The Prehistory of the Silk Road (Encounters with Asia)
Contributors: Victor H. Mair (Editor)
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: December 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780812240412
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history; Social Science; Archaeology / Anthropology; Sociology; ASIA; Ancient - General; Archaeology; Social Science / Archaeology; Asia - General; Antiquities; Asia, Central; Bronze age; Silk Road
Description: "The majority of the Silk Road routes passed through the Eurasian Steppe, whose nomadic peoples were participants and mediators in its economic and cultural exchanges. Until now, the origins of these routes and relationships have not been examined in great detail. In The Prehistory of the Silk Road, E.E. Kuzmina, renowned Russian archaeologist, looks at the history of this crucial area before the formal establishment of Silk Road trade and diplomacy. From the late Neolithic period to the early Bronze Age, Kuzmina traces the evolution of the material culture of the Steppe and the contact between civilizations that proved critical to the development of the widespread trade that would follow, including nomadic migrations, the domestication and use of the horse and the camel, and the spread of wheeled transport." "The Prehistory of the Silk Road combines detailed research in archaeology with evidence from physical anthropology, linguistics, and other fields, incorporating both primary and secondary sources from a range of languages, including a vast accumulation of Russian-language scholarship largely untapped in the West. The book is complemented by an extensive bibliography that will be of great use to scholars."--Jacket.