Reexploring the Silk Roads: Ancient Interactions and New Collaboration
The ancient Silk Roads have been a topic of intense scholarly debate in Chinese academia in recent decades. The study of Silk Roads has been further boosted by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by the Chinese government in 2013. Chinese archaeologists were encouraged to conduct joint excavations in other BRI countries with the aim of exploring the connections between ancient China and the outside world. Many more exhibitions in Chinese museums started to display cultural relics loaned from foreign institutions and to highlight ancient interactions through both overland and sea routes. The current research on the ancient Silk Roads benefits from these new international collaborations and has accordingly achieved a more global perspective.
Within this background, the five scholars in this edition, either archaeologists or curators, bring insights into the finds from sites along the Silk Roads, examining them as material evidence of ancient Sino-foreign interactions. Liangren Zhang and Ali A. Vahdati introduce the discoveries, including mud-brick dwellings and imitations of Chinese blue-and-white ware yielded by the Tepe Naderi project, a collaborative excavation led by archaeologists from China and Iran. Based on first-hand material, Yu Ding examines the chronology and scale of Chinese Longquan celadon exported to Kenya from the 13th to 15th centuries, as well as the impetus behind the trade in Longquan ware. Yue Wang investigates the formation and spread of Kushan art through cultural exchanges along the Silk Roads, emphasizing the styles and carving techniques of various statues and objects. Finally, focusing on the transmission of glass objects and craftsmanship, Chunlei Qin analyzes the development of glass artistry and trade between China and other ancient civilizations.
Shujing WANG is an Assistant Professor at Peking University and was an Adjunct Postdoctoral Fellow of Global Asia, NYU Shanghai (2020-2021). Email: sw2463@nyu.edu