Wednesday 26 October

14.00 – 18.00 Registration at the KIK-IRPA

Thursday 27 October

9.00 – 9.30 Registration with coffee and tea

9.30 – 9.50 Welcome and introduction by Christina Ceulemans (general director of the KIK-IRPA) and Mark Van Strydonck (head radiocarbon laboratory KIK-IRPA)

SESSION 1

Chair: Anique de Kruijf (Museum Catherijneconvent, Utrecht, The Netherlands)

9.50 – 10.10
Julia M.H. Smith (University of Glasgow, UK)
Late antique and early medieval relic-objects: an overview of the surviving evidence

10.10 – 10.30
Ruth Noyes (Wesleyan University, Newbury, USA)
‘Ex ea tam ingenti Reliquiarum translatione & collocatione factum est.’ A historiography of scientific relic studies and their early modern origins

10.30 – 10.50
Eleanor Farber (Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford, UK)
Proposing Standard Guidelines for the Scientific Assessment of Relics

10.50 – 11.10 Discussion

11.10 – 11.30 Coffee and tea

SESSION 2

Chair: Regula Schorta (Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg)

11.30 – 11.50
Caroline Polet (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium)
Multidisciplinary study of the reliquary contents attributed to the bishop Jacques de Vitry (12-13th C. AD)

11.50 – 12.10
Alexander Cherkinsky (University of Georgia, USA)
Does these bones belong to St. Auratianus?

12.10 – 12.30
Alexander Lehouck (Abbey Museum of the Dunes, Koksijde, Belgium)
The Idesbald relics of the Abbey of the Dunes revealed (Koksijde-Bruges, Belgium)

12.30 – 12.50 Discussion

12.50 – 13.50 Lunch

SESSION 3

Chair: Caroline Polet (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium)

13.50 – 14.10
Anthony J.T. Jull (University of Arizona, Tucson, USA)
Artifacts, Relics and Radiocarbon

14.10 – 14.30
Thomas Higham (University of Oxford, UK)
New AMS Radiocarbon Dates and aDNA Studies of St John the Baptist Relics

14.30 – 14.50
Raphaël Panhuysen (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Deconstructing the story of the miraculously recovered skeleton of Ailbertus of Antoing

14.50 – 15.10
Jamie Cameron (University of Oxford, UK)
3D Visualisation of Reliquaries via Photogrammetry

15.10 – 15.30 Discussion

15.30 – 17.00 Coffee and tea - Poster session

Friday 28 October

8.30 – 9.00 Registration with coffee and tea

SESSION 1

Chair: Georges Kazan (University of Oxford, UK)

9.00 – 9.20
Jussi-Pekka Taavitsainen (University of Turku, Finland)
Dating relics with AMS

9.20 – 9.40
Ana Cabrera-Lafuente (Victoria and Albert Museum, UK)
Medieval Iberian Relics and their Woven Vessels: The Case of San Ramón del Monte (†1126) Roda de Isábena Cathedral (Huesca, Aragón)

9.40 – 10.00
Anne Hedeager Krag (University of Southern Denmark)
New light on silks in the reliquary shrine of St. Canute in Odense Cathedral, Denmark

10.00 – 10.20
Anja Bayer and Regula Schorta (Abegg-Stiftung Riggisberg, Switserland)
The Textiles found in the Shrine of Saint Godehard in Hildesheim

10.20 – 10.40 Discussion

10.40 – 11.00 Coffee and tea

SESSION 2

Chair: Thomas Higham (University of Oxford, UK)

11.00 – 11.20
Jeroen Reyniers (KIK-IRPA, Brussels, Belgium)
What’s inside the Thirteenth-Century Shrine of Saint Odilia? A Case of an Interdisciplinary Study

11.20 – 11.40
Anja Neskens and Katrien Houbey (Musea Maaseik, Belgium)
Saint Harlindis and Relindis

11.40 – 12.00
Raphaël Coipel (Conseil régional Hauts-de-France, France)
Project of St Aldegonde: analysis of a treasure

12.00 – 12.20
Maria Lahtinen (University of Turku, Finland)
Isotope analyses of the Turku cathedral skull relic and the reliquary fabrics

12.20 – 12.40 Discussion

12.40 – 13.40 Lunch

SESSION 3

Chair: Mark Van Strydonck (KIK-IRPA)

13.40 – 14.00
Ingela Wahlberg (University of Uppsala, Sweden)
Birgittine Reliquaries from Vadstena monastery: characteristic techniques and ornamentations by the Birgittine nun’s

14.00 – 14.20
Anique C. de Kruijf (Museum Catherijneconvent, Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Preserved miraculously

14.20 – 14.40
Fanny Van Cleven (KIK-IRPA, Brussels, Belgium)
The Relic Treasure of Herkenrode: an online database

14.40 – 15.00 Closing discussion and further plans

15.00 – 17.00 Visit of the KIK-IRPA: Radiocarbon Laboratory, Textile Laboratory and Textile Conservation Studio

Poster presentations

1. Ian Andrews - Considerations on the Dating and Design of Early Medieval Reliquaries and Book Covers

2. Aki Arponen and Ina Vanden Berghe - Red Fabrics in the Turku Cathedral Relic Assemblage

3. Montserrat A. Baez Hernandez - The corpi santi under the government of Pius VI, materiality as a sign of identity: first rapprochements to novohispanic cases

4. Jacek Bielak - The Reliquary Chapel of Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The Art Collection and Religious Devotion of Maria Maddalena d’Absburgo in 17th Century

5. Mathieu Boudin - An archaeological mystery revealed by radiocarbon dating of cross-flow nanofiltrated amino acids derived from bone collagen, silk, and hair: case study of the bishops Baldwin I and Radbot II from Noyon-Tournai

6. Ignace Bourgeois - A box full of surprises. Archaeologists find an ancient relic in St Rumbold’s Cathedral (Mechelen, Belgium)

7. Jamie Cameron - An Unidentified Head of Hair at Romsey Abbey, UK: New Scientific Insights

8. Mathilde Daumas - Behind the Saint Guidon shrine, a multidisciplinary approach of the relics

9. Guy De Mulder - Deposition of human bones in settlement contexts during het Bronze ad Iron Ages. Some kind of protohistoric relics

10. Hans Geybels - Medieval and early modern methods to authenticate relics

11. Kristof Haneca and Marjan Buyle - The reliquary of Saint-Dymphna: dating wood and bones

12. Laura Hendriks - Microscale radiocarbon dating from paintings to cultural heritage textiles

13. Georges Kazan and Jamie Cameron - The Relics Cupboard of St Paul’s Cathedral, Liège, Belgium: A Preliminary Survey

14. Friederike Leibe - Medieval textiles from the tomb of the founder of the Tegernsee Monastery

15. Caroline Polet - Study of the skull attributed to Saint Gerolphus (8th c. AD)

16. Gabriela Sanchez Reyes - Sanctity through the light or science: radiographic images on ceroplastic reliquaries

17. Sabine Schrenk - Turning tunics into relics

18. Annemarie Stauffer - xxx

19. Fanny Van Cleven, Jeroen Reyniers and Anton Ervynck (eds.) - “Met maagdelijke blik”: presentation of the study and conservation of the reliquary of Herkenrode

20. Tine Van Osselaer and Leonardo Rossi - Power in the blood. The material culture of non-approved cults (19th and 20th century)

21. Mark Van Strydonck - Radiocarbon dating of local saints

22. Konstantin Voronin and Mariya Kabanova - Interdisciplinary study of medieval 15th century Russian icons of the Our Lady Deksiokratusa “Milostivaja” (dendrochronological, radiocarbon, chemical-physical, historical and cultural studies)

23. Annemarieke Willemsen - Inner Beauty: Looking for Relics in Excavated Medieval Jewellery