Description
The great empires of the vast Eurasian continent have captured the imagination of many. Awe-inspiring names such as ancient Rome, Han and Tang China, Persia, Assyria, the Huns, the Kushans and the Franks have been the subject of countless scholarly books and works of literature. However, very rarely, if at all, have these vast pre-industrial empires been studied holistically from a comparative, interdisciplinary and above all Eurasian perspective. This collection of studies examines the history, literature and archaeology of these empires and others thus far treated separately as a single inter-connected subject of inquiry. It highlights in particular the critical role of Inner Asian empires and peoples in facilitating contacts and exchange across the Eurasian continent in antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
Chapter
2 Tang China’s Horse Power: the Borderland Breeding Ranch System
The Borderland Ranch System
Herd Management and Herd Sizes
Factors Influencing Herd Sizes
3 Cimmerians and the Scythians: the Impact of Nomadic Powers on the Assyrian Empire and the Ancient Near East
Cimmerians and Scythians as ‘Nomadic’ Powers
Part II Socio-Institutional Aspects of Eurasian Empires
4 Honour and Shame in the Roman Republic
Setting the Stage: the Aristocratic Nature of the Roman Polity
Honour and Shame in the Roman Family
Honour and Shame in the Roman Senate
Honour and Shame in the Roman Military
5 Honour and Shame in Han China
The Redefinition of Shame in the Warring States
Honour and the Han Bureaucracy
Honour and Violence in the Han
6 Slavery and Forced Labour in Early China and the Roman World
The Status and Sources of Slaves
State Power and Economic Development
Part III Cultural Legacies of Eurasian Empires
7 Homer and the Shi Jing as Imperial Texts
Attempts at Dating Homeric Epic
Attempts to Date the Shi Jing
Songs of Empire, I: the Shi Jing
Songs of Empire, II: Homer
Conclusion: Reading Homer and the Shi Jing as Imperial Texts
8 The Serpent from Persia: Manichaeism in Rome and China
Manichaean Mission in the Roman Empire
The Eastward Expansion of Manichaeism
Central Asia and Egypt – a Century of Discoveries
Part IV Archaeology of Eurasian Empires
9 Alans in the Southern Caucasus?
Cultures and Traditions, Ethnicities and Identities
Samtavro: the Archaeological Evidence
Tile- Lined Tombs (Figures 9.3(b)–(c); 9.4(e); 9.5(b))
Stone Cist Tombs (Figures 9.3(e); 9.4(a)–(d))
The Dead and Their Belongings
Over the Mountains: Alanic Burial Grounds in the Northern Caucasus
The Northern Tombs and their Contents
Post- Depositional Disturbance of Grave Deposits
10 Greeks, Scythians, Parthians and Kushans in Central Asia and India
The Scythians and the Parthians in India
The Arrival of the Kushans in Gandhāra
Rise and Fall of the Kushan Empire
Hellenistic Art in Gandhāra
Greek Architecture and Plastic and Glyptic Art in Greater Gandhāra
Greek Interaction with Indian, Buddhist and Hindu Iconography
11 Enclosure Sites, Non-Nucleated Settlement Strategies and Political Capitals in Ancient Eurasia
Mobility and Gradations of Nomadism
Khorezmian Oasis Enclosure Sites
Area 10 Ceremonial Complex
Akchakhan- Kala Extra- Mural Settlement
Other Khorezmian Enclosure Sites
Khorezmian Settlement Patterns
Mobile or Agro- Pastoral Eurasian Settlement Adaptation
Central Asian Enclosure Sites
Early Medieval Mongolian States
Enclosure Sites as Political Capitals
Eurasian Empires in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
：Contact and Exchange between the Graeco-Roman World, Inner Asia and China
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