Silk Road forged by pastoralists?

Angela

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It's been a while since I saw a Frachetti paper.

See:
http://www.archaeology.org/news/5364-170309-silk-road-paths

"ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI—Science News reports that Michael Frachetti of Washington University and his team created a computer model of possible pathways traveled more than 4,000 years ago by nomadic herders between seasonal mountain pastures and lowland camps in Asia. Information for the model was collected using satellite analysis, geography, archaeology, and Geographic Information Systems. Frachetti suggests that some 2,000 years later, these routes had become Silk Road trade corridors through the mountains. Nomads may have shared their knowledge with lowland farmers, and they may have marked paths with standing stones or other landmarks. “Silk Road highland networks were formed by pastoralists interacting with other groups in a lengthy process that was not a construction project and involved no planning,” he explained."


 
4,000 years ago, so they would have been Indo-Iranian people of the Andronovo culture?
 
4000 years ago?
I wonder if chinese have found silk that time.
 
4000 years ago?
I wonder if chinese have found silk that time.

long before

the first proof of Silk road is the appearance of copper and horses near the Gansu corridor, NW China
well Silk road, ... it was trade between NW China and the steppe
the later Silk road would run westward through the Tarim Basin, not the steppe, and then high mountain passes were to be crossed
first the Silk road came under controll of the Xiongnu
later the Chinese got controll till the Gansu corridor, they prolonged the Chinese wall that far
further west the Chinese had allies who had helped to defeat the Xiongnu and with whom they traded
 
long before


the later Silk road would run westward through the Tarim Basin, not the steppe, and then high mountain passes were to be crossed
first the Silk road came under controll of the Xiongnu
later the Chinese got controll till the Gansu corridor, they prolonged the Chinese wall that far
further west the Chinese had allies who had helped to defeat the Xiongnu and with whom they traded


The steppe groups continued to control the trade goods flowing from the north and entering the silk road, both sides of the Urals.
 
and I thought Silk road was described by Marco Polo and passed through the Iran,and Bactriane.
while the older passed from Himalya to Pakistan, created by the Far East Makedonian-Hellenistic cities.


Polo.GIF
 
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-nomadic-herders-beat-path-silk-road
Contrary to the traditional view of nomadic groups as barbarians, the new paper supports a growing conviction among researchers that mobile herders contributed to the rise of “early states and civilization”, Frachetti agrees. In a mountainous part of Central Asia without cities — an area stretching from what’s now western China to Afghanistan and Pakistan — highland routes made it possible for travelers from many eastern and western lowland centers to journey across the continent. Contacts among highland herders and lowland populations eventually resulted in cradles of civilization in China and elsewhere, Frachetti suspects. “Silk Road highland networks were formed by pastoralists interacting with other groups in a lengthy process that was not a construction project and involved no planning,” he says.ns, says Yale University archaeologist William Honeychurch.

==> Just contributor? We’ll see. Anyway, I always think that nomad is just like blood in our body, providing every important parts with best nutrients.

030817_BB_silk-road_inline.gif

"NOMADS’ LAND This animated sequence consists of 10 computer simulations of routes taken by ancient herders descending to lowland sites from highland camps. Shifting lines represent herders’ proposed routes. Blue, white and red lines denote increasing estimated accumulations of herders traveling along certain routes. High-elevation parts of Central Asia appear in white, lowland areas are shaded dark."

pic-019.jpg

Fig. 3.7-1. Samples painted pottery: Left - Culture Trypillya (South Russia, 6 - 3 thousand BC.);
Right - Yangshao culture (China, 5 - 3 thousand BC.).

pic-027.jpg

Fig. 3.7-2. Samples painted pottery: Left - Culture Trypillya (South Russia, 6 - 3 thousand BC.), Cucuteni (Moldova, 5 - 3 thousand BC.); Right - Yangshao culture (China, 5 - 3 thousand BC.).
http://www.organizmica.org/archive/804/rk3.shtml

