Theme:
1. The Material Record: Current Trends and Future Directions
Title:
Pots in Transition: Resilience, Change, and Revival in Central Asia and Its Neighbourhood from the Perspective of Ceramics Research
Content:
Central Asian ceramics, of both pre-Islamic and Islamic date, are a very vast field of study, where many different areas of scholarly expertise, methodological approaches, and academic traditions converge. Indeed, the pottery itself is highly diverse, but at the same time many links and correspondences are traceable through time and space across assemblages of different periods and regions. Therefore, comparative analysis and data sharing between ceramic corpora of different sites are fundamental to a better understanding of such complex and multifaceted dynamics. The lack of common standards and methodology in ceramic processing and data collection, however, often inhibits any comparative approach.
As scholars working in this field, we feel the need to set the state of the art and shape a new agenda in Central Asian ceramic and material culture studies.
Many issues are still to be thoroughly investigated; among them, we have chosen particularly stimulating topics that are deemed to raise lively debates:
- the complex issue of the transition between the pre-Islamic and the Islamic periods as visible in ceramics: cut or continuity;
- the revival of past fashions, techniques, styles, colours, etc. in ceramics;
- communal uniqueness (unique technology, unique use of specific raw materials, unique style, etc) of ceramic productions, how to interpret them? local response/originality or contacts with distant cultures that are not otherwise evident;
- towards a common agenda and a minimum standard for recording and classification of Central Asian pottery: proposals and case studies.
Speakers are welcome to present data from their archaeological or art history projects, but at the same time are very much encouraged to pay attention to the methodological aspect of their research work, aiming for a final discussion on new standards, shared analytical approach, online platforms, and meeting places for interchanging news, projects, ideas.
Keywords:
Central Asia, Ceramics, Pre-Islamic – Islamic periods, Methodology
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Agnese Fusaro (Italy) 1
Co-organisers:
Gabriele Puschnigg (Austria) 2
Jacopo Bruno (Italy) 3
Affiliations:
1. University for Foreigners of Siena - International University
2. Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences (Austria)
3. Sapienza University of Rome (Italy)
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