We propose this session to bring together researchers examining women’s craft practices and to deepen our understanding of their identities and agency through the materiality of these activities. Materiality is understood here as encompassing artefacts and gestures: thus tools, waste, but also workspaces, as well as traces on objects and traces on human remains (work-related illnesses, for example). The purpose of this session is to review the current state of research on this topic, share questions, difficulties, and advances. 

Argument

In recent historiography, there has been a marked interest in crafts people, in their identities andtheir socio-economic realities, particularly since 2010, with the works of Nicolas Tran, Andrew Wilson and Miko Flohr; this trend is combined with the progress of studies on gender and women since the early 2000s with the research of Régine le Jan, Lena Larsson Lovén, and Sandra Boehringer. This now allows us to consider women’s craft activities and, more broadly, their presence and roles in this socio-economic sphere.

However, this is a difficult subject to approach due to the lack of material evidence that wouldallow for a confident interpretation of the individuals associated with these activities. Despite recent progress, particularly in funerary archaeology, it is a field of research in which we stillhave many areas to explore and enrich our understanding of ancient societies.

We therefore propose this session to bring together researchers examining women’s craftpractices and to deepen our understanding of their identities and agency through the materialityof these activities. Materiality is understood here as encompassing artefacts and gestures: thustools, waste, but also workspaces, as well as traces on objects and traces on human remains(work-related illnesses, for example).

The purpose of this session is to review the current state of research on this topic, sharequestions, difficulties, and advances. We deliberately encourage an interdisciplinary anddiachronic approach to enrich the dialogue with comparisons and methodological exchanges.

Accordingly, we would like to invite papers focusing on women and their relation to crafts inpre-modern societies of the Mediterranean worlds.

Submission guidelines

To submit a proposal, please do so before February 9 using the EAA’s official submission page: https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2026

For any questions, please contact the session organizers:

• ludivine.capra@live.fr
• alexandre.beaudet.2@ulaval.ca

Organizers

• Ludivine Capara
• Alexandre Beaudet