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

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.

Silk Road riches no embarrassment

Antiquity ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (328) ◽  
pp. 654-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. James
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Tarim Basin ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Western China ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
Sven Hedin ◽  
North Western ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
The Silk Road

The survival of organicmaterials in the waterless fringes of the Takla Makan and Lop Deserts in the Tarim basin in Xinjiang (north-western China) has fascinated us for a century, since Sven Hedin, Aurel Stein and Albert von Le Coq found the remains of settlements and cemeteries at the Great Wall's lonely outposts and along the routes between China and Central Asia known as the Silk Road. The finds date from the Bronze Age to the later firstmillennium AD. In the 1980s and '90s, it was shown that the most striking of them, the Tarim 'mummies', belong to both Mongoloid and Caucasoid peoples (Mallory&Mair 2000). The archaeology here of public and domestic life is full of the kinds of surprises and contradictions that we are learning to expect—if not accept—with 'globalisation'. Development in the region is now prompting new discoveries but also looters, so the research is urgent.

scholarly journals The Lashkendar Church and the Alan-Abkhazian Cultural Contacts: Prospects of Studying

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Yu. Endoltseva
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Krasnodar Region ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Silk Road ◽  
Christian Beliefs

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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