Late Antique Materialities, session at the 26th International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 1–4, 2019

Late antiquity was born out of a growing appreciation of the cultural and material unity of the period of transition from the ancient to the medieval world. Materiality is at the heart of what we appreciate as distinct about the late antique world, both through the development of this concept in a number of fields and also the creation of new forms of material culture. These material traces are therefore central to any attempt to reconstruct the intellectual, religious, economic and political history of late antiquity, as well as the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of the people who lived through it.

In keeping with the overall IMC 2019 theme of “Materialities”, we invite submissions which offer new critical insight on issues surrounding the broad concepts of materiality and material culture in late antiquity. Our aim is for these sessions to be as inclusive as possible, bringing together scholars working on a wide range of fields, periods and geographical areas in the study of late antiquity, and ensuring an appropriate gender balance across panels. We particularly invite submissions from scholars who have not previously—or do not usually—present at the Leeds IMC, to encourage new and fruitful intellectual exchanges between those who work on late antiquity/the early middle ages within different departments, disciplines and cultures. Possible themes include:

• the changing forms, styles, and meanings of material culture as the ancient world slowly transitioned into the medieval
• how material from the earlier Roman past could be preserved, reassessed, adapted, or rejected in new cultural, social, and political realities
• the increasingly distinct articulations of Christian materiality in late antiquity and the contradictions that the materiality of the Church implied
• networks of exchange for people, objects and ideas
• interactions between the written word and the material world, including their intertwining in the conception and experience of church space, monastic rules, religious objects and ascetic practices
• reality and materiality in the late antique imagination
• the age-old question of material decline in late antiquity

Session Organizer
Richard Flower (Exeter)