The site of Ramat Rahel located high on a hilltop above modern-day Jerusalem has long fascinated archaeologists. This is the site of the only known palace dating back to the Kingdom of Judah (8-7 centuries BCE), but excavations have also revealed a luxurious garden created by the Persians.
Since excavators discovered the garden area in the 1950s and 60s with its advanced irrigation system, they could only imagine what the original might have looked like in full bloom — until now.
Using a specialised technique for separating fossilized pollen trapped in the layers of plaster found in the garden’s waterways, researchers from Tel Aviv University’s Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology have now been able to identify exactly what grew in the ancient royal gardens of Ramat Rahel. By examining the archaeological evidence and the likely settings of specific plants they have also been able to reconstruct the lay-out of the garden.
According to Prof. Oded Lipschits, Dr. Yuval Gadot, and Dr. Dafna Langgut, the garden contained the usual local vegetation such as common fig and grapevine, but also included a selection of exotic plants such as citron and Persian walnut trees. The citron, which apparently originated from India was then transported on through Persia and seemingly made its first appearance in Ramat Rahel’s royal garden.
Persian Walnut. By Böhringer Friedrich, (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Plaster “pollen trap”
One of the remarkable features of Ramat Rahel’s garden is the advanced irrigation system. The presence and size of the garden is even more impressive, says Dr. Gadot, because there was no permanent water source at the site. Rain water was collected from roof tops and stored in reservoirs before being distributed throughout the garden with aesthetic water installations that included pools, underground channels and gutters.
It was these plastered water channels that finally allowed researchers to recover what they had been searching for. Early attempts to remove pollen grains from the site’s soil in order to reconstruct the botanical components of the garden were unsuccessful because the pollen had oxidized. But when it was noticed that the channels and pools themselves were coated with thin layers of plaster during frequent repairs and renovation, the researchers theorized that if the plaster had ever been renewed while the garden was in bloom, pollen could have stuck to the wet plaster, acting as a “trap,” and dried within it.
Aerial view of site and digital reconstruction of Ramat Rahel site. © Image credit:American Friends of Tel Aviv University
A Picture of the past
Using new techniques to achieve the goal of extracting these microscopic grains of pollen the researchers were successful, the pollen was there to be found, and more surprises were in store. While most plaster layers included only typical native vegetation, one of the layers, dated to the Persian period (the 5th-4th centuries B.C.E.), also included fruit trees, ornamental plants, and imported trees from far-off lands.“This is a very unique pollen assemblage,” explains Dr. Langgut, a pollen expert. Among the unusual vegetation are willow and poplar which required irrigation in order to grow in the garden, ornamentals such as myrtle and water lilies, native fruit trees including the grape vine, the common fig, and the olive and imported citron, Persian walnut, cedar of Lebanon and birch trees. Researchers theorize that these exotics were imported by the ruling Persian authorities from remote parts of the empire to flaunt the power of their imperial administration.
This is the first time that the such a detailed picture of botanical elements have been reconstructed in an ancient royal garden, say the researchers. The botanical and archaeological information they have collected will help them to re-create the garden so that visitors can soon experience the floral opulence of Ramat Rahel during the life of the grand palace.
Human beings distributed different plants and animals throughout the world, mostly for economic purposes, says Dr. Gadot. In contrast, at Ramat Rahel, royalty designed this garden with the intent of impressing visitors with wealth and worldliness as well as creating a comfortable retreat from the world beyond the walls.
Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University (www.aftau.org)
More information:
Ramat Rahel Archaeological Project
Tel Aviv University’s Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology