Reden, Sitta von (ed.). 2020. Handbook of ancient Afro-Eurasian economies. Volume 1: Contexts. Berlin: De Gruyter.
The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires.The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections.Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history.
Table of contents:
- Sitta von Reden – Introduction: Ancient Economies and Global Connections
- PART I: EMPIRES
- Sitta von Reden – Introduction
- Sitta von Reden – 1. The Hellenistic Empires
- Lauren Morris – 2. Central Asian Empires
- Mamta Dwivedi – 3. Early Historic South Asia
- Kathrin Leese-Messing – 4. The Qin and Han Empires
- Ursula Brosseder – 5. The Xiongnu Empire
- Lara Fabian – 6. The Arsakid Empire
- Eli J. S. Weaverdyck – 7. The Roman Empire
- PART II: EVIDENCE
- Sitta von Reden – Introduction
- GRAECO-ROMAN EVIDENCE
- Eli J. S. Weaverdyck – 8.A Material Evidence
- Eli J. S. Weaverdyck – 8.B Transmitted Texts
- Sitta von Reden – 8.C Documentary Sources
- Lauren Morris – 9. Evidence for Central Asia
- EVIDENCE FOR EARLY SOUTH ASIA
- Mamta Dwivedi – 10.A Indic Sources
- Sitta von Reden – 10.B Graeco-Roman Indography
- Josef Wiesehöfer – 11. Evidence for Arsakid Economic History
- QIN AND HAN EVIDENCE
- Kathrin Leese-Messing – 12.A Transmitted Texts
- Tsang Wing Ma – 12.B Excavated Texts
- Kathrin Leese-Messing – 12.C Material Evidence: Lacquerware
- PART III: HISTORIOGRAPHIES
- Lara Fabian – Introduction
- Lara Fabian – 13. Russian Perspectives on Eurasian Pasts
- Tsang Wing Ma – 14. The Qin and Han Economies in Modern Chinese and Japanese Historiographies
- Mamta Dwivedi – 15. Trends in Economic History Writing of Early South Asia
- Lauren Morris – 16. Constructing Ancient Central Asia’s Economic History
- Sitta von Reden and Michael Speidel – 17. Economy, Frontiers, and the Silk Road in Western Historiographies of Graeco- Roman Antiquity