The World of the Ancient Silk Road

Contents
List of Figures
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Introduction • Xinru Liu
Part I: Landscape of the Silk Road: From the Bronze Age to the Beginning of Historical Records
	1 Kongquehe Bronze Age Culture: A Page of Early Eurasian History • Wang Binghua and Translated by Xinru Liu
	2 Tocharian Controversy: A Mobile Language Landscape of Central Asia • Xinru Liu
	3 Aramaic in the 1st Millennium bce: Its Reception and Diffusion • Liu Jian
	4 Qïrqïz, a People in the Forest and on the Steppe • Jia Yiken
	5 Invention and Spread of Horse Chariots Around Afro-Eurasia • Bruno Genito
	6 Horse Wagon With Bronze Wheel Felloe From Zhouyuan – Implication to the Exchanges Between the East and West • Wang Peng and Translated by Xinru Liu
	7 Natural and Cultural History of the Camel • Renato Sala
	8 Cannabis and Other Plants With Peculiar Properties on the Silk Road • Kazim Abdullaev
Part II: Pastoral Nomads and Agricultural Societies
	9 Horse Archery and the Rise and Fall of Nomadic Empires on the Eurasian Steppe • Craig Benjamin
	10 The Kushans, viz. the Dà Yuèzhī: A Century-Long Fallacy • Shoshin Kuwayama
	11 Looking for the City of Horse: Mingtepa During the Time of Dayuan Kingdom • Zhu Yanshi, Liu Tao, and Translated by Xinru Liu
	12 Qïrqïz/Kyrgyz, a People Lived Between Empires • Jia Yiken
	13 Images of Knights on the Great Silk Road • Kazim Abdulla
Part III: Silk Trade and Caravan Cities
	14 Rise and Demise of Jingjue Kingdom, a Case of Tarim Oasis Politics • Ye Junshi
	15 Astana, Jiaohe, and Other Turfan Cemeteries: The Movement of People, Ideas, and Objects in Gaochang Kingdom (442–640) • Armin Selbitschka
	16 Turfan, the Frontier Transmitting Smallpox to Tang China • Song Xian and Translated by Xinru Liu
	17 Caravan Cities in the Roman Near East: Palmyra and Petra • Hamish Cameron
	18 The Chitral Yaβγu 雙靡翕侯 and a Route Southward in the 1st Century BCE • Shoshin Kuwayama
	19 Kābul and the Regional Centers of Eastern Afghanistan in Their Historical Perspective • Minoru Inaba
	20 Roads of Swat: New Perspectives • Luca M. Olivieri
	21 The Silk Road and the “Cotton Road”: Buddhist Art and Practice Between Central Asia and the Western Deccan • Pia Brancaccio
	22 Egyptian Textiles and Networks of Exchange Prior To and Following the Arab-Islamic Conquest • Arielle Winnik
	23 Sino-Arabian Economic and Cultural Exchanges From the 8th to the 15th Centuries • Ran Zhang and Lin Meicun
Part IV: Empires and Religions
	24 Elephants, Greeks, and Gold: The Silk Road in the Age of Hellenistic Empires • Benjamin Abbott
	25 The Western Lord of Treasures – Viewing the Byzantine Empire From Tang Dynasty Chang’an • Lin Ying and Translated by Xinru Liu
	26 Sogdian Religion Along the Silk Road: Variations of Zoroastrianism in Medieval China • Zhang Xiaogui
	27 Buddhist Propagation and Language Barriers • Xinru Liu
	28 Silk-Horse Trade Between the Tang Empire and the Xiagasi (Kyrgyz) • Li Jinxiu and Translated by Xinru Liu
	29 Roman Silk Trade and Markets • Berit Hildebrandt
	30 Christian Discourses About Silks in Antiquity • Berit Hildebrandt
	31 The Creation and Spread of Tiraz Textiles Across the Silk Roads • Arielle Winnik
	32 Virtual Silk Roads: Objects, Exhibitions, and Learners • Daniel C. Waugh
Index