Lecture Series: Before the Golden Peaches – Fresh perspectives on early Eurasian exchanges (FS22)
The Golden Peaches from Samarkand – like nothing else – stand pars pro toto for all exotic things that reached China during one of its most cosmopolitan and prosperous eras in history. Eminent scholars like Berthold Laufer and Edward H. Schafer masterfully demonstrated the earliest exchange of exotics between China and regions from across Eurasia by using linguistic, historical, and archaeological data. Beyond doubt, tremendous progress has been made in all these fields ever since.
With this series of lectures, which is part of the project “Sino-Indo-Iranica rediviva”, we bring together scholars from across the world and from diverse fields to present innovative insights into the earliest relationships between China with Inner Asia and the Ancient Near East.
For more information, please see the detailed introduction.
Some lectures will be held in hybrid mode and are planned to have a max. duration of one hour including discussion, starting at 15:00 CET/CEST. If available, the on-site part of the lecture series will take place in room SOD-1-104. Because there is limited space, pre-registration is required. Pre-registration is also needed to join the lectures on Zoom. For the registration, please use the registration form.
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Appreciation and distribution of Chinese lacquerware across the Eurasian hemisphere – from Korea to Crimea (3rd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D)
Margarete Prüch, Heidelberg University
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Indo-Iranian terminology for horses and chariots
Alexander Lubotsky, Leiden University
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Transcontinental cultural contacts of China during the Bronze Age
Lothar von Falkenhausen, University of California
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Transcultural Narrative Exchanges of Buddhist Birth Stories in Literary and Visual Cultures between Gandhara and Central Asia: A Case Study of the Pūrvayoga of Sudaṣṇa (Viśvantara Jātaka)
Jason Neelis, Wilfrid Laurier University
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Climatic constraints and cultural filters in the adoption of western grain crops in ancient China
Dorian Fuller, University College London
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The horse in China — its introduction, trade and breeding from the 1st millennium BCE into the 1st millennium CE
Susan Whitfield, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
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Animals as Diplomatic Gifts along the Maritime Silk Roads
Alexander Jost, Paris-Lodron-University Salzburg
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Following the donkey’s trail: A linguistic and archaeological study on the introduction of domestic donkeys to China
Samira Müller, Milad Abedi, Wolfgang Behr, Patrick Wertmann, University of Zurich