Session: #717

Content:

The Mediterranean has long been a place of exchange and interaction, where traditions have been upheld while remaining open to new influences. The goal of this session is to re-investigate the interaction and exchange of ideas, technologies, objects, and people across the Mediterranean through textiles.
Over the past 30 years, significant strides have been made in the textile research. Thanks to its recent dynamism, the potential of textile culture has been highlighted to understand past and present societies. In past economies textiles and textile production, in fact, played a pivotal role. They were a valuable trading good, as well as the raw materials, tools, technologies, craftspeople, which circulated and spread across vast areas. This session invites scholars to explore the dynamics of the circulation, exchange, adoption and resilience of textile cultures. This encompasses technological, productive, and socio-economic aspects associated with ancient and traditional textiles in the Mediterranean.
Due to the elusiveness of archaeological textiles in the area, the studies have been mostly focused on the circulation of ideas and materials connected to other productions (e.g., metals, pottery, glass). When they got preserved, the focus was on technology and product exchange, but dealing with single aspects of material culture within specific chronologies and regions. In this session, we aim to gather, diachronically, different perspectives of Mediterranean communities to weave the fabric of the entire region.
Our main objective is to investigate the theme of textile exchanges in the broadest sense possible. In doing so, we will attempt to compare and synthesise different realities in the Mediterranean to create a comprehensive narrative. Participants are encouraged to submit proposals that delve into the agents and mechanisms of textile exchange identified above.

Session: #717

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