Islamic material culture

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Islamic material culture," at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Islamic networks of trade and travel were central to global networks of the historic period. Since the 8th century, commercial and religious links have connected Arabia and the Persian Gulf across Eurasia and Africa. Archaeology has a crucial role in understanding and exploring this fascinating ‘world system’ and increasingly sophisticated approaches to material culture have illuminated the vibrancy of Islamic networks. Work in this area ranges from culture histories of trade, prestige and value, and collecting, through to biomolecular studies of subsistence and cuisine. Explorations of contemporary collecting practices have thrown light on colonial legacies and orientalist assumptions.

This session invites papers across the range of approaches to material culture, from typology and object histories, through archaeological science. We seek to explore the rich world of Islamic material culture throughout the medieval and historical periods and to highlight the scale and importance of that world to understanding past globalisms.