Reconfiguring the Silk Road – New Research on East–West Exchange in Antiquity

Victor H. Mair is Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania and editor of the University of Pennsylvania Press Encounters with Asia series. Jane Hickman is editor of Expedition magazine and Special Assistant for Museum Programs at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Colin Renfrew is Disney Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and former Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

• List of Figures                                                                                          Contributors                                                                                            Foreword: The Silk Roads before Silk, Colin Renfrew                                   Introduction: Reconceptualizing the Silk Roads, Victor H. Mair                  Chapter 1: At the Limits: Long-Distance Trade in the Time of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Kings, J.G. Manning                                              Chapter 2: The Silk Road in Late Antiquity, Peter Brown                             Chapter 3: The Northern Cemetery: Epigone or Progenitor of Small River Cemetery No. 5?, Victor H. Mair                                                        Chapter 4: More Light on the Xinjiang Textiles, Elizabeth Wayland Barber  Chapter 5: Seeds for the Soul: Ideology and Diffusion of Domesticated Grains across Inner Asia, Michael D. Frachetti                                                Chapter 6: Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes, David W. Anthony and Dorcas R. Brown                                 Chapter 7: Indo-European Dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe, J.P. Mallory  Chapter 8: Concluding Comments: Reconfiguring the Silk Road, or When Does the Silk Road Emerge and How Does It Qualitatively Change over Time? Philip L. Kohl                                                                          Index

Concise and enlightening essays, . . . Collectively they paint a complex picture of the prehistory and early history of the areas covered by the Silk Roads, where grains, textiles, horses, and even languages were constantly moving. . . . All contributors are established scholars in their respective fields, so the articles serve not only to advance new ideas but also to summarize existing research. ― Journal of Asian Studies