The View from the Benches? Museum Collections and Medieval Archaeology, workshop with Eurydice Georgantelli (Harvard University), Harvard Art Museums, April 4, 2019, 2:00–4:00 pm

The workshop will explore the role of museum artifacts in the study of medieval material culture. Can works of art that haven been taken out of their archaeological context, and often collected and displayed on the basis of their aesthetic value, provide visitors and researchers the plausibility of an archaeological narrative? What is the significance of objects for the reconstruction of medieval technologies and designs, settlements and routes, economic practices and cultural encounters? Through a close-up study of select artifacts from the renowned medieval collections of the Harvard Art Museums, the workshop will offer participants the chance to reflect on the value and limitations of museum collections and archaeological finds as primary sources for the Middle Ages.

Eurydice Georgantelli is Lecturer on Art History and Numismatics in the Department of History of Art + Architecture at Harvard University. A specialist in the arts of South-Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Georganteli has published and taught on such topics as late antique and medieval art and numismatics, archaeology, portable antiquities collecting, cultural heritage and storytelling. She uses archaeological evidence, written sources and the changing patterns in the geography of transport to trace economic and cultural exchange in late antique and medieval Europe and the Middle East.

The workshop is capped at 15 participants. Advance registration for the workshop is required.

This event is part of the 2019 Harvard Medieval Material Culture Series: The View from the Trenches: Archaeology and Medieval Studies Today. In its fifth iteration, the annual Harvard Medieval Material Culture Series is intended as an interdisciplinary research forum for the study of the middle ages. This year the theme is Medieval Archaeology.