Though widely attested in literary and epigraphical sources from as early as the 9th century CE, gardens have remained a largely understudied topic in early Javanese cultural and social history. To date, there is no comprehensive overview of gardens in pre-Islamic Java, with only one short introductory essay (Satari 2008) and two brief studies currently available. No doubt this is in part because, except for several ponds and bathing pools, archeological finds of gardens built in Java before 1500 CE have been disappointing. This contrasts with Javanese gardens built in the 17th and 18th centuries under Indo-Persian, Chinese, and Japanese influences, some of which have been spectacularly preserved (although even these garden sites remain relatively unknown outside of Indonesia) (Lombard 2010). This project will assemble and analyze textual, iconographical, and material evidence—specifically literary and epigraphical evidence in Old Javanese language—to reconstruct the basic features and types of pre-Islamic Javanese gardens, as well as how they figured in the lives of men and women in Java before 1500 CE. An article produced from this inquiry will provide a solid foundation for future research of garden sites constructed before 1500 CE and help inform any future archaeological excavations of premodern Javanese gardens.