Dawn of Early Human Habitation on the Land

A history of designed landscapes begins with human adaptive habitation and activities on the land. Early human modifications of their environment to better accommodate agriculture and basic living activities were minimal with no appreciable legacies such as structures or land modifications. Early societies were composed of nomadic hunter–gatherers, engaged in the day-to-day survival of living off the land. As the populations of the early human societies outgrew a nomadic approach to survival, agriculture with its requirement to manage and alter the landscape created a new relation of people to the landscape. Agriculture led to permanent place-making and practical adaptations of the land, creating patterns of use to maximize agricultural productivity and accommodate commercial activities. The human–landscape relationship was one of humans working with the landscape (early application of environmental determinism) based on their knowledge and understanding of seasonal events and harnessing the productive capacity of the land to support agriculture and to meet other needs such as providing safe shelter. The Bandelier National Monument in the state of New Mexico was home to the ancestral Pueblo People from the twelfth to the early seventeenth centuries, situated in a deep river valley with agricultural activities located within the flood plain, where the presence of rich soil and water would support crops (Figure 4.1). The summer habitation of the residents was located safely in the higher ground above the flood plain. At the onset of winter, the inhabitants relocated in dwellings carved out of the side of south-facing slopes (an advantageous location for receiving heat gain). Human use and habitation of the landscape exhibited regional expression where a society’s activities and methods varied according to the potential or limitations of

Figure 4.1 Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico, an early Pueblo People settlement.

soils, water, seasonal climatic events, and endemic flora and fauna in each region. The capacity of a society to survive and flourish in a region depended in large part on human knowledge, will, and ingenuity. It also depended on the collective body of knowledge a group acquired through trial and error, experience, and observation.

The role of plants is fundamental to human history. Plants were a central component of human survival as a source of food and means of providing shelter. Plants were used and also cultivated for medicine, clothing, and many other practical purposes. Societies approached selection of locations for settlement based on their understanding of the plants available, natural systems, and the seasonal variations of climate. The relationship between seasonal rains, position of the sun, topography, and plant cover was considered in the matrix of habitation selection and conducting daily life. Patterns of settlement were based on acquired knowledge of natural systems and temporal variations. It was not until advanced societies evolved that plants were selected and used to embellish their built environments. Embellishment was not only the creation of cultural artifacts such as gardens. Landscapes that were not intended to be solely utilitarian but rather embellishments of space evolved into designed landscapes that reflected the relationship of societies to nature and the very structure of a society itself. The designed landscape considered notions about political power, society hierarchy, defense, and eventually contributed to quality of life and economic value. Designed landscapes followed two basic manifestations: (1) landscape forms and building patterns that were based on geometry; and (2) patterns and forms that were found in nature. Eventually the combination of geometry and nature became an additional framework for landscape design. The built environments in the early advanced societies, such as in Latin America (Teotihuacan, for example, in the Valley of Mexico), the Mediterranean and North Africa, such as Luxor in Egypt and the temples of Greece, and the Middle East, such as Babylon (see Figure 4.2), were created to advance symbolic meaning (political power) or function as a celestial device, such as marking of the seasons for planting and harvest based on celestial positions.

Figure 4.2 A: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon; B: The Acropolis, Greece.