Ancient Roots

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A 6-part online lecture series exploring Ancient Roman Roots with Gillian Hovell on Tues@10. £42 or £8 each (GT members discount applies)

Ancient Roots: how the Romans set the seeds for flowers, fables and features in our modern gardensJoin Gillian Hovell and discover how the ancient Romans set the seeds of the shape and uses of our modern gardens. Explore the truly ancient, vibrant and fascinating origins of our personal garden spaces and of the grandeur of public gardens. Find out why, if the Romans could have had ‘House and Garden’ magazines, they would have revelled in them! See gardens anew through ancient kitchen gardens, mythological stories, attitudes to wildlife and public parks that all still flourish in our green spaces. Then stroll through the gardens of Roman Pompeii, now blossoming with new insights. Image: detail, a border of trees, palms and herbaceous plants from a wall painting in a Roman garden in the 1st century A.D. Wellcome Collection.....Please scroll down below the links to see the full details of each talk.This ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8 via the links below. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk].Ticket sales close 4 hours before the first talk.Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.Apple users may no longer be able to purchase this ticket from the Eventbrite iOS app. Please use a web browser on desktop or mobile to purchase or follow the link <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/checkout-external?eid=770407578807" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/checkout-external?eid=770407578807">here.</a>.....

Week 1. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-how-the-romans-set-the-seeds-of-garden-design-tickets-770434198427" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-how-the-romans-set-the-seeds-of-garden-design-tickets-770434198427">13 February: How the Romans set the Seeds of Garden Design</a>. First in a series of 6 online lectures, £8 each or all 6 for £42 (GT members £6 each or all for £31.50)Week 2. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-of-cabbages-and-kings-roman-kitchen-gardens-tickets-770443095037" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-of-cabbages-and-kings-roman-kitchen-gardens-tickets-770443095037">20 February: Of Cabbages and Kings - Roman Kitchen Gardens</a>. Second in a series of 6 online lectures, £8 each or all 6 for £42 (GT members £6 each or all for £31.50)Week 3. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-classical-stories-growing-in-your-garden-tickets-770447076947" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-classical-stories-growing-in-your-garden-tickets-770447076947">27 February: Classical Stories growing in your Garden.</a> Third in a series of 4 online lectures, £8 each or all 6 for £42 (GT members £6 each or all for £31.50)Week 4. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-wildlife-gardens-the-roman-way-tickets-770449975617" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-wildlife-gardens-the-roman-way-tickets-770449975617">5 March: Wildlife Gardens, the Roman Way.</a> Fourth in a series of 4 online lectures, £8 each or all 6 for £42 (GT members £6 each or all for £31.50)Week 5. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-how-the-romans-invented-our-public-parks-tickets-770457417877" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-how-the-romans-invented-our-public-parks-tickets-770457417877">12 March: How the Romans invented Our Public Parks. </a>Fifth in a series of 6 online lectures, £8 each or all 6 for £42 (GT members £6 each or all for £31.50)Week 6. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-exploring-the-gardens-of-roman-pompeii-tickets-770459594387" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancient-roots-exploring-the-gardens-of-roman-pompeii-tickets-770459594387">19 March: Exploring the Gardens of Roman Pompeii. </a>Last in a series of 6 online lectures, £8 each or all 6 for £42 (GT members £6 each or all for £31.50)…..

Week 1: 13 February: How the Romans set the Seeds of Garden DesignThis first session will follow the blossoming of the amazing 2,000-year-old story of why we have gardens at all. This is a fascinating tale of how they grew in the Roman world to become so much more than a productive space by a house. As the Empire expanded and the ordinary people aspired to have show-off homes, the gardens rapidly became a work of art in themselves. Now, for the first time in history, they became the personal creative spaces we know and love today. You’ll be astonished at how much the Romans have shaped our modern gardens today: from practical suppliers of food to homely open spaces and grand vistas and landscapes. They all have fascinating ancient roots that reveal how gardens came to be our own social, spiritual and physical spaces. Greenery, space, status, pleasure and fun, places of togetherness and of meditative solitude … all these aspects have truly ancient roots. Image: detail, wall painting on black ground: from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of the 1st century BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art…..

Week 2: 20 February: Of Cabbages and Kings - Roman Kitchen GardensThe surprisingly not-so-humble cabbage and gardens fit for royal kings were very real themes in the kitchen gardens of Ancient Romans. It’s a spicy, fruitful and fragrant story of a society in which your kitchen garden said far more about you than you might imagine … ingredients (rich and poor) were once tied up with morality and virtue. As the Roman influence grew, taking gardens into new lands, Roman philosophers, poets and garden experts wrote of these private supplies as big business, a personal medicine cabinet and a feast for all. Discover what they grew in their kitchen gardens 2,000 years ago and why, as well as their varied uses. We peer into the ancient growing of vegetables and fruit across the Roman Empire and we see the produce of our gardens from a very Roman viewpoint. Has it changed much in 2,000 years, or is there a timelessness here, despite some very culturally-specific beliefs? Image: detail, bowl of fruit, from a wall painting in the cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, c. 50–40 BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art…..

Week 3: 27 February: Classical Stories growing in your GardenWe travel back, over 2,000 years to see the plants in our own gardens in the way the ancients did – as a wealth of stories. It seems that almost every plant in the Roman gardens had a story, myth or divine connection that added depth and atmosphere to their use in a garden. Join Gillian as she digs deep into our gardens and plants so that we discover and enjoy colourful and fantastical tales of myths, legends and gods and heroes that determined what plant you put where. It also created a hunger for outdoor works of art that were talking points and prompts to fill your gardens’ social spaces with remarkable stories.This is a session full of story-telling, rich with magical transformations, tragic tales and romance that will delight and entertain. Join Gillian and add a wealth of stories, colour and new connections to the plants in your garden today; you will see your trees and flowers in a whole new light! Image: detail, border of trees, palms and herbaceous plants from a wall painting in a Roman garden in the 1st century AD. Wellcome Collection…..

Week 4: 5 March: Wildlife Gardens, the Roman WayThe gardens of ancient Rome were full of life for the Romans often encouraged birds, wildlife &amp; pets into their garden spaces. Their inclusion of wildlife in their gardens was to shape our own modern welcome to birds and animals. But their attitudes to those creatures were definitely a product of their time. How and why have our views altered? And what really hasn’t changed much at all?We explore which animals were part of garden life, and what the Romans wrote about their roles: enjoyment, produce, status, and even engineering and art too flourished alongside the other side of the coin – the need for pest control. How did they get rid of the ever-ubiquitous and timelessly unwanted vermin and pests? Were their methods merely organic, or something more complex …? See how gardeners, even 2,000 years ago, tried inventive methods to care for their nurtured plants. Image: detail, garland and cupids with birds, silver skyphos (2-handled cup), 50–25 BC. Getty Museum Collection…..

Week 5: 12 March: How the Romans invented Our Public ParksJust as our towns are adorned with green open spaces and public gardens open to all, so were the urban spaces of the Greeks and, later, to a greater degree, the Romans. Discover how the Romans invented the actual idea of public parks as we know them today.We follow the intriguing tale of how and why public spaces were first created. It’s not as altruistic or philanthropic as you might hope, but the results changed our town lives for ever.So what were the motives and the uses of this new concept? We explore the many and varied reasons that public gardens came into being and their diverse uses. Sacred, commercial, political, social, artistic, well-being, romantic and ritual moments, as well as a celebrity factor, are all here. Join Gillian for this special session that really does change the way you imagine Roman town life; it will also help you to see afresh how we use our own modern public garden spaces. Image: Merida Theatre Gardens, ©G Hovell.....

Week 6: 19 March: Exploring the Gardens of Roman PompeiiPompeii is famous for being the Roman town that was buried in AD 79 by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. This tragic event miraculously preserved unique evidence of the not just the town, but its people and their daily lives and the plants and gardens. Join Gillian as she reveals the amazing archaeological skills that have unearthed 2,000-year-old horticultural secrets from the gardens of this Roman town. We shall glimpse back in time, as we see not just personal gardens tucked into homes but also productive fertile orchards of delicious fruits and nuts (fed by the fertility that came from long forgotten volcanic eruptions). Squeezed into the town’s buildings and streets are commercial perfume growers, sacred religious symbols amidst the greenery, and gardens in memorial of the dead. All these carefully designed social space can now bring vividly to life the aspirations and pleasures of the folk of Pompeii. Pompeii is not just a ruined town of stone; its buried clues reveal a vibrant town alive with enterprising bustle of people and lush with plants flourishing for everyone’s enjoyment and use. Image: Pompeii gardens, ©G Hovell…..

After graduating with 2-1 (Hons) in Latin and Ancient History from Exeter University, Gillian Hovell worked in BBC Television and became an award-winning freelance writer, author, public speaker &amp; broadcaster in the media and online. As an independent expert in the ancient world she specialises in archaeology, prehistory and in the Greek and Roman eras. She is a lecturer at York University and can be seen and heard on TV &amp; Radio.Gillian has excavated at major sites in the UK and Europe (hence ‘The Muddy Archaeologist’) and she shares her expertise and her passion with diverse audiences in the UK and internationally. For history and archaeology are everywhere, and they add colour, depth and meaning to every aspect our lives today.Her series of <a href="https://muddyarchaeologist.thinkific.com/" title="https://muddyarchaeologist.thinkific.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The Muddy Archaeologist Online Courses</a> enables you to explore ancient history, archaeology and Latin with her at any time. An ever-growing collection is available, and they can also be found on Gillian’s website <a href="http://www.muddyarchaeologist.co.uk/" title="http://www.muddyarchaeologist.co.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here.</a>.....

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Ancient Roots

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