Production and Exchange in Eurasia

Commemorating the life and scholarship of Lingyi Zeng, this volume considers production and exchange within the larger context of early Eurasian societies  This volume commemorates the life and scholarship of Lingyi Zeng, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University until illness overtook her in 2020. Building on Zeng’s research, which focused on the production, exchange, and consumption of ceramic vessels across Eurasia from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries CE, this book contributes to recent endeavors in the humanities and social sciences by reimagining conventional understandings of the vast region stretching from East Asia to the Middle East. In addition to publishing Zeng’s preliminary results, the contributors take inspiration from her research, expanding on two broad themes that formed the basis of her work: production and exchange. Their research investigates sites, different kinds of ancient remains, and texts leading up to and through the Mongol period. Several studies consider large-scale interactions, while others focus more closely on site-level analyses or analytical methods. Together, they provide a longue durée perspective on the interconnectedness of this region. Using a regional perspective, this volume considers production and exchange within the larger context of Eurasian societies, tracing the varied ways that complex societies developed and the processes that articulated adjacent societies in networks of mutual transformation.