Program of the interdisciplinary workshop “Funerary Textiles. Towards a better method for in situ study, retrieval and conservation” has now been announced. The event will take place on-line on 15th and 16th April 2021 and registration of participants is now open.
Textiles have always played a prominent role in death. They were and continue to be used to hide the body and to re-create it into a “deceased”. This prominent role is well-illustrated in ethnology but often ignored in archaeology. Rarely recorded together in situ, textiles are removed from the human remains, stored in different locations, and studied by different specialists. We are thus destroying precious evidence and limiting our understanding of funerary events. How was the body prepared before the funeral? How was it seen and perceived by its relatives and community? What role did textiles play in its metamorphosis into a deceased?
This workshop aims at exploring these questions by bringing together a small but highly specialized team of experts from the fields of bioanthropology, archaeology, textile research and conservation. Going beyond geohistorical frameworks, the workshop will strive to build new methods for the study, retrieval and conservation of funerary textiles in situ during excavations.
“We believe that it will provide useful tools for future research in both textile archaeology and bioarcheology and promote interdisciplinary collaborations for textile scholars” – say the organizers, Dr. Elsa Yvanez and Dr. Magdalena W. Woźniak from the PCMA UW. They prepared the workshop as part of a collaboration between the PCMA UW (project Unravelling Nubian Funerary Practices, E. Yvanez, PPN/ULM/2020/1/00246) and EuroWeb, CA19131.
See the workshop program and paper abstracts (PDF).
Free registration via Eventbrite (link to registration). The workshop will take place on Zoom for registered participants.
The lectures will also be streamed live on YouTube on the EuroWeb channel (available from this link).