Ithaca College

Tuesday April 6, 2010 at 7:30 pm in CNS 208, the monthly meeting of the Finger Lakes Chapter of the New York State Archaeological Association. All people with an interest in archaeology are welcome!

This month’s featured speaker for the Finger Lakes NYSAA meeting will be Kathryn Gleason, who will give a presentation entitled:
 
"Consult the genius of the place in all": Excavating Ancient Roman Gardens
(The quote is from Alexander Pope Epistle IV, to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, 1731)
 

To celebrate the arrival of spring, Kathryn Gleason will speak on the archaeological investigation of gardens of the Roman world, focusing on recent work at the Pool and Garden Complex at Petra, Jordan and at the Villa Arianna, ancient Stabiae (buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79CE).  Both sites are monumental, among the largest architecturally enclosed terrace gardens yet found.  A range of exploratory techniques have been employed at both sites, including Ground Penetrating Radar, LiDAR, soil analyses, paleobotany and phytolith analysis.  Art historical methods for the interpretation of the garden design are also in development.  The results are bringing to light unexpected forms of gardens that shed new light on the ways Nabataeans and Romans delighted in these vast garden stages, using this form of protected urban space to express and play out political, cultural, and economic agendas.

 

Kathryn Gleason is Associate Professor at Cornell University, where she teaches landscape architecture and archaeology.  A pioneer in the development of garden archaeology, her research focus is on the monumental gardens and parks of the late Hellenistic and early Imperial Roman eras in the Mediterranean.  She is currently Executive Editor of Gardens of the Roman Empire, a project of the late Wilhelmina Jashemski; and is conducting field work at Stabiae, Petra, and the gardens of Herod the Great's tomb complex at Herodium.

Tuesday April 6, 2010 at 7:30 pm in CNS 208.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Scott Stull or Michael Rogers at sstull @ Ithaca.edu or mrogers @ Ithaca.edu. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.