Alexandra Plesa

Between 1927 and 1931, British archaeologists Guy Brunton and his wife Winifred recorded over 150 graves assumed to date from Late Dynastic to early Islamic times in the cemeteries of Matmar and Mostagedda, Middle Egypt. Sixty-four bead objects found in funerary context are now located in six museum collections. Recent studies of material found in these tombs and the radiocarbon dating of textile samples allowed for a revision of Brunton's initial chronology and an overview of the typology of the bead corpus based on the revised chronological framework. The analysis of the Matmar and Mostagedda corpus also opens the avenue for a study of the timeline, typology, use, and provenience of beads at sites in the Middle Egyptian Nile Valley during the Roman to early Islamic period.

From approximately the tenth to the nineteenth century the Jewish community of Old Cairo deposited their worn-out book and documents into the Genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, a storeroom for retired texts. Countless leaves, to a large part written in Hebrew script and thus deemed too sacred for an ordinary disposal, were placed there, the remains of treasured books, personal and official letters, amulets, calendars, and all kinds of written text that a highly literate community might produce.

With the discovery of the so called “Cairo Genizah”, one hundred and twenty years ago, researchers from diverse disciplines and fields have gained access to an enormous and unprecedented collection of rare and original documents from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, more than 200,000 pieces in Cambridge University Library alone, along with other collections scattered worldwide. This remarkable storehouse of primary sources has thrown a fresh new light on the medieval society of the Mediterranean world as a whole (including Islamic and Eastern Christian history) and particularly on Jewish history and culture from ancient to early modern times. Giving the scope, scale and diverse character of the material recovered from the Cairo storeroom, the Genizah continues to provide a seemingly inexhaustible source of primary research materials for scholars from a wide range of disciplines.

Even with the essential tools that have been established over the last few decades to facilitate Genizah studies, gaining access to this vast field with its very specialized material is still a challenge to young researchers and thus calls for special training. Our EAJS Summer Laboratory is therefore intended as a platform for advanced MA-students, PhD-candidates and Post-Docs, who are interested in the field of Genizah Studies and wish to venture further into it. Every participant will have the opportunity to present a paper on her/his topic of research. Senior scholars will present their own work and offer hands-on training, as well as provide feedback on the participants' projects.

Dress intersects with everyday life in a way that few areas of art history do: everyone participates in the fashion economy through the purchase and wearing of clothes, and even the most unworldly understand the sharp distinction in impression created by jeans and a T-shirt versus a well-pressed suit. This intersection with the quotidian, and with popular culture throughout history, provides the student of dress with a valuable vantage point from which to address a range of questions.
Edited by Nancy Micklewright, Ars Orientalis 47 considers key issues in the study of dress in general, and dress in Asia more specifically. These include the divide between the timelessness of “traditional” dress and the fast-paced changes of what we call “fashion”; the categories of evidence that come into play; the ways in which Orientalism has effected the study of dress; and contemporary approaches to the field.
The eleven articles in this volume feature diverse approaches and methods, applied to material that runs the gamut from individual garments, or a specific type of fabric, to representations of dress, and cover a wide swath of time and geography across Asia and the Middle East.
As with the three most recent volumes, Ars Orientalis 47 features web-based supplements to the printed edition. These include Digital Initiatives, a column that explores digital tools, resources, publications, and learning opportunities in art history and related fields, with a special focus on topics relevant to this volume.

#arsorientalis

Between 1927 and 1931, British archaeologists Guy Brunton and his wife Winifred recorded over 150 graves assumed to date from Late Dynastic to early Islamic times in the cemeteries of Matmar and Mostagedda, Middle Egypt. Sixty-four bead objects found in funerary context are now located in six museum collections. Recent studies of material found in these tombs and the radiocarbon dating of textile samples allowed for a revision of Brunton's initial chronology and an overview of the typology of the bead corpus based on the revised chronological framework. The analysis of the Matmar and Mostagedda corpus also opens the avenue for a study of the timeline, typology, use, and provenience of beads at sites in the Middle Egyptian Nile Valley during the Roman to early Islamic period.