Herod.","PeriodicalId":1,"journal":{"name":"Accounts of Chemical Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":16.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Accounts of Chemical Research","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01916122.2022.2089928","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 4
Abstract
Abstract The present study has two main goals. The first is to reconstruct the botanical components that grew in the impressive garden of Villa Arianna (Stabiae). The garden, which was extensively destroyed and covered by tephra ash in 79 CE, is considered the largest peristyle garden in the Vesuvian region. Its plants were revealed based on a unique palynological-archaeological method involving the extraction of pollen from plaster attached to structures that faced the garden. The second aim is to compare this prestigious garden with other early elite Roman gardens, located in the eastern part of the Empire, to trace the importation of plants, horticultural trends, etc. For this purpose, gardens of Herod the Great, the client king of Judaea, which the author recently studied palynologically (in Caesarea, Herodium and Jericho), were compared with the new pollen results of Villa Arianna. The comparison between the gardens’ botanical components and their different landscapes led to the following conclusions: (1) Plants were imported from both ends of the Empire as elite products (rather than cash crops). Hazelnut (Corylus) and cedar (Cedrus) were introduced from west to east, while the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) was introduced along an east-west axis. (2) The gardening trend of tree dwarfism was observed both at Villa Arianna and Jericho. (3) The gardens flourished in challenging habitats. At Villa Arianna and Caesarea, efforts were devoted to sustaining splendid gardens in the relatively harsh, saline Mediterranean Sea environment; at Herodium and Jericho, special efforts were required for the success of Mediterranean plants in semi-arid climate. (4) Herod’s mausoleum garden in Herodium, whose dark evergreen trees on the whitish slopes of the artificial tumulus could be seen from the Temple in Jerusalem, may have been inspired by the architectural arrangement of the Pantheon and the Mausoleum of Augustus, the patron of Herod.
期刊介绍:
Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance.
Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.