Over the past decade the scientific interest in relics and kindred artefacts has grown enormously. Without any doubt relics as well as relic shrines and associated objects have played a prominent role in European history since the introduction of Christianity. While in the past primary, secondary as well as tertiary relics were merely studied in relation to their religious and (art) historical background, recently the rise of a more scientific and archaeological approach is noticed. Nowadays researchers become more interested in the origin and nature of these sacred objects

Argument

Over the past decade the scientific interest in relics and kindred artefacts has grown enormously. Without any doubt relics as well as relic shrines and associated objects have played a prominent role in European history since the introduction of Christianity. While in the past primary, secondary as well as tertiary relics were merely studied in relation to their religious and (art) historical background, recently the rise of a more scientific and archaeological approach is noticed. Nowadays researchers become more interested in the origin and nature of these sacred objects and ask different questions:

• What information can relics give us about the people buried in the shrines? Who were these people? What do we know about the way they lived? When did they live? What about diseases and other disabilities?
• What information can be retrieved from the objects kept with the relics and made of textile, wood, stone or metal. What was their purpose? Are they contemporaneous to the relic or are they older or younger additions? Why would they have been added? How should we preserve them?

Scientists of many different disciplines are involved in the study of relics and kindred artefacts, but till now there was no real forum for these people to exchange ideas and discuss methods. Therefore the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA, Brussels) is organising a two-day workshop on the scientific study of relics. 
During this meeting we want to give analytical scientists, textile specialists, conservators, anthropologists, historical researchers, people involved in 3D-reconstruction as well as radiocarbon dating specialists a forum to exchange ideas about relics. 

Programme

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 17^th 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 15^th 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