Epsilon Open Archive

Tomarp’s garden has, and has had, many water features such as fish ponds. Those ponds were made and placed in the garden both for the value of fresh fish in the household but also as part of the garden’s aesthetics. As a continued collaboration between SLU, Åstorp council, The National Property Board and Tomarp’s Kungsgård, this project was carried out in 2011, with the purpose of being one of many projects to come, dealing with Tomarp’s garden. The two main objectives are multidisciplinarity and methodological development. The disciplines and methods involved are mainly landscape architecture and archaeology, garden history, archive studies, field studies, map overlays, ground penetrating radar technology and archaeological analysis of data. The project was financed by Movium Partnerskap, Åstorp council, The National Property Board (SFV), Tomarps kungsgårds vänner and Kvidinge sockens hembygdsförening and it was carried out in three main parts, in almost chronological order:

1) An archive, map and literature study about the water features in Tomarp garden as a whole, between May and September/November 2011 by Boel Persson at SLU Alnarp.
2) A survey with ground penetrating radar in the pasture (the former 'Great Gar-den'/Stora trädgården), two days in July 2011, by Jane Jansen and Anders Biwall from the archaeological assignment operation at The Swedish National Heritage Board (RAÄ).
3) A garden archaeological analysis, based on the first two studies, between july and September/November by Anna Andréasson at ArchaeoGarden.

The archive, map and literature study showed that the highest number of ponds, in the garden and out in the landscape of Tomarp, were 26 in the end of the 1600s. Many of them were fishponds. The exact placement of all the ponds cannot be found in the maps or in the archive material, but some of them can be traced, for example the ponds south of the main building and out in the landscape. Many of those ponds still exist today. The construction of the ponds was not found in the archives either, but there are illustrations that show how they might have been constructed.

This first part of the study also showed that the area which was surveyed with ground penetrating radar, the 'Great Garden'/Stora Trädgården, has had 18 square or rectangular sections at the most. It also had and an outer shape that stayed almost the same between the 1660s and the 1880s. The sections were planted with gooseberry, currant and fruit trees such as pear, apple, cherry and plum. It is uncertain which sections were ponds or if the sections included both berry bushes, fruit trees and ponds at the same time. The garden was fenced in, with stone or wood in different periods. At one point canals were made in the eastern and western side of the 'Great Garden'. The ponds in the 'Great Garden' varied in number over the years and the last pond was covered during the late 1800s.

In June 2011 the vegetation was surveyed and the species were determined in the area where the examination with ground penetrating radar should be performed. The vegetation survey showed that the area was more or less damp and that certain characteristic plants could be pointed out for different areas in the 'Great Garden'. After the vegetation survey, the whole area was hayed and the hay was removed to prepare for the ground penetrating radar survey.

The ground penetrating radar measured structures in the ground up to 2,5 metres below surface. This radar technique has been improved a lot during the last 10 years and the measuring distances have been shortened which leads to a greater certainty and a greater probability of finding even the smallest structures in a garden. An aerial photo could not have shown the same details, since the aerial photo can not show structures that deep, even at a dry season.

Several structures were found at different depths in the ’Great Garden’. Those structures were interpreted as ponds, garden paths, walls and drainage canals. Through the radar survey the earth laid out in the garden during different periods can be measured if that kind of data is needed in the future. All the results from the ground penetrating radar make a complement to, and confirm, the vegetation survey. In the areas with more water-loving plants the ground penetrating radar showed pond structures. The drainage structures also seem to lead away from the areas where the water-loving plants thrive.

The ponds found with ground penetrating radar are placed at almost the same distances as in the illustration of the garden made by Burman during the 1680s. The canals, described in the archive material were not found by the radar device, but they might lie just outside the researched area. A pond that has been filled out in the past is more likely to be visible in the radar results than one that has been left and just caved in and grown over with vegetation. Therefore the number of ponds in reality could have been higher than the number of ponds shown in the radar results. An archaeological excavation would give a clearer image of the placements and the construction of the ponds.

Even the placement of the fruit trees in the garden would probably become clearer with excavations. The exact placement was not obvious in the archive material and planting holes for trees have not been found, in the ground penetrating radar results, despite that the whole area was planted with fruit trees. Other plantings could also become clearer if other archaeological methods were used in combination with excavation and visual examination, such as pollen and seed analysis.

In the further interpretation of the garden’s history, shape and contents, the archive studies, the vegetation survey or the ground penetrating radar results could not stand for themselves. This project shows that those methods and results combined make the interpretation easier and wider. In the continuous research on Tomarp’s garden, the ground penetrating radar results and the archive studies are equally important when it comes to defining how to continue working with Tomarp’s garden, for example by excavating parts of the 'Great Garden' were we know there used to be ponds, taking samples of earth lay-ers and analyse plant remains such as seeds.