The Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century (review)

The article studies the Alan-Abkhazian cultural contacts by analyzing architectural decorations of these peoples. Actuality of the study is determined by considering the architectural decorations as a cultural marker of Abkhazians and Alans in the period of the 8th—10th centuries. This point of consideration is primarily important for studying the material culture of the ethnic groups living in close proximity to the route of the Silk Road, which is regarded as a powerful catalyst for cultural exchange between the numerous tribes and peoples each having its own unique and diverse artistic skills. The article compares a number of artifacts: some fragments of the altar barrier from Anacopia (Republic of Abkhazia, New Athos) and some fragments of the altar barrier from the Ilyichevskoe Hillfort (Krasnodar Region, Otradnensky District). This allows the author to state that there existed common ornamental schemes in the monumental art of those peoples in the period preceding the 13th—14th centuries. The article analyzes the patterns and zoomorphic images of “animals in a heraldic pose” from the church on Mount Lashkendar (Republic of Abkhazia, Tkuarchalsky District), and a dog from the Alan tomb of the Kyafarskoe Hillfort (Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Zelenchuksky District), providing additional arguments for the animals’ identifi cation. The author explores the system of images of the Alan tomb to determine the semantics of the dog’s image in the Christian church’s decoration and comes to the conclusion that the symbolism of the dog’s image originates from pre-Christian beliefs (namely, those Zoroastrian). The article emphasizes the fruitfulness of studying the Alan-Abkhazian contacts using the example of architectural decoration: it makes possible to identify some images and specify their dates. The author offers a variant of identifi cation of the relief from Mount Lashkendar; defi nes the place of this unique monument in the course of formation of the original artistic culture of the Abkhazian Kingdom; notes the heterogeneous infl uences on this process, coming both from the territories of different regions of the Byzantine Empire (Constantinople, Cappadocia, etc.) and from Transcaucasia (Armenia, Georgia). The Alan-Abkhazian layer of cultural contacts is highlighted.

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Spanning Thousands of Miles and Years: Political Nostalgia and China's Revival of the Silk Road

International Studies Quarterly ◽

10.1093/isq/sqaa080 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lina Benabdallah

Keyword(s):

Fifteenth Century ◽

Sand Dunes ◽

Silk Road ◽

Power Dynamics ◽

Politics Of Memory ◽

The Past ◽

History Of ◽

Positive Experiences ◽

Ancient Silk Road ◽

The Silk Road

Abstract The study of international relations (IR) has paid increasing attention over the last decade or so to the politics of memory, trauma, shame, but to a less extent to the political instrumentalization of positive experiences of the past. Indeed, IR theory rarely engaged the concept of nostalgia and its place within foreign policy making despite its potential for providing a powerful theoretical lens to explain hegemonic power dynamics. Sitting at the intersection of time and space, of time and affect, and of past and present, political nostalgia enables state leaders to move back and forth in time bringing back the past not for the past's sake but for the promise of a prosperous future. This article examines Chinese government's nostalgic borrowings from the Ancient Silk Road in order to associate Xi Jinping's new grand strategy, the New Silk Road to notions of inclusivity and prosperity. Reviving stories about fifteenth-century Chinese admiral Zheng He and reconstructing the history of his maritime navigations through stories and images of camel caravans crossing sand dunes are illustrations of political nostalgia.

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Paleoproteomics Reveals the Species Sources of Ancient Hair Textiles and Supports Historicity of Wool Manufacture in the Bronze Age Along the Silk Road

10.21203/rs.3.rs-144035/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zhongyuan Wang ◽

Hailiang Yang ◽

Yujie Zhai ◽

Shanshan Song ◽

Lian Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Information Acquisition ◽

American Mink ◽

Cultural Exchange ◽

Silk Road ◽

Raccoon Dog ◽

Hair Samples ◽

Scientific Value ◽

The Bronze Age ◽

The Silk Road

Abstract The Xinjiang region is a crossroad between the West and East on the Silk Road, where many exquisite hair textile relics in the Bronze Age were unearthed, therefore, it attracts the attention of scholars around the world. However, the limitation of information acquisition ability is still the main bottleneck to recognize the scientific value of ancient hair textile relics. In this study, paleoproteomics method was proposed to analyse the hair textile relics from Xiaohe and Shanpula cemetery in the Xinjiang region. To establish the databases of biomarkers and morphological features, five modern hair samples from representative animals (grey fox, raccoon dog, American mink, cape hare, and lamb) were selected and examined. Through searching the databases, the ancient hair textile samples from Xiaohe and Shanpula cemetery were all identified as wool. Ultimately, this work demonstrated the evidences supporting the existence of prosperous sheep husbandry, wool manufacture and cultural exchange along the Silk Road in the Bronze Age. The paleoproteomics, in combination with other methods, obtained more reliable and profound information from hair textile relics than ever before, and it goes without saying that they have bright prospects of being widely used in hair textile archaeology.

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Dunhuang on the Silk Road: A hub of Eurasian cultural exchange—Introduction

Chinese Studies in History ◽

10.1080/00094633.2020.1783156 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 53 (3) ◽

pp. 187-191

Author(s):

Huaiyu Chen ◽

Q. Edward Wang

Keyword(s):

Cultural Exchange ◽

Silk Road ◽

The Silk Road

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Zheng He’s Seven Voyages into the Namoli Ocean–the Indian Ocean

China and Asia ◽

10.1163/2589465x-00101004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 92-125

Author(s):

Wan Ming

Keyword(s):

Indian Ocean ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Silk Road ◽

Clear Understanding ◽

The People ◽

History Of ◽

The Indian Ocean ◽

Specific Meaning ◽

Historical Issues ◽

The Silk Road

In the history of the development of human civilization, the Silk Road has been an important route of traffic and exchange between the East and the West. From Zhang Qian’s 張騫 opening up of the Silk Road across the Western Regions (Xiyue 西域) to Zheng He’s 鄭和 sailing to the Western Oceans (xia xiyang 下西洋) more than 1500 years later, China had a continuous desire to explore beyond its borders. At the time of Zheng He, the term “Western Oceans” (xiyang 西洋) had a specific meaning. As shown by the account of Ma Huan 馬歡, who personally joined Zheng He on the voyages, the people of Ming China considered the “Western Oceans” to be the Namoli Ocean (Namoli yang 那没黎洋), later called the Indian Ocean. Thus, it could be concluded that the Western Oceans where Zheng He’s fleet went meant the Indian Ocean. Even today most scholars still divide the Eastern and Western Oceans at Brunei, with no clear understanding of where the Western Oceans to which Zheng He sailed were actually located. It is therefore important to make clear that the Western Oceans in his time referred to the Indian Ocean, before moving on to investigate the purpose of the voyages and related historical issues. Even more important is to point out that Zheng He’s expeditions in the early fifteenth century reflected that Chinese people took to the seas on a scale larger than ever before and joined the maritime and overland silk routes together. The place where this occurred was the Indian Ocean.

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