Gold Threads Across Empires: Techniques, Symbols, and Cultural Exchange from the Ancient Near East to Byzantium

Date: Thursday, 12 June 2025
Time: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM 
Venue: SUAD Campus Amphitheatre Richelieu

This master class explores the ongoing transformation of the Dubai–Abu Dhabi corridor into a polycentric urban system. It examines how digital trends—especially telework and e-commerce—are reshaping mobility patterns, urban accessibility, and land use. Drawing on empirical research, the session highlights the opportunities and challenges of planning for sustainable, connected, and balanced growth in one of the Gulf’s most dynamic regions.

The history of gold threads in the Near and Middle East, from Antiquity to Byzantium, reveals the technical ingenuity and symbolic richness of the societies that produced them. From the Bronze Age in Syria and later in the Persian Empire, gold thread emerged as a marker of prestige, power, and spirituality, adorning garments, tapestries, and works of art. Technical innovations-from beating gold into thin leaves to winding it around silk or linen threads-spread and were perfected, especially in Byzantium, where woven gold became both an instrument of diplomacy and a vector of sacredness. State control over production and the specialization of artisans underscore the economic and social significance of this craft. Beyond their material value, gold threads embodied divine light and the continuity of tradition, serving as tools of social cohesion and identity. This presentation offers a synthesis of the techniques, uses, and meanings of gold thread, highlighting its role in shaping societies and cultural imaginaries from the ancient Near East to the Byzantine Empire.

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