- the earliest bronze culture, Qijia, in China.
The Qijia culture (2200 BC – 1600 BC) was an early Bronze Age culture distributed around the upper Yellow River region of Gansu (centered in Lanzhou) and eastern Qinghai, China. It is regarded as one of the earliest bronze cultures.
Johan Gunnar Andersson discovered the initial site at Qijiaping (齊家坪) in 1923. Qijia culture was a sedentary culture, based on agriculture, and breeding pigs, which were also used in sacrifices. Qijia culture is distinguished by a presence of numerous domesticated horses, and practice of oracle divination, the metal knives and axes recovered apparently point to some interactions with Siberian and Central Asian cultures, in particular with the Seima-Turbino complex. Archeological evidence points to plausible early contact between the Qijia culture and Central Asia.[2]

The thorough study of Siba culture, of course, is dependent upon the publication of:full excavation reports and photos. After looking at the overall picture of Siba culture, what we can say here is extremely general. First, from now on, we should avoid seeing the prehistoric Gansu Corridor as merely a grassland of the Xiongnu, a lasting impression made by the official Chinese histories since the Han Dynasty. As early as the first half of the second millennium BCE, the Siba people had already developed a culture which was quite advanced in comparison with its neighboring areas including the Central Plain. Second, the Gansu Corridor became a crossroads of cultural exchange long before the silk trade took place. It was not only a bridge between the east and west, but also an interlink that connected the north and south.

Gansu corridor
China_Gansu.svg
 
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-nomadic-herders-beat-path-silk-road
Contrary to the traditional view of nomadic groups as barbarians, the new paper supports a growing conviction among researchers that mobile herders contributed to the rise of “early states and civilization”, Frachetti agrees. In a mountainous part of Central Asia without cities — an area stretching from what’s now western China to Afghanistan and Pakistan — highland routes made it possible for travelers from many eastern and western lowland centers to journey across the continent. Contacts among highland herders and lowland populations eventually resulted in cradles of civilization in China and elsewhere, Frachetti suspects. “Silk Road highland networks were formed by pastoralists interacting with other groups in a lengthy process that was not a construction project and involved no planning,” he says.ns, says Yale University archaeologist William Honeychurch.

==>Just contributor? We’ll see. Anyway, I always think that nomad is jusk like blood in our body, providing every important parts with nutrients.However, nothing without payment.

030817_BB_silk-road_inline.gif

"NOMADS’ LAND This animated sequence consists of 10 computer simulations of routes taken by ancient herders descending to lowland sites from highland camps. Shifting lines represent herders’ proposed routes. Blue, white and red lines denote increasing estimated accumulations of herders traveling along certain routes. High-elevation parts of Central Asia appear in white, lowland areas are shaded dark."

pic-019.jpg

Fig. 3.7-1. Samples painted pottery: Left - Culture Trypillya (South Russia, 6 - 3 thousand BC.);
Right - Yangshao culture (China, 5 - 3 thousand BC.).

pic-027.jpg

Fig. 3.7-2. Samples painted pottery: Left - Culture Trypillya (South Russia, 6 - 3 thousand BC.), Cucuteni (Moldova, 5 - 3 thousand BC.); Right - Yangshao culture (China, 5 - 3 thousand BC.).

pic-029.jpg

Fig. 3.7-3. Samples painted pottery: Left - Yangshao culture (China, 5 - 3 thousand BC.); right - the pre-dynastic period (Egypt, 3.5 thousand BC.).

"Russian China (Export of civilization)
Andrey Tyunyaev, president of the Academy of Sciences of the fundamental (Moscow), CCAS, Academy of Natural Sciences,"
http://www.organizmica.org/archive/804/rk3.shtml


- the earliest bronze culture, Qijia, in China.
The Qijia culture (2200 BC – 1600 BC) was an early Bronze Age culture distributed around the upper Yellow River region of Gansu (centered in Lanzhou) and eastern Qinghai, China. It is regarded as one of the earliest bronze cultures.
Johan Gunnar Andersson discovered the initial site at Qijiaping (齊家坪) in 1923. Qijia culture was a sedentary culture, based on agriculture, and breeding pigs, which were also used in sacrifices. Qijia culture is distinguished by a presence of numerous domesticated horses, and practice of oracle divination, the metal knives and axes recovered apparently point to some interactions with Siberian and Central Asian cultures, in particular with the Seima-Turbino complex. Archeological evidence points to plausible early contact between the Qijia culture and Central Asia.[2]
The thorough study of Siba culture, of course, is dependent upon the publication of:full excavation reports and photos. After looking at the overall picture of Siba culture, what we can say here is extremely general. First, from now on, we should avoid seeing the prehistoric Gansu Corridor as merely a grassland of the Xiongnu, a lasting impression made by the official Chinese histories since the Han Dynasty. As early as the first half of the second millennium BCE, the Siba people had already developed a culture which was quite advanced in comparison with its neighboring areas including the Central Plain. Second, the Gansu Corridor became a crossroads of cultural exchange long before the silk trade took place. It was not only a bridge between the east and west, but also an interlink that connected the north and south.

