Papers by Eiren Shea
The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art, 2021
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Arts, 2023
For many women living in parts of present-day north China and Mongolia during the 10th to 14th ce... more For many women living in parts of present-day north China and Mongolia during the 10th to 14th centuries, equestrian activities were a part of daily life. Women of all social levels were expected to know how to ride from an early age. However, documentary evidence for women’s participation in equestrian activities during this period is sparse. This paper brings together materials that highlight the important role horse riding played in the lives of northern women during the 10th to 14th centuries from the funerary context. This study connects funerary objects with women’s participation in polo, hunting, warfare, and the Mongol postal system, among other activities. The synthesis of material evidence from tombs with period texts will illuminate the important role of equestrian activities in women’s lives and afterlives during this period
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Acta via Serica, 2021
Before the tenth century, the dress of elite women in and around China often reflected "Han" Chin... more Before the tenth century, the dress of elite women in and around China often reflected "Han" Chinese fashions and preferences. In funerary paintings and relief sculptures of Sogdian and Xianbei couples from the sixth century, for example, women wear "Han" Chinese-style clothing. Even in the Tang dynasty (ca. 618-907), when exchange with Central Asia via overland Silk Road trade impacted the styles and patterning of elite dress and men incorporated clear Central Asian attributes into their dress, elite women in the Tang sphere wore recognizably Tang fashions. Chinese-style dress in these centuries clearly conveyed cultural import and, likely, political power, especially after the founding of the Tang dynasty. However, the straightforward borrowing of Tang women's dress shifted in the Khitan Liao dynasty (ca. 907-1125). The Liao, in contrast to other states that shared a border with China in previous centuries, saw themselves as political equals to the Song dynasty (ca. 960-1278) court in the south. The Liao court was interested in Song customs and culture and incorporated artistic motifs and practices from the Song court. However, the Liao courtly idiom was never fully subsumed into the greater world of the Song-rather, the Liao used facets of Song courtly culture for their own ends. One way this is manifested is through the dual administrative system, a bureaucratic organization that, among other things, regulated and distinguished between who was permitted to wear Khitan and non-Khitan dress. In this paper, I will examine the material evidence from funerary contexts for how the dress of elite Liao women both engaged with the dress of the Song, while also maintaining a certain amount of cultural autonomy. Through their dress, elite Liao women signaled clear messages about their status, identity, and difference to their Song counterparts.
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Journal of Song Yuan Studies, 2021
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Textile Museum Journal, 2018
Dress allows us an entry into the visual culture of various societies, and this is particularly
t... more Dress allows us an entry into the visual culture of various societies, and this is particularly
true of the Mongol Empire. Textiles in the Mongol Empire expressed social standing, political affiliation, and were also valuable currency that was used in gift exchange, tribute missions, and trade. This article takes a detailed approach to women’s court dress both because it has heretofore been ignored in scholarly literature, and the production and use of such clothing provides insights that can be applied to luxury textiles produced in the Mongol Empire more broadly. This study comparatively approaches women’s court dress in two parts of the Mongol Empire, the Yuan dynasty in China and Mongolia, and the Ilkhanate dynasty in Persia and the Middle East. It is the first to attempt to define Mongol women’s court dress that takes into account pictorial, archaeological, and textual sources. Due to limitations in surviving source material in both the Yuan and the Ilkhanate, the goal here is not to provide a definitive classification of types of dress, but to begin formulating an idea of what Mongol women were wearing in a courtly setting, and how the material they wore was produced.
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Textile Museum Journal , 2018
This volume focuses on the mobile nature of textile patterns in the East and West during the Midd... more This volume focuses on the mobile nature of textile patterns in the East and West during the Middle Ages and investigates the question of cultural specificity in the use of textile imitations in a range of media. As coveted objects of trade and diplomatic gift exchange, tex- tiles were widely distributed using the cross-cultural networks between Byzantium, the Islamic world, and East Asia. Within this broader world of medieval textile exchange, the notion of textile patterns that are adapted in architecture, ceramics, metalwork, and manuscripts stands at the center of this volume. Questions to be discussed are the portability of textile patterns, the adaptation of textile motifs in a variety of media, and the appropriation of textile forms and patterns from other cultural contexts. Twenty years ago, Lisa Golombek argued for a ‘draped universe of Islam’, ascribing to Muslim culture a sensibility particularly attuned to textiles and their patterns. Golombek rightly emphasized the rich textile production of the Islamic world and the use of architectural decoration that refers to woven models. While this argument is certainly convincing, considering the fluidity with which textile patterns appear in other materials and contexts and how textiles evoke monumental decoration, the phenomenon itself is not exclusively Islamic. Rather, it is part of a broader medieval sensibility that is finely attuned to the subtleties of textiles and intrigued by the possibility to move their patterns and texture back and forth between fabrics, walls, and other objects. The topics of articles in this volume of The Textile Museum Journal range from representations of jewelry in late antique textiles, silks with bird motifs produced in both Iran and the Byzantine Empire in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, to women’s clothing in the fourteenth-century Mongol courts of Iran and China.
