H-Islamart Lecture - Renata Holod, "What is in a Name: Signature or Keeping Count?," 15 October 2017 (Toronto)

Discussion published by Bita Pourvash on Thursday, October 5, 2017 What is in a Name: Signature or Keeping Count? with Renata Holod Sunday 15 October 2017, 2:00–4:00 pm at The Aga Khan Museum, Auditorium $20, $18 Friends, $12 students and seniors https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/learn/event/what-name-signature-or-keeping-count

In the 1930s, a selection of Seljuq-period ceramics inscribed with “signatures” were uncovered near the ancient site of Rayy, . Do these markings follow the well-known habit of the decorator, as evidenced in famous 12th- to 13th-century ceramic workshops of Kashan, Iran, or do they serve another function?

Renata Holod explains how these signatures, together with moulds for ceramics and metal, bone implements for textile-making, and tools for drawing, may provide evidence of a complex material and visual culture of a Seljuq-period crafts quarter — and contribute to a reconstruction of the region’s traditions.

Renata Holod is the College of Women Class of 1963 Professor in the Humanities, Department, and Curator, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, at the University of Pennsylvania. She has carried out archaeological and architectural fieldwork in , Iran, , , Central Asia, , and Ukraine. She previously served as the Convenor, Steering Committee Member, and Master Jury Chair of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. She is co-author and co-editor of City in the Desert (1978); Architecture and Community: Building in the Islamic World Today, Aperture, New York, (1983); The Mosque and the Modern World (1997); An Island Through Time: Jerba Studies (2009) and The City in the Islamic World (2008).

Citation: Bita Pourvash. Lecture - Renata Holod, "What is in a Name: Signature or Keeping Count?," 15 October 2017 (Toronto). H- Islamart. 10-05-2017. https://networks.h-net.org/node/7636/discussions/359568/lecture-renata-holod-what-name-signature-or-keeping-count-15 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1