Even in damp climates and in a well-dug garden, archaeology can yield significant results (Currie, 2005, Fig. 2, p. 3). Drawings, paintings, and plants provide further information. Our knowledge of ancient Egyptian gardens comes from tomb reliefs, models, ostraca (often bits of broken pottery although some ostraca such as the figured ostraca discovered in the Great Pit at Deir el-Medina at Thebes can also be bits of limestone which was also readily available from the surrounding hillside), texts, and the archaeology itself. Although tomb scenes come from the tombs of the nobility, every house would have at least a little herb plot, often close by in the cultivation, and often a single tree in a pot in the courtyard of the house (Fig. 1).
A modern courtyard garden on the west bank at Thebes (Photograph © the author)
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Torpey, A. (2016). Gardens in Ancient Egypt. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7747-7_10193
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