INSTITUT FÜR KUNSTGESCHICHTE OSTASIENS

Universität HeidelbergZentrum für OstasienwissenschaftenInstitut für Kunstgeschichte OstasiensSeminarstr. 4, 69117 Heidelberg, http://iko.uni-hd.de

Image: Screened stone funerary couch, detail, Tomb of Sogdian Official An Jia, d. 579 C.E., Collection of Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute, Shaanxi Province, China.

PROF. DR. XINJIANG RONGDirector, Institute for Early Chinese History, Peking University / 8th Heinz Götze Distinguished Visiting Professor, IKO, Heidelberg University

SOGDIAN MERCHANTS ON THE SILK ROAD(S)

Thursday 28 June, 2018, 6 pmKarl Jaspers Centre Building 4400, R. 212

Voßstraße 2 69115 Heidelberg

Reception Follows lecture.

Generously Sponsored by the Heinz Götze Foundation.

Special thanks to the HCTS for the generous use of their facilities.

This lecture addresses the intermediary role of Sogdian merchants on the Silk Road(s) and associated material culture. Sogdians spoke an Eastern Iranian language and lived in what is now present-day Uzbekistan. Known for their command of trade networks, they organized camel caravans (lead by sabao) linking trade between the Central Asia and East Asia. Sogdian merchants established colonial settlements and economic centres, engaging in commodities trade; gradually they monopolized Silk Routes. Northern nomadic powers and agricultural societies both benefited from the material culture largess and multivalent religious traditions disseminated through Sogdians networks.

HEINZ GÖTZE PUBLIC LECTURE