History: Roman Gardens

In a way not seen before, the Romans developed a range of gardens to suit every purpose – those attached to houses, farms, villas, tombs, temples, and public spaces. They owed much to the sophisticated cultures of the Mediterranean world and would be exported, together with many new plant species, over much of Western Europe in the wake of her expanding empire. The character of these gardens is more apparent to us now than ever before because of the wealth of new evidence provided by archaeology and archaeobotany, together with the descriptions, writings, and depictions of the Romans themselves. In this course, we examine this evidence and use it to chart the development of Roman gardens and trace their presence in Britain. Plants and plant introductions, tools and technologies, and the religious and symbolic aspects of gardens, will all be considered within the context of wider social change. Throughout, key works will be cited as well as gardens to visit in order to give students a good basis for their own research on this form