Reconfiguring the Silk Road : new research on East-West exchange in antiquity : the papers of a symposium held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, March 19, 2011

__Reconfiguring the Silk Road__ offers new research on the earliest cultural interactions along the trade and migration routes across Eurasia, mapping the spread and influence of Silk Road economies and social structures over time. __Reconfiguring the Silk Road__ offers new research on the earliest cultural interactions along the trade and migration routes across Eurasia, mapping the spread and influence of Silk Road economies and social structures over time.

From the Bronze Age through the Middle Ages, a network of trade and migration routes brought people from across Eurasia into contact. Their commerce included political, social, and artistic ideas, as well as material goods such as metals and textiles. Reconfiguring the Silk Road offers new research on the earliest trade and cultural interactions along these routes, mapping the spread and influence of Silk Road economies and social structures over time. This volume features contributions by renowned scholars uncovering new discoveries related to populations that lived in the Tarim Basin, the advanced state of textile manufacturing in the region, and the diffusion of domesticated grains across Inner Asia. Other chapters include an analysis of the dispersal of languages across the Eurasian Steppe and a detailed examination of the domestication of the horse in the region. Contextualized with a foreword by Colin Renfrew and introduction by Victor Mair, Reconfiguring the Silk Road provides a new assessment of the intercultural evolution along the steppes and beyond.

Contributors: David W. Anthony, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Dorcas R. Brown, Peter Brown, Michael D. Frachetti, Jane Hickman, Philip L. Kohl, Victor H. Mair, J. P. Mallory, Joseph G. Manning, Colin Renfrew.

From the Bronze Age through the Middle Ages, a network of trade and migration routes brought people from across Eurasia into contact. Their commerce included political, social, and artistic ideas, as well as material goods such as metals and textiles. Reconfiguring the Silk Road offers new research on the earliest trade and cultural interactions along these routes, mapping the spread and influence of Silk Road economies and social structures over time. This volume features contributions by renowned scholars uncovering new discoveries related to populations that lived in the Tarim Basin, the advanced state of textile manufacturing in the region, and the diffusion of domesticated grains across Inner Asia. Other chapters include an analysis of the dispersal of languages across the Eurasian Steppe and a detailed examination of the domestication of the horse in the region. Contextualized with a foreword by Colin Renfrew and introduction by Victor Mair, Reconfiguring the Silk Road provides a new assessment of the intercultural evolution along the steppes and beyond. Contributors: David W. Anthony, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Dorcas R. Brown, Peter Brown, Michael D. Frachetti, Jane Hickman, Philip L. Kohl, Victor H. Mair, J. P. Mallory, Joseph G. Manning, Colin Renfrew. CONTENTS FIGURES CONTRIBUTORS Foreword. The Silk Roads before Silk Introduction. Reconceptualizing the Silk Roads Chapter 1. At the Limits Chapter 2. The Silk Road in Late Antiquity Chapter 3. The Northern Cemetery: Epigone or Progenitor of Small River Cemetery No. 5? Chapter 4. More Light on the Xinjiang Textiles Chapter 5. Seeds for the Soul Chapter 6 Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes Chapter 7. Indo-European Dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe Chapter 8. Concluding Comments Index