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Persian Metalwork along the Silk Road

Entangled Objects of Eurasia: Persian Metalwork along the Silk Road

Wednesday 16 October 2024

  • Matthew Canepa | University of California, Irvine

Scriptive Things and Commensal Warfare: Luxury Vessels across post-Achaemenid Asia

  • Yukio Lippit | Harvard University

Echoes of Persian Silverware in the Shosoin Treasury

  • Yuka Kadoi  | University of Vienna          

Silver in the Mongol Empire: Alternative Nomadic Aesthetics

  • Johannes Preiser-Kapeller | ÖAW – IMAFO

Chair and moderator

Zoom registration required (anton.matejicka@univie.ac.at)

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the network of Eurasian trade routes, widely called the Silk Road. Connecting East Asia and North Africa via land and sea routes and spanning some 6,000 kilometres, it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political and religious interactions between the East and West. Although the significance of this century-old connector of commercial and cultural exchanges has been addressed since its scholarly acceptance in the early twentieth century, much needs to be said about the mobility dynamics of materiality and textuality, while overviewing recent discoveries and methodological trends.

Coinciding with the 700th anniversary of the death of Marco Polo, this research forum invites three distinguished art historians with particular expertise in non-European arts who will examine the modes and modalities of portable objects, other than silk textiles, from fresh perspectives. With the focus on metalwork, especially silver, three papers will collectively investigate different phases of material connectivities from the Asia Pacific to Mediterranean regions, from the time of Alexander the Great to the Mongol invasion of Eurasia. Taken together, this and subsequent academic fora are designed to foster a greater understanding of what used to be called ‘Persian art’—cultural artefacts that became predominantly associated with medieval and early-modern Iran and West Central Asia. cus on metalwork, especially silver, three papers will collectively investigate different phases of material connectivities from the Asia Pacific to Mediterranean regions, from the time of Alexander the Great to the Mongol invasion of Eurasia.