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IMC 2023: Sessions

Session 1033: The Entangled Making, Uses, and Visualisations of Textiles in the Early Medieval Period, 450-1100, I

Wednesday 5 July 2023, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:AHRC Project 'Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard' / National Museum of Scotland / University of Glasgow
Organisers:Tracey Davison, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York
Alexandra Makin, School of Humanities (Archaeology), University of Glasgow
Moderator/Chair:Alexandra Makin, School of Humanities (Archaeology), University of Glasgow
Paper 1033-a'The Draped Universe of Islam': Attitudes to Clothing and Textiles in Medieval Islamic Societies, c. 1000
(Language: English)
Charlotte Wood, Faculty of History, University of Oxford
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Social History
Paper 1033-bThe Will of Wynflaed
(Language: English)
Tracey Davison, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Social History, Women's Studies
Paper 1033-cEntangled 'Englishness': Textiles in the 11th Century
(Language: English)
Millie Horton-Insch, Department of History of Art University College London
Index terms: Art History - Decorative Arts, Women's Studies
Abstract

This session explores the entangled roles of textiles within early medieval society. Surviving textiles, documentary sources, and art works show that what textiles were made from, where they were produced, their biographies, society's secular and religious beliefs, and who made and used them incorporated meanings and sent messages. By studying these ethereal objects, we gain insights into cultural understandings and displays of wealth, social position, and connections and entanglements of power across secular and religious worlds. All this evidence demonstrates that textiles and early medieval societies were deeply entwined, often bringing much of the then known, unknown and spiritual together.