Gleason, Kathryn L.

Associate Professor
Kathryn Gleason is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture. Trained as a landscape architect and archaeologist, she is a specialist on the archaeology of past landscapes, particularly designed features such as parks, gardens, and fields. Her primary area of research is the Mediterranean of the ancient Roman World. A professor of contemporary landscape architecture, she brings her research to bear on the 21st century landscape by examining how to design with the physical remains of the past. She also applies ancient methods of arid climate cultivation to modern problems of development. Her field reaseach has been conducted recently in India, Jordan, Israel and Italy, with applications in New Mexico, India, and Jordan.

research

research and scholarship focus

The Romans of the first centuries BC and AD were innovators of public parks, monumental gardens, and the the plant trade and hydrological engineering needed to construct these projects. Through excavation projects at Petra (Jordan) Caesarea Maritima (Israel) and Horace`s Villa and Rome (Italy) my research is uncovering the built nature of these landscapes and their role in the various cultures of the Empire.

research areas

international geographic focus

affiliations

faculty appointment in

member of graduate field

other Cornell affiliations

teaching

teaching focus

Every site a landscape architect approaches has an archaeology to be explored. Exploration of the extant and relict natural and cultural systems of a landscape can lead to design solutions for contemporary development that create "a sense of place" that sustains the wider culture of a community.

service

outreach focus

The knowledge I gain from excavating relatively low impact technologies in the ancient landscape is often useful in contemporary development projects, either in developing areas or where the relationship of culture and cultivation have a close bond to be reinforced. From recreating a water harvesting system in the palaces of Nagaur, India to rebuilding waffle gardens and connecting the children of Zuni, New Mexico to their religious traditions, to turning the palace of Herod the Great at Caesarea into a National Park site, my work seeks to sustain contemporary culture through a knowledge of past landscapes.

background

educational background

  • B.S., (Landscape Architecture), Cornell University, 1979
  • M.A., (Landscape Architecture), Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, 1983
  • D.Phil., (Anthropology & Geography/ Archaeology), Oxford University-Lincoln College, 1991

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

  • Books
    • Miller, Naomi F., and Kathryn L. Gleason, eds. The Archaeology of Garden and Field Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.
  • Selected Publications - Peer Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters     
    • “Excavating Relict Gardens,” “Planning” and “Field Methods” in The Handbook on Garden Archaeology, Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks (forthcoming).
    • “The Garden” in New Excavations at the Villa of Horace, Bernard Frischer, ed. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute, University of California Press (In Press).
    • Frischer, Bernard, Kathryn Gleason, Stefano Camaiani, Laura Cerri, Irene Lekstutis, and Luca Passalaqua, “A Preliminary Report on New Studies and Excavations at Horace’s Villa: The Campaigns of 1997 and 1998.” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 45 (2000) 247-276.
    • “The Promontory Palace at Caesarea Maritima: Preliminary Evidence for Herod’s Praetorium” Journal of Roman Archaeology 11 (1998) 23-52.
    • “Gardens in Pre-Classical Times” and “Gardens of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, Eric Meyers, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
    • "Ruler and Spectacle: the Palace in Entertainment Complexes of the Late Hellenistic World."In Caesarea Maritima: Retrospective after Two Millennia, Avner Raban and Kenneth Holum, eds. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996.
    • “Porticus pompeiana: A New Perspective on the First Public Park of Ancient Rome." Journal of Garden History 14.1 (January-March 1994): 13-27.
    • With Naomi F. Miller. "The Archaeobotanical Remains." In Eric Hostetter, et al., "A late-Roman domus with apsidal hall on the NE slope of the Palatine: 1989-91." Journal of RomanArchaeology 11 (1994): 172-175
    • With Barbara Burrell and Ehud Netzer. "Uncovering Herod's Seaside Palace." Biblical Archaeology Review 19.3 (May-June 1993): 50-57.
    • “A Garden Excavation in the Oasis Palace of Herod the Great at Jericho." Landscape Journal 12.2 (Spring 1993): 156-167.
    • "The Garden Portico of Pompey the Great: An Ancient Public Park Preserved in the Layers of Rome." Expedition 32.2 (1990) 3-13.
Keywords: classical archaeology, cultural landscape, cultural sustainability, design history, environmental archaeology, garden archaeology, landscape archaeology, landscape architecture, landscape design, landscape history, landscape studies, sustainable design, water harvesting