Tuesday, April 18, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Gardens of the Gods: The Old World, Online
The Gardens Trust presents a four part online lecture series with Toby Musgrave beginning April 18. Tickets £16 for the series or £5 each through Eventbrite. For thousands of years peoples and civilizations the world over have adopted belief systems that give a key role to the natural world and the trees, fruits and flowers to be found there. Whether living a primitive existence in a desert land or enjoying the fruits of a richly cultivated soil, man endows his spirit world, his gods and his presumed afterlife with fertile, sweet surroundings that reflect an ideal – a garden paradise. Taking a global perspective and with a chronology of over 5,000 years, Gardens of the Gods examines, explores and interprets the purpose, role, use and symbolism of plants and gardens in more than fifteen belief systems, some still practiced and others not.
Week one is entitled The Old World, beginning with a exploration and contrast of sacro-religious plants and gardens within three overlapping ancient civilizations/regions. Those of Ancient Egypt with its afterlife concept of Aaru (or the Field of Reeds), the Minoan civilization on Crete – did they make gardens?, and the Mesopotamian ‘Gardens of the Gods’. We will conclude with a look at the divine nature of the Ancient Greeks and religion in the Roman garden.
Dr Toby Musgrave FSA FLS is a garden and plants historian, horticulturist and author. His books have covered a wide range of subjects from head gardeners to heritage fruit and vegetables, plant hunters to paradise gardens, and a biography of Sir Joseph Banks. He was a major contributor to Radio 4’s series “The British Garden” and he has been a consultant for many gardening and garden history related programmes on both the BBC and commercial television. He lives in Denmark and when not gardening, teaching or writing he works as a submersible pilot. To reserve this ticket link HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact The Gardens Trust). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week .
