The Silk Roads and Lichfield Cathedral

The curator of the British Museum exhibition – The Silk Roads – is coming to Lichfield Cathedral this week to explore its possible links to the silk roads – the ancient trade routes that linked the Western world with the Middle East and Asia from about AD500-1000.

The Silk Roads and Lichfield Cathedral

Dr Sue Brunning, curator of the British Museum, will explore the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia and Lichfield’s links to the silk roads and ask whether The Lichfield Angel, discovered in 2003 and dated to around AD800, be linked to these ancient international trade routes?

The Lichfield Angel is currently on display in the British Museum as part of The Silk Roads and Canon Gregory Platten at Lichfield Cathedral has already visited it there

He said:

“We are delighted to welcome Dr Sue Brunning to the Cathedral to talk about this groundbreaking exhibition and Lichfield’s place on the silk roads. 

“Having visited the exhibition and seen our Lichfield Angel on display, I was fascinated by the profound impact these trade routes have had on art and culture, and reminded of the pivotal role faith played on these roads.”

Tickets for the talk are £10 and are available from the Cathedral’s website here.

The talk is hosted in Lichfield Cathedral at 14:00 on Wednesday 29 January.

Dr Sue Brunning is Curator of the European Early Medieval Collections in the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory at the British Museum.

She specialises in early medieval material culture, with a particular research focus on the Sutton Hoo ship burial, cross-cultural connections and multidisciplinary methodologies.

She is currently co-curator of the Silk Roads exhibition and co-author of the associated book.