Cultural Diffusion Across Eurasia, 500 BC-AD 200

The transmission of a vast number of art motifs, technologies, and cultural traits from West to East in prehistoricperiod was due to the speed of communications and trading networks across the Eurasian Steppes beginning in the
second millennium B.C.. The formation of larger territorial states, nomadic confederations and empires (such as the Xiongnu) beginning in the first millennium BCE also facilitated these transmissions, which before then had mostly consisted of sporadic, cultural diffusion between the Western borders and China’s Inner Asian frontier. In this talk Prof. Barbieri-Low examines four case studies of cultural transmission, which date from between 500 BCE to around 200 CE: glass eye-beads, Chinese patterned silks, Roman silver plate, and the Ionic capital. Prof. Barbieri-Low investigates not necessarily how these features were diffused or by what route, but how the indigenous societies chose to adapt (or not to adapt) new ideas and technologies according to their pre-existing cultural preferences and repertoires.

Sponsored by the IHC Archaeology Research Focus Group and the East Asian Cultures Research Focus Group.

jwil 20.ii.2010