Talks and Activities

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In June 2022, Berit Hildebrandt visited Israel to meet the project partners and to see the textiles from Nahal Omer. During this meeting, we catalogued 80 textiles from the last excavation and some from previous excavations which were not yet published in detail. Most of them are made of cotton, but we also identified textiles made of silk, wool, linen and goat hair

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Guy Bar Oz gave a talk about "Textiles and Trade Networks between East and West. The Case of Nahal Omer" at Shenkar Design School on 24.05.2022 

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Orit Shamir presented "Revealing the Israeli Silk Road. Exploring networks of trade and exchange between East and West through textile finds from Nahal Omer, with a focus on silk and cotton" at the Purpureae Vestes VIII Conference on "Tradition and Innovation in Textile Production in the Mediterranean World and Beyond" in Athens on 20.10.2022

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Berit Hildebrandt presented "Neue Forschungen in Nahal Omer/Israel zum Austausch von Textilien entlang der Seidenstrassen in der Spaetantike und der fruehislamischen Zeit"in the Colloquium of the Department of Ancient History at Humboldt University Berlin on 1.02.2023

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Guy Bar Oz and Orit Shamir presented "Revealing the Israeli Silk Road. Exploring networks of trade and exchange between East and West through textile finds from Nahal Omer, with a focus on silk and cotton" at the Hecht Museum Haifa in 5.02.2023

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Orit Shamir and Roi Galili presented "Revealing the Israeli Silk Road: Cotton and Silk Textiles from Nahal Omer at 2022 Season Excavations. Exploring Networks of Trade and Exchange Between East and West During the Early Islamic Period" at the at the Archaeological Conference of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem on 3.04.2023

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Please check out this podcast by Orit Shamir from a talk given at the Museum of the Bible / Washington DC, USA - the textiles from Nahal Omer are discussed from minute 15 on: 

https://www.museumofthebible.org/museum-of-the-bible-podcast

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On 26.-27.06.2023 we have held a collaborative workshop on ancient textiles at the University of Haifa where Prof. Nicole Reifarth from the Cologne University of Applied Sciences has shared her knowledge about textile conservation, restoration and scientific analyses with our team and students.

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In October 2023 Orit Shamir gave a talk in Norwich and London about "Nahal Omer Middens as Indicator for Networks of Trade along the Israeli Silk Road: The Textile Evidence" at the IASSRT= International Association for the study of Silk Road textiles and Sainsbury Institute: Reconnections along the Silk Roads: Restoring and reconstructing textiles from afar. https://www.sainsbury-institute.org/e- bulletin/november-2023/reconnections-along-the- silk-roads-restoring-and-reconstructing-textiles- from-afar/ 

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On 18-19 November 2023, Berit Hildebrandt presented the "Silk and cotton finds from the Early Islamic Trash Mounds of Nahal Omer/Israel" at the Conference “Textiles in the Nile Valley” at Katoen Natie in Antwerp

 

On 26 November 2023 Berit Hildebrandt presented "Überlegungen zum Fernhandel in frühislamischer Zeit anhand der Textilfunde von Nahal Omer/Israel" at the Archäologische Ringvorlesung der Universität Göttingen

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Publications​

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Our first publications are out!

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Hildebrandt, B., Shamir, O., Galili, R., Shamir, N., & Bar-Oz, G. (2023). Networks of trade and exchange along the Israeli Silk Road: The silk and cotton finds from Nahal Omer, Negev Desert. Antiquity, 97(393), E14. doi:10.15184/aqy.2023.62

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Shamir O., Hildebrandt B, Galili R, Shamir N. & Bar-Oz G. 2023. Trash or Cache? The Textile Evidence from the Nahal ‘Omer Middens as an Indicator of Early Islamic Period Trade Networks along Israel’s Silk Road. Atiqot 112: Hoard Typology, Function and Purpose in Ancient Societies. Pp. 175-200. 

www.atiqot.org.il