- The earliest Bronze Age remains (including metals) in Xinjiang are quite limited, suggesting that the region was sparsely populated before the arrival of Europoids from the west prior to 1800 BCE.* This early population is commonly equated with the Tocharians.† It is also thought that herders from the Altai migrated to the Tarim Basin at a somewhat earlier date, forming the Shamirshak (Uighur) / Qiemu’qiereke (Chinese) culture.‡ It exhibits traits of archaeological cultures from the western and eastern steppes including the Afanasievo, Okunev and Catacomb-Poltavka cultures (ibid., 67).
-One of the most important earlier Bronze Age (first half of second millennium BCE) sites in Xinjiang is the cemetery at Xiaohe, situated on the eastern edge of the Tarim Basin. Wheat (a crop introduced from the west) and millet (a crop introduced from the east) were being cultivated in Xiaohe, circa 2000 BCE.* No metal implements were found at Xiaohe (only small strips of tin-bronze and leaded bronze and gold earrings), but cut marks on coffins and ceremonial poles suggest metal tools were used to make them (Jianjun Mei 2009: 224; Jianjun Mei et al. 2012: 37, 40). Electrum earrings from Xiaohe are believed to have been imported, as there are no known gold deposits in the Tarim Basin (Jianjun Mei et al. 2012: 40).
-Typological analysis of socketed spearheads and axes, mirrors, and awls and knives with bone handles of the Qijia and Siba cultures and the Tianshanbeilu culture (eastern Xinjiang, ca. 2000–1550 BCE) shows that these types of objects have cognate forms, as part of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon and as part of the Andronovo culture (ca. 2000–1400 BCE) and Okunev culture (ca. 2200–1800 BCE) of the eastern steppes (Jianjun Mei 2009: 217).

note: why Catacomb-Poltavka cultures in Xinxiang, in which cranial series ties with Afanasievo?

Gansu corridor
China_Gansu.svg
 
Last edited:
and I thought Silk road was described by Marco Polo and passed through the Iran,and Bactriane.
while the older passed from Himalya to Pakistan, created by the Far East Makedonian-Hellenistic cities.


Polo.GIF

after the defeat of the Xiongnu, the Chinese traded with their allies, the Hellenic Greco-Bactrian kingdom, who controlled the Ferghana Valley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom#Contacts_with_the_Han_Empire
the Greco-Bactrians controlled the trade between the Ferghana Valley and the Mediterranean
that was 200 BC, long before Marco Polo
 
after the defeat of the Xiongnu, the Chinese traded with their allies, the Hellenic Greco-Bactrian kingdom, who controlled the Ferghana Valley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom#Contacts_with_the_Han_Empire
the Greco-Bactrians controlled the trade between the Ferghana Valley and the Mediterranean
that was 200 BC, long before Marco Polo

A lot of products needed to pass the steppe to reach Chinese, Indians, Persians or Greeks, furs and ivory had huge markets and a good incentive to establish an monopoly by controlling the steppe.
 
The stock-breeding cultures of the Eurasian “steppebelt” covered approximately 7-8 million square km2 fromthe Lower Danube in the West to Manchuria in the East(a distance of more than 8000 km). The initial formationof the “steppe belt’cultures coincided with the flourishingof the Carpatho-Balkan metallurgical province (V millenniumBC). These cultures developed during the span ofthe Circumpontic metallurgical province (IV-III millenniumBC). Their maturation coincided with the activity ofthe various centers of the giant Eurasian and East-Asianmetallurgical provinces (II millennium BC). The influenceof these stock-breeding nomadic cultures on the historicalprocesses of Eurasian peoples was extremelystrong. The collapse of the “steppe belt” occurred as lateas the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries AD.[/quoted]
 

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