Identification of plant elements represented in the suburban Villa della Piscina di Centocelle (Rome, Italy) as a source of reconstruction of the ancient gardens

Alma Kumbaric, Flavia Bartoli, Zohreh Hosseini, Giulia Caneva

Abstract

Plants in art are not only decorative elements, they have symbolic values that cannot be neglected, because are bearer of a message, which need to be understood. Moreover, they usually show the connection with the surrounding natural landscape. Indeed, the phytoiconographic elements are important tools to reconstruct the lost garden. Our works aims identifying the plant representation to provide useful information for the reconstruction of the the ancient villa’s garden. We studied decorated wall remains and ceiling structures identifying the plant species and attributing their symbolic value and garden role. Preliminary data show the presence of more than twenty plants, mainly Mediterranean. The symbolic groups present a slight prevalence of solar and salvific elements. For the garden we identified species to decorate and border the flowerbeds, but also with productive role. The analysis of these represented naturalistic elements gives support in understanding the historical landscape behind their representation.

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IMEKO-MetroArchaeo-2023-174.pdf

DOI

10.21014/tc4-ARC-2023.174

IMEKO TC

TC4 - Measurement of Electrical Quantities

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