American Landscape Unit 1 Vocabulary Flashcards

Flashcards covering vocabulary terms, historical urban forms, and colonial settlement patterns from Unit 1 of The American Landscape.

American Landscape

The makeup of America's topography, government, city limits, uses of different types of land, waters, cultural aspects, etc.

Cultural Landscape

The patterns of settlement or use of the landscape, as well as the continuum and evolution of attitudes, norms, and values toward the land. Expressions of regional identity.

Designed Landscape

Consciously designed and laid out either by a trained professional to a design principle, or by an amateur according to a recognized style or tradition, having historical association with a significant person, trend, movement, or theory.

Vernacular Landscape

A landscape whose use, construction, or physical layout reflects endemic traditions, customs, beliefs, or values, expressing the everyday lives and social behavior of people over time.

Mound

Elevated ground used for political buildings, marking territory, ceremonial centers, or burial grounds in Indigenous cultures.

Geoglyph

A large image inscribed on the earth.

Henge

A prehistoric circular or oval earthen monument defined by an inner ditch and an outer bank, believed to function as a solar calendar for equinox/solstice sunrises and agricultural cycles.

Cosmological Landscape

Natural and constructed landscapes attributed with astrological events and spiritual significance.

Ethnographic Landscape

A landscape containing a variety of natural and cultural resources that associated people define as heritage resources, such as contemporary settlements or sacred religious sites.

Classical Period

Roughly 800 BCE to 500 CE, encompassing ancient Greek and Roman cultures that are foundational to later European and colonized American cultures.

Agora

The central urban open space in ancient Greek cities used for commercial, civic, social, and religious activities.

Stoa

An ancient Greek portico, essentially a long row of columns covered by a roof, serving commercial, civic, social, and religious functions.

Acropolis

Refers to 'City on the Edge' or 'Highest City'.

Forum

The Roman variation of the Greek agora.

Basilica

Originally a long Roman public building often adjacent to a forum, similar to a Greek stoa, used for legal, commercial, and religious functions.

Castrum

A Roman military fort or fortified camp.

Villa (estate)

A country estate and rural retreat of the wealthy featuring a substantial house, ranging from working farms to pleasure retreats.

Bastides

Planned agricultural towns built in 13th-century France modeled after planned Roman forts and towns.

Promenade

A wide, paved public path or place designed for a leisurely walk for pleasure, representing both a physical form and a social activity.

Texas Missions

Spanish settlements featuring a fortified plaza several acres in size surrounded by a low wall, against which houses of converted natives were built.

California Missions

Unfortified, small Spanish settlement buildings connected by arcaded walkways around a central open space, resembling a medieval cloister.

Laws of the Indies

Spanish settlement regulations requiring healthy locations, uniform architectural aesthetics, ample public commons for recreation and grazing, and placement of waste-producing activities far from residences.

New Amsterdam

Dutch colonial settlement (1664) that served as the capital of New Netherland, which later became New York City.

Jamestown, Virginia

Established in 1607, it was the first permanent British settlement established by the Virginia Company of London.

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Established in 1620, it served as the second permanent British settlement.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Colonial city laid out by William Penn in 1683 using a grid pattern with open squares in different city quadrants for wholesomeness.

Savannah, Georgia

Colonial city established by James Oglethorpe in 1732 using modular units called wards, each featuring 40 1/8-acre house sites and a central three-acre area for public buildings and a square.

Williamsburg, Virginia

Established by Gov. Francis Nicholson in 1699 to serve as the new capital of Virginia, relocating the seat of government away from Jamestown.