PCMA Seminar: Textile archaeology in ancient Nubia

The upcoming PCMA Seminar will showcase the advances in research on ancient Nubian textiles undertaken recently, among others, at the PCMA UW. The event entitled “Textile archaeology in ancient Nubia. Methods and perspectives” will feature three separate presentations.

Thanks to its arid climate, Nubia is the scene of many discoveries of well-preserved textile assemblages, recovered from contexts dated to the beginnings of the Kushite kingdoms and growing in numbers all the way to the Meroitic and medieval times. However, often deemed very specialized and difficult to study, this exceptional material is seldom used in the general archaeological discourse. In recent years, scholars from the PCMA UW have actively tackled this issue, with the notable development of two textile-based projects: the documentation of textiles found during the excavation of Dongola (by Magdalena M. Woźniak, part of the UMMA project, ERC STG 759926) and the Unravelling Nubian Funerary Practices project (Elsa Yvanez, NAWA ULAM Grant PPN/ULM/2020/1/00246).

The goal of this meeting is to present the results of the ongoing projects and to introduce different research questions, methodological approaches, and future research perspectives for textile archaeology in Nubia.

Program:
  • 10:00 am CET: “Blue ‘piping’ on Meroitic clothing at Qasr Ibrim: some working notes” by John-Peter Wild (University of Manchester)
  • 10:30 am CET: “Beyond technical textile analysis: opportunities and limitations of chemical analyses” by Magdalena M. Woźniak (PCMA UW)
  • 11:00 am CET: “The Unravelling Nubian Funerary Practices project. Results and methodological developments for a better integration of textile  research in mortuary contexts” by Elsa Yvanez (PCMA UW)
  • 11:30 am CET: Discussion

The seminar will take place on Thursday, 31st of March, from 10.00 to 12.00 am CET on Zoom.
To obtain a link, please write to Dr. Elsa Yvanez: elsa.yvanez@gmail.com

Recordings of PCMA Seminar “Textile archaeology in ancient Nubia” available on YouTube