Study of a historical garden soil at the Grand-Pressigny site (Indre-et-Loire, France): evidence of landscape management

Garden archaeology is a new discipline in France, which mainly focuses on technical aspects of garden creation. Excavations reveal complex stratigraphic sequences and show that soils are strongly influenced by human activities linked to cultivation, including for aesthetic purposes. The objective of the research was firstly to better understand and explain the complex archaeological deposits of a historical garden, using various techniques such as soil micromorphology, image analysis and soil chemistry. The second objective was to show the composition of remains from one garden. Samples were taken from Le Grand-Pressigny site in Touraine, a French garden dating from the XVIth-XIXth centuries. The analyses of different anthropogenic levels in thin sections, the measurements of carbonate, phosphorus, carbon organic contents and soil porosity (image analysis) provided accurate information about the presence of an earlier garden made up of imported soil. The results also identified spatial changes over time. This study suggests an interesting approach to understanding soil care by early human communities and can contribute to garden restoration projects considering the technical construction of these sites and historical techniques.