Artifacts from the Ancient Silk Road covers life along the Silk Road over 5000 years as it can be understood by considering objects. In this first object-based study to consider all of the peoples involved on the Silk Roads, objects provide the vehicles for explorations of different aspects of life for the various peoples of the Silk Roads, including the sedentary peoples who established urban life on the Silk Roads, the steppe nomads who regularly interacted with the settled peoples, and the peoples at either end of the Silk Roads who drove certain kinds of economic exchanges.
The book looks at Central Asia as an international zone during ancient times when multiple religious, political, and technological ideas found acceptance in the region and allows for a better understanding of how some ideas and forms developed in Central Asia while others passed through or were modified.
Author(s): William E. Mierse
Series: Daily Life through Artifacts
Publisher: Greenwood
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 459
City: Santa Barbara
Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Contents
Preface
How to Use This Book
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What Was the World of the Ancient Silk Road?
Alphabetical Entries
Amazons
Animal Style
Banqueting
City Planning
Coinage
Domestication of the Horse
Funerary Practices
Indus Valley Civilization
Linguistic and Genetic Studies
Monasticism
Nomad Kingdoms and Empires
Persepolis Apadana Reliefs
Persistence of Classicism
Shamanism, Ancient Central Asian
Silk
Texts and Archaeology
Texts and Translations
Travelers, Early
Wool Working and Carpet Making
Zoroastrianism
Artifacts
1 Ceiling Tile from Dura Europos with Portrait of Heliodoros
2 Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya
3 Funerary Relief with Banquet Scene
4 Adult Man’s Caftan
5 Vase with Four Scenes in Repoussé Technique Showing Aspects of Scythian Life
6 Gold Belt End
7 Photograph of a Turkmen Woman in Her Finery in Front of Her Yurt
8 Gold Relief Foil Griffin Ornaments
9 Representation of Architecture from a Relief Fragment
10 Stucco Architectural Roundel with Palmettes from a Window
11 Stone Lintel Frieze of the Parinirvana
12 Bronze Throne Leg with Griffin
13 Early-20th-Century Yurt
14 Bronze Cauldron on a High Rounded Foot
15 Two Musicians on an Architectural Bracket
16 Female Figures on a Gilt Silver Ewer
17 Gilt Silver Bowl with Scenes Arranged on the Exterior
18 Gilt Silver Objects with Figural and Vegetal Decoration
19 Gold Tetradrachm of Demetrios I (222–180 BCE)
20 Bronze Coin with Square Hole
21 Silk Taquete with Patterned Thread
22 Two Fragments of a Silk Samite with Hunters Enclosed in Roundels
23 Still Life with Peaches and Glass of Water
24 Ivory Statuette of a Partially Nude Female Figure
25 Faceted Glass Bowl
26 Sogdian-Style Gold Stem Cup from China
27 Pile Carpet from Kurgan 5, Pazyryk
28 Silver with Gold Sheet Overlay and Garnets Bow Brooch
29 Ceramic Bactrian Camel with Rider
30 Stone Frieze Fragment Showing Procession of Horse-Drawn Chariots
31 Ashoka Pillar
32 Lower Half of a Portrait of a Kushan King, Kanishka I
33 Silver Plate with the Image of Hormizd II Hunting
34 Golden Warrior (Reconstructed Costume)
35 Sheet-Gold Decoration for a Sword Scabbard
36 Silver Plaque in Form of a Recumbent Horse
37 Felt Saddle Cover with Leather, Fur, Hair, and Gold from Kurgan 1, Pazyryk
38 Phoenix-Headed Ewer with Three-Color Sancai Glaze and with an Applique of a Steppe Warrior in the Pose of the Parthian Shot
39 Graffito of a Cataphract or Roman Clibanarius from Dura Europos
40 Terracotta Head of Dionysus
41 Painted Terracotta Panel of a Worshiper Standing before God Shiva/Oesho
42 Ceremonial Gilt Silver Plate with Representation of Goddess Cybele
43 Relief of Atargatis and Hadad from Dura Europos
44 Sasanian Coin of Bahran IV (Wahrām IV) with Fire Altar Reverse Type
45 Reindeer Stag Horse Headdress from Kurgan 1, Pazyryk
46 Ceramic Bowl with Polychrome Decoration Including Crosses
47 Small, Bronze, Seated Buddha with Traces of Gilding
48 Infant Mummy
49 Bronze Reliquary Box
50 Mullah Kurgan Ossuary, Afrasiab Museum, Samarkand
Index
About the Author
