Silk in Ancient Greece and its Resonance
An International Symposium, 19-22 September 2019
Published: 2019-08-26
Welcome to the international symposium
Silk in Ancient Greece and its Resonance
organized by the Swedish Institute at Athens, Lund University, ARTEX textile research centre and Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation.
The symposium will take place at the Italian School of Archaeology, 14 Parthenonos Street, September 19-22, 2019.
The study of ancient textiles is a dynamic discipline. Although they are rarely preserved, our source material continues to increase. Furthermore, new awareness of textiles used beyond clothes (e.g. carpets and sails) has lead archaeologists to search for traces elsewhere than graves. Modern technology can evince fabrics that are no longer extant through imprints for example on pottery, which further expands the available sources. Innovative approaches also deepen our knowledge: textile research inspires multi- and interdisciplinary collaboration between the humanities and natural sciences and thereby brings important insights; experimental archeology follows the chaîne opératoire and reveals the toil and time-consumption of textile production.
In this context, the Swedish Institute at Athens, Lund University, ARTEX textile research centre and Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation will organize an international conference focusing on an enchanting material: silk, loaded with negative as well as positive connotations of wealth, eroticism and exoticism. Researchers will gather in Athens 19-21/09/2019 to discuss new research within a broad framework ranging from the Aegean Bronze Age to Classical Athens, Rome, Byzantium and thence to Viking Age Scandinavia.
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Programme
Sept 19
19.00-19.15 Jenny Wallensten, Peder Flemestad, Stella Spantidaki: Introduction
19.15-20.00 Key-note Lecture: Berit Hildebrandt, Leibniz University, Hannover: The Provenance, Production and Manufacture of Silk in Ancient Greece: A Reassessment
Reception
Sept 20
9.00-09.30 Registration and coffee
Session 1: A Literary Thread
09.30-10.00 Peder Flemestad, Lund University: Silk in the Second Sophistic
10.00-10.30 Ines Bogensperger, Austrian National Library: The Evidence of Silk in Papyrus Texts from Egypt
10.30-11.00 Mary Harlow, Leicester University: Spinning Tales of Silk: The use and Misuse of Silk in Late Antique Authors
11.00-11.30 Coffee
Session 2: A Historical Thread I
11.30-12.00 Julia Galliker, University of Michigan: Silk in the Byzantine World: Transmission and Technology
12.00-12.30 Maria Sardi, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London: The Culture of Silk in the Mamluks (13th-16th c. A.D.)
12.30-13.00 Hedvig Landenius Enegren, Uppsala University: Silk in Cyprus Yesterday and Today: A Retrospective Exposé
Lunch for speakers
Session 3: A Historical Thread II
15.00-15.30 Amica Sundström, The Swedish History Museum: Silk Imitation from the Migration Period (400-550 AD) in Sweden
15.30-16.00 Petra Linscheid, Bonn University: Early Silk North of the Alps: Silk Finds in Roman and Early Medieval Germany
16.00-16.30 Marianne Vedeler, Museum of Cultural History, Oslo: Attitudes to Silk in the Viking Age
20.00 Dinner for speakers
Sept 21
Session 4: A Material Thread
10.00-10.30 Eva Panagiotakopoulou, Edinburgh University: Wild Silk from the Aegean: An Archaeoentomological perspective
10.30-11.00 Christophe Moulherat, Musée du Quai Branly, Serge Berthier, Institut des NanoSciences de Paris-Sorbonne, Bernd Schollhorn, Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 Laboratoire dʼElectrochimie Moléculaire, Camille Aracheloff, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6: From Cocoon to Textile - Structure and Colour
11.00-11.30 Christina Margariti, Center for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen & Directorate of Conservation of Ancient and Modern Monuments, Hellenic Ministry of Culture: The Effects of Artificial Degradation on Silk Fibres
11.30-12.00 Coffee
Session 5: Tying Up the Threads
12.00-12.30 Amica Sundström, The Swedish History Museum & Stella Spantidaki, Artex & University of the Aegean: The Reconstruction of a Roman Silk Textile
12.30-13.00 Kalliope Sarri, Center for Textile Research, Copenhagen University: Experiment and Experience: Hands-on Approaches to the Equipment and Technology of Ancient Textiles
13.00-13.30 Maria Venizelea, Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation: Silk Stories
13.30 Concluding remarks
Sept 22
All day Day trip to Soufli for speakers
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