This pioneering volume brings together specialists from
contemporary craft and industry and from archaeology to examine
both the material properties and the cultural dimensions of
leather. The common occurrence of animal skin products through
time, whether vegetable tanned leather, parchment, vellum,
fat-cured skins or rawhide attest to its enduring versatility,
utility and desirability. Typically grouped together as 'leather',
the versatility of these materials is remarkable: they can be soft
and supple like a textile, firm and rigid like a basket, or hard
and watertight like a pot or gourd. This volume challenges a simple
utilitarian or functional approach to leather; in a world of
technological and material choices, leather is appropriated
according to its suitability on many levels. In addressing the
question Why leather? authors of this volume present new
perspectives on the material and cultural dimensions of leather.
Their wide-ranging research includes the microscopic examination of
skin structure and its influence on behaviour, experiments on
medieval cuir bouilli armour, the guild secrets behind the leather
components of nineteenth-century industrial machinery, new research
on ancient Egyptian chariot leather, the relationship between wine
and wineskins, and the making of contemporary leather wall
covering. The Archaeological Leather Group promotes the study of
leather and leather objects from archaeological and other contexts.
The Group aims to provide a focus for the investigation of leather,
and to develop new research by bringing together a broad range of
knowledge and experience both practical and academic. Leather is
explored through its manufacture, function, context, processing,
recording, conservation, care and curation. Members come from a
variety of disciplines and include archaeologists, historians,
conservators, artefact specialists, materials engineers and leather
workers. The Group normally meets twice a year and organises one
scholarly meeting in the spring, and visits a museum, working
tannery or other place of leather interest in the autumn. The
Archaeological Leather Group Newsletter is published twice a year,
and the website maintains a comprehensive and expanding leather
bibliography.
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