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Arts Asiatiques, 2018
Penultimate proofs
The twelfth to fourteenth centuries marked a period of cross-continental
excha... more Penultimate proofs
The twelfth to fourteenth centuries marked a period of cross-continental
exchange on an unprecedented scale between East, Central,
and West Asia. Textiles woven with script or script-like elements
shed some light on this cross-continental movement, as inscribed
textiles were produced across Asia. These woven inscriptions, likely
derived from the West Asian tradition of ṭirāz and connected to
practices of honorific robing, appear in both pseudo and readable
scripts. Their appearance in East Asia hints at the semiotic significance
ṭirāz-style inscriptions had, even outside the Islamic world.
The trend of employing foreign scripts as a decorative motif on
robes appears to have reached its apex during the Mongol period
(ca. 1206–1368). However, evidence for such decoration has been
unearthed from the centuries prior to the Mongol conquests as well.
Tracing the routes that inscribed textiles took across the continent
reveals the kinds of cultural, political, and technological exchange
occurring throughout Asia during these 300 years.
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Ming Studies, 2018
Following the fall of the Mongol Empire (c. 1206–1368) in both East andWest Asia,
Zhu Yuanzhang (... more Following the fall of the Mongol Empire (c. 1206–1368) in both East andWest Asia,
Zhu Yuanzhang (Hongwu Emperor, r. 1368–1398), the founder of the Ming
Dynasty (1368–1644) in China, Timur (r. 1370–1405), founder of the Timurid
Empire (1370–1507) in Central Asia, and their successors used the legacy of the
Chinggisid Mongols in different ways to lend an aura of power and legitimacy to
their newly established courts. In this paper, I explore the cultural legacy of the
Mongol Empire as manifested in the early Ming and Timurid courts, with a
special interest in how continuing cultural exchange between the two courts
impacted the arts produced in both places. In particular, I highlight how the
ongoing incorporation of “foreign” motifs and techniques set the tone for the arts
of both courts in the late fourteenth century.
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Book Reviews by Eiren Shea
Nan Nü, 2020
Empire of Style: Silk and Fashion in Tang China paints a lively picture of the sumptuous and cosm... more Empire of Style: Silk and Fashion in Tang China paints a lively picture of the sumptuous and cosmopolitan world of seventh, eight, and ninth-century China. Based on research conducted for her dissertation (Columbia University, 2013), Chen uses interdisciplinary methodology alongside received texts, excavated textiles, funerary art, and poetry to elucidate the importance of silk during the Tang dynasty. In Empire of Style, Chen argues that the dress of elite women in seventh, eighth, and ninth-century China constituted a type of pre-modern fashion, distinct from the concept of "fashion" as it is generally formulated in the West. Using a variety of distinct approaches, Chen seems to compress the temporal and geographic distance between her reader and her subjects by engaging with visual material, historical texts, poetry, and the views of specific Tang individuals.
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Book Review of Shane McCausland, The Mongol Century: Visual Cultures of Yuan China 1271-1368 (2015)
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Books by Eiren Shea
Medieval Textiles across Eurasia c. 300-1400, 2023
This study considers the textiles made, traded, and exchanged across Eurasia from late antiquity ... more This study considers the textiles made, traded, and exchanged across Eurasia from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages with special attention to the socio-political and cultural aspects of this universal medium. It presents a wide range of textiles used in both domestic and religious settings, as dress and furnishings, and for elite and ordinary owners. The introduction presents historiographical background to the study of textiles and explains the conditions of their survival in archaeological contexts and museums. A section on the materials and techniques used to produce textiles if followed by those outlining textile production, industry, and trade across Eurasia. Further sections examine the uses for dress and furnishing textiles and the appearance of imported fabrics in European contexts, addressing textiles' functions and uses in medieval societies. Lastly, a concluding section on textile aesthetics connects fabrics to their broader visual and material context.
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My book came out in February 2020! Get 20% off with the code on this flyer.
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Conferences by Eiren Shea
Conference program for The Golden Horde: Art, Material Culture, and Architecture happening Decemb... more Conference program for The Golden Horde: Art, Material Culture, and Architecture happening December 7-8 in Berlin.
