Dear all,
We had a very exciting day ! We started the workshop at 9 am in the morning, with 4 speakers before the coffee break. This was regarding Theme 3: The use of Traditional Textile Craft and Craftmanship in the interpretation of ancient societies. First speaker was Eva Andersson Strand on "Textile Experimental Archaeology, a link to the past?". Eva was followed by Linda Olofsson on "Spinning in the past and the present". The two presentations were more or less linked together. Then Joanne Cutler talked about "Interlacing Threads of Evidence in the Interpretation of Textile Production in Bonze Age Crete", ending with Cécile Michel and "Estimating an Old Assyrian Household Textile Production with the Help of Experimenetal Archaeology: Feasibility and Limitations" before the first break.
After the break we continued with 5 speakers. One is not mentioned in the program. Mary Harlow started with "History and Textiles: Making the Everyday Visible". She was followed by Mary Boyd and "Textile Tools at Tall al 'Umayri" and Jeanette Boertien with "Aspects of Textile Production in Iron Age Transjordan". Last but not least we ended with Sophie Desrosiers and "The Reconstruction of a Remarkable Textile Tradition Beginning at least during the 1st Millenium BC: a case study from the Andes", and Vanessa Workman. All the presentations were followed by questions and discussion.
After lunch it was time for a long anticipated visit to Tiraz: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress. The Tiraz centre had been working really hard, just to get it ready for our visit, and we were the first ones to see it. And the centre was beautiful. On display were several dresses from the Arabic world, which Widad herself had been collecting for many years. All the dresses has a little story to tell. The centre will be open to the public in 2015. Widad had also very kindly arranged some refreshments for us on the terrace.
After an incredible day we went backc to the hotel and had dinner. The evening, as in the other nights, were spent in the lobby, since it is the only place at the Toledo Hotel were we have internet.
Stay tuned.....
Camilla
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