Ancient China and its Eurasian Neighbors

Authors:
Katheryn M. Linduff, Yan Sun, Wei Cao and Yuanqing Liu

Publisher:
Cambridge University Press

Publication Date:
January 2018

Abstract:

This volume examines the role of objects in the region north of early dynastic state centers, at the intersection of Ancient China and Eurasia, a large area that stretches from Xinjiang to the China Sea, from c.3000 BCE to the mid-eighth century BCE. This area was a frontier, an ambiguous space that lay at the margins of direct political control by the metropolitan states, where local and colonial ideas and practices were reconstructed transculturally. These identities were often merged and displayed in material culture. Types of objects, styles, and iconography were often hybrids or new to the region, as were the tomb assemblages in which they were deposited and found. Patrons commissioned objects that marked a symbolic vision of place and person and that could mobilize support, legitimize rule, and bind people together. Through close examination of key artifacts, this book untangles the considerable changes in political structure and cultural makeup of ancient Chinese states and their northern neighbors.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: the inner Asian frontier restructured

1. Shaping the study of inner Asian artifacts and mental boundaries
Katheryn M. Linduff

2. Technoscapes and the materialization of ideas in metal in the inner Asian frontier (c.3000–1500 BCE)
Katheryn M. Linduff

3. Identity and artifacts in the north-central and northeastern frontier during the period of state expansion in late second and the early first millennium BCE
Yan Sun 孫岩

4. The rise of state and the formation of group identities in the Western regions of the inner Asian frontier (c.1500 to the eighth century BCE)
Cao Wei, Liu Yuanqing, Katheryn M. Linduff and Yan Sun

5. Conclusions and future challenges
Katheryn M. Linduff and Yan Sun