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Papers by Eiren Shea
true of the Mongol Empire. Textiles in the Mongol Empire expressed social standing, political affiliation, and were also valuable currency that was used in gift exchange, tribute missions, and trade. This article takes a detailed approach to women’s court dress both because it has heretofore been ignored in scholarly literature, and the production and use of such clothing provides insights that can be applied to luxury textiles produced in the Mongol Empire more broadly. This study comparatively approaches women’s court dress in two parts of the Mongol Empire, the Yuan dynasty in China and Mongolia, and the Ilkhanate dynasty in Persia and the Middle East. It is the first to attempt to define Mongol women’s court dress that takes into account pictorial, archaeological, and textual sources. Due to limitations in surviving source material in both the Yuan and the Ilkhanate, the goal here is not to provide a definitive classification of types of dress, but to begin formulating an idea of what Mongol women were wearing in a courtly setting, and how the material they wore was produced.
The twelfth to fourteenth centuries marked a period of cross-continental
exchange on an unprecedented scale between East, Central,
and West Asia. Textiles woven with script or script-like elements
shed some light on this cross-continental movement, as inscribed
textiles were produced across Asia. These woven inscriptions, likely
derived from the West Asian tradition of ṭirāz and connected to
practices of honorific robing, appear in both pseudo and readable
scripts. Their appearance in East Asia hints at the semiotic significance
ṭirāz-style inscriptions had, even outside the Islamic world.
The trend of employing foreign scripts as a decorative motif on
robes appears to have reached its apex during the Mongol period
(ca. 1206–1368). However, evidence for such decoration has been
unearthed from the centuries prior to the Mongol conquests as well.
Tracing the routes that inscribed textiles took across the continent
reveals the kinds of cultural, political, and technological exchange
occurring throughout Asia during these 300 years.
Zhu Yuanzhang (Hongwu Emperor, r. 1368–1398), the founder of the Ming
Dynasty (1368–1644) in China, Timur (r. 1370–1405), founder of the Timurid
Empire (1370–1507) in Central Asia, and their successors used the legacy of the
Chinggisid Mongols in different ways to lend an aura of power and legitimacy to
their newly established courts. In this paper, I explore the cultural legacy of the
Mongol Empire as manifested in the early Ming and Timurid courts, with a
special interest in how continuing cultural exchange between the two courts
impacted the arts produced in both places. In particular, I highlight how the
ongoing incorporation of “foreign” motifs and techniques set the tone for the arts
of both courts in the late fourteenth century.
Book Reviews by Eiren Shea
Books by Eiren Shea
Conferences by Eiren Shea
true of the Mongol Empire. Textiles in the Mongol Empire expressed social standing, political affiliation, and were also valuable currency that was used in gift exchange, tribute missions, and trade. This article takes a detailed approach to women’s court dress both because it has heretofore been ignored in scholarly literature, and the production and use of such clothing provides insights that can be applied to luxury textiles produced in the Mongol Empire more broadly. This study comparatively approaches women’s court dress in two parts of the Mongol Empire, the Yuan dynasty in China and Mongolia, and the Ilkhanate dynasty in Persia and the Middle East. It is the first to attempt to define Mongol women’s court dress that takes into account pictorial, archaeological, and textual sources. Due to limitations in surviving source material in both the Yuan and the Ilkhanate, the goal here is not to provide a definitive classification of types of dress, but to begin formulating an idea of what Mongol women were wearing in a courtly setting, and how the material they wore was produced.
The twelfth to fourteenth centuries marked a period of cross-continental
exchange on an unprecedented scale between East, Central,
and West Asia. Textiles woven with script or script-like elements
shed some light on this cross-continental movement, as inscribed
textiles were produced across Asia. These woven inscriptions, likely
derived from the West Asian tradition of ṭirāz and connected to
practices of honorific robing, appear in both pseudo and readable
scripts. Their appearance in East Asia hints at the semiotic significance
ṭirāz-style inscriptions had, even outside the Islamic world.
The trend of employing foreign scripts as a decorative motif on
robes appears to have reached its apex during the Mongol period
(ca. 1206–1368). However, evidence for such decoration has been
unearthed from the centuries prior to the Mongol conquests as well.
Tracing the routes that inscribed textiles took across the continent
reveals the kinds of cultural, political, and technological exchange
occurring throughout Asia during these 300 years.
Zhu Yuanzhang (Hongwu Emperor, r. 1368–1398), the founder of the Ming
Dynasty (1368–1644) in China, Timur (r. 1370–1405), founder of the Timurid
Empire (1370–1507) in Central Asia, and their successors used the legacy of the
Chinggisid Mongols in different ways to lend an aura of power and legitimacy to
their newly established courts. In this paper, I explore the cultural legacy of the
Mongol Empire as manifested in the early Ming and Timurid courts, with a
special interest in how continuing cultural exchange between the two courts
impacted the arts produced in both places. In particular, I highlight how the
ongoing incorporation of “foreign” motifs and techniques set the tone for the arts
of both courts in the late fourteenth century.