Outreach & Dissemination

The Symposium The Ecology of Ceramics in Architectural Heritage: Cross-Cultural Dynamics across the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and Regions Beyond took place online, July 18-19, 2022.

The symposium aims to understand how architectural surfaces featuring immured porcelain and ceramic vessels and their contexts can tell a more nuanced story of trade and exchange, politics and economy, cross-cultural connectivity, aesthetic, technical and social practices, and of cultural meaning, climatic and environmental change. Case studies from the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and regions beyond will be addressed from interdisciplinary perspectives, including architecture, art history, archaeology, critical heritage studies, anthropology, history, visual and material culture studies, historical climatology and the environmental humanities.

– Maritime connections: What do ceramics tell us about transregional and cross-cultural exchange across the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean?

– Trade and exchange: How did specific trading networks and communities (coastal/inland) help in the distribution and reception of ceramic vessels?

– Politics and economy: How did prevailing political and economic contexts provide patronage for immured ceramics or halt the practice?

– Social practices and cultural meaning: How have practices of immuring vessels been shaped by social attitudes and practices?

– Architectural surfaces and the built environment: Which role did/do immured ceramics play on buildings, tombs, also in dialogue with other objects/tilework?

– Cultural heritage: Which role do monuments featuring immured ceramics play for local communities today?

– Climate and the environment: How do natural and man-made environmental factors shape the architectural surfaces and the fate of immured vessels?