Garden Archaeology

Fertilizer in the identification and analysis of cultivated soil

by Naomi Miller

Miller, Naomi F. and Kathryn L. Gleason
1994.In The Archaeology of Garden and Field,eds. N.F. Miller and K.L. Gleason, pp. 25-43. The University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

"Den dolda lustgården. Baron Posses park på Rosenlund" = The Hidden Pleasance. The Formal Garden of Baron Posse at the 18th century mansion of Rosenlund.

by Claes Pettersson

Published by Jönköpings läns museum in the series "Archaeological Reports as # 2011:32. Co-autors : Anna Andreasson (ArcheoGarden) and Lars Winroth (Modern Arkeologi).

The manor of Rosenlund was built between 1786 and 1788 just outside the town of Jönköping. With it's architecture... more The manor of Rosenlund was built between 1786 and 1788 just outside the town of Jönköping. With it's architecture influenced by classical ideals the manorhouse is today a good reflection of ideas and visions of the constructor, baron Gustaf Mauritz Posse. He was a highly educated jurist and served as the vice-president of the Göta Hovrätt law court. But he also belonged to a group of agricultural reformers in late 18th century Sweden - making his manor into something of a model farm, admired by vistors and other noblemen in the vicinity.

That a manor with the qualities of Rosenlund should have been surrounded but a suitable park and orchard is something one could almost take for granted. But since the archives of the manor has disapeared no plans, maps or descriptions survive.

In the late fall of 2010 a GPR survey was made in the overgrown area west of the manorhouse. It revealed the remains of an almost complete formal garden with it's layout dating back to about 1790. It's paths, stone-lined flowerbeds, an oval pond and a large number of pits for trees and shrubs are easy to distinguish. There are foundations for what may have been an orangery. Together with the manorhouse the formal garden makes an architectural unity, showing it all was part of the same plan - a garden worthy of the baron's ambitions!

The whole layout of the garden was radically altered in the mid-ninteenth century and again about a hundred years later. Today nothing is visible above ground. The fact that so much of the original structures survive in an unaltered state makes Rosenlund to a very promising site for garden archeology. It can be excavated and reconstructed with a high level of exactness. But today it's also possible to recover a floral material from the soil for archeobotanical analysis. The furure looks bright for the forgotten pleasance of baron Posse!

Сады в Древнем Египте / Gardens in Ancient Egypt (in Russian)

by Irina Kulikova

Co-authored with Dmitry Karelin

Сад: символы, метафоры, аллегории. Сб. статей / Отв. Ред. Е.Д. Федотова. М.: Памятники исторической мысли, 2010. С. 16-34. (Fedotova E.D. (ed.) Garden: Symbols, Metaphors, Allegories. Moscow: Records of Historical Thought, 2010. P. 16-34.)

Сады в Древнем Египте / Gardens in Ancient Egypt (in Russian)

by Dmitry Karelin

Co-authored with Kulikova Irina.

Сад: символы, метафоры, аллегории. Сб. статей / Отв. Ред. Е.Д. Федотова. М.: Памятники исторической мысли, 2010. С. 16-34. (Fedotova E.D. (ed.) Garden: Symbols, Metaphors, Allegories. Moscow: Records of Historical Thought, 2010. P. 16-34.)