Theme:
The archaeology of material culture, bodies and landscapes
Session format:
Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each
Title:
Textiles in Ancient Iconography
Content:
Textiles have largely disappeared from the archaeological record, which makes a study of them something of a challenge. A study of ancient textiles must therefore be based, to a large extent, on secondary sources. Iconography is a particularly crucial source of information about ancient textiles and dress, especially in societies where we only have limited written sources.
However, making sense of images can be difficult, although we still tend to take the process of interpreting images very much for granted. A constant problem for anyone interpreting ancient iconography is therefore determining how we interpret what we see. The most important problem with the use of iconography as a source on ancient societies is the extent to which iconography corresponds to reality. Furthermore, reading images is not just a question of decoding a single meaning, since the interpretations of images changes from context to context depending on the various viewers and their expectations.
We warmly welcome papers addressing depictions of dress, textile tools, textile production, as well as textiles for other purposes than dress, such as furnishing textiles etc.
Further questions include (but are not limited to):
How do the depictions relate to the medium in which, or the artefact on which they are represented?
How do the depictions of dress relate to our knowledge of ancient garments and/or written sources?
How were depictions of textile tools used to reflect social practices and traditional values?
How do we assess the possible religious aspect of the depictions of textiles and textile production?
Keywords:
Textiles, ancient iconography
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Main organiser:
Dr Marta Zuchowska (Poland) 1
Co-organisers:
Dr Cecilie Brøns (United States) 2
Dr Susanna Harris (United Kingdom) 3
Affiliations:
1. Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw
2. Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies
3. School of Humanities, University of Glasgow
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT