Homegardens are spaces where food, medicine, construction materials, and plants of aesthetic value are grown, both for household consumption, but also for sale in markets to supplement household income. Importantly, they are also spaces of cultural significance; gardens are spaces where many household activities are enacted, where household income is supplemented, where cultural memory is maintained. Archaeological explorations of garden spaces, particularly in the Neotropics, have successfully utilized soil chemical, archaeobotanical, and spatial analysis in identifying the location of cultivated spaces in relation to household structures. Having refined our ability to identify homegarden spaces, we can focus on anthropologically oriented questions regarding gender, status, political economy, and identity. In this special issue we are looking beyond gardens as simply utilitarian and functional spaces, and seeing them as places that have social, cultural, personal, and psychological importance. This introductory article will present some of the past and current research on homegardens and provide avenues for future archaeological research.

家庭花园是种植食品、药品、建筑材料和具有审美价值的植物的空间，既供家庭消费，也供在市场上出售以补充家庭收入。重要的是，它们也是具有文化意义的空间；花园是开展许多家庭活动、补充家庭收入和维护文化记忆的场所。花园空间的考古探索，特别是在新热带地区，已经成功地利用土壤化学、考古植物学和空间分析来确定耕地空间相对于家庭结构的位置。提高了我们识别家庭花园空间的能力后，我们可以专注于有关性别、地位、政治经济和身份的人类学导向问题。在本期特刊中，我们将目光投向花园之外的单纯实用性和功能性空间，并将它们视为具有社会、文化、个人和心理重要性的场所。这篇介绍性文章将介绍一些过去和当前关于家庭花园的研究，并为未来的考古研究提供途径。