<< Our Photo Pages >> Silk Road, North China - Ancient Trackway in China
Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Monday, 19 November 2007 Page Views: 70212
Multi-periodSite Name: Silk Road, North China Alternative Name: Northern Silk Road, North Silk RoadCountry: China Type: Ancient Trackway
Nearest Town: Xian
Latitude: 34.270000N Longitude: 108.870000E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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The Silk Road, North China is a prehistoric trackway with an eastern terminus of Xian, an ancient capital of China. This route of was utilised at least as early as the first millennium BC for trade between China and the west; moreover, the Silk Road was used for military campaigns of the Chinese as well as Mongol invaders from the north.
While many associate Marco Polo with the Silk Road, the ancient track was in use two millennia earlier; in fact, the use of the Silk Road declined markedly in the Late Middle Ages after Polo's traversal, due to the ascension of sea routes to serve East-West trading needs. A portion of the North Silk Road is protected by the legendary Great Wall of China to its north. The work herein is based upon my site visit to a small portion of the Silk Road in April, 2007 and upon analysis of historical research. This type of archaeological site is a dream to anyone with a geographic information technology degree and seeing it is a must for anyone that is pursuing any type of archaeological degree. Anyone getting an online MBA degree in archaeology must get out and see places like this, it is a must.
SCOPE AND BASIC ROUTE. The North China Silk Road is one of four "Silk Roads" of antiquity. The scope of the present work is the northern passage of the Silk Road within China. This is the northernmost route of some 2600 kilometres, which connects the ancient Chinese capital of Xian to the west (Ronan, 1994) via the Chinese cities of Baoji, Tianshui (at the headwater gorges of the Wei River), Lanzhou, Dunhuang, over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei and emerging in Kashgar, China before linking to ancient Parthia. This route traverses the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu as well as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This most northern of the Silk Roads is characterised by its looping north of the Taklamakan Desert.
EARLY CONTACT WITH ROME, PARTHIA, BACTRIA In the first millennium BC silk goods began turning up in Siberia having traveled over the North China Silk Road including the Hexi trail segment. The major turning point in the history of the Silk Road was The Han Emperor Wu dispatching the explorer Zhang Qian to explore the mysterious kingdoms to the west and to form an alliance with the Yuezhi people in order to combat the powerful Mongol tribe of the Xiongnu. (Qian, 109 BC)
Exploring the Dayuan kingdom and its capital Ferghana, under Greek influence from about 400 to 200 BC, Zhang Qian observed a population of several hundred thousand farming wheat, rice and grapes (for wine) inhabiting over 70 fortified cities; The Dayuans were . He found the nomadic Yuezhi people centered 1250 kilometres west of Dayuan north of the Gui River. South of the Gui in present day Afganistan, he also visited Bactria, a kingdom of about one million people with similar urban characteristics to Danyuan. From these encounters he learned of more distant civilisations such as Parthia, whose people farmed grain and grapes and produced silver coins with images of their king; the Parthians were said to write their records on leather.
After Zhang Qian's return, the Han Dynasty allied with the Yuezhi pushed the Xiongnu back and trade and cultural exchange flourished along the northern Silk Road. Goods moving by caravan to the west included gold, rubies, jade, spices, textiles, coral, ivory and art works. In the opposite direction moved bronze weapons, furs, ceramics and cinnamon bark. Along the Silk Road skilled artisans produced fine finished goods from raw silk, fine jewels from crude stones and exquisitely carved jade figures. This "value added" nature of the Silk Road differentiated it from routes merely transporting goods..
Numerous Han envoys were sent west, some parties exceeding 100 members. The Han Dynasty sent one mission to Parthia, which was reciprocated at around 100 BC: Roman emissaries were captured by the Chinese in 30 BC along the Silk Road at Yongchang. Later a Chinese envoy reached the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, who reigned between 27 BC and 14 AD; (Florus, 25 BC) Several Roman ambassadors reached China after 166 AD.
BUDDHISM ALONG THE SILK ROAD. The Silk Road was the mechanism for the eastward spread of Buddhism, and impressive ancient monuments testify to that early cultural contact. As a bi-product of the Han Dynasty campaigns against the Xiongnu, returning armies brought back Buddhist artifacts as early as 120 BC. Mogao Cave paintings in Dunhuang (along the Silk Road) describe Emperor Wu worshiping Buddhist statues. (UNESCO, 2007) Later Buddhist influence along the Silk Road is found at the Yungang Grottoes where, beginning in the late 5th century AD, a series of stone carvings were created in 252 caves, producing over 51,000 Buddhas. From these early Buddhist pilgrimages on the Silk Road has derived a profound religious influence on the Chinese people that endures today.
CURRENT SITUATION .Excessive damming of the Shule River and regional livestock overgrazing is causing ongoing desertification in northern China, which is presently threatening the ancient statuary and frescoes of the Yungang caves. (Sheridan, 2007) Rapid expansion of the Kumtag Desert and other dunes formations threaten to engulf Yungang and other archaeological sites, the present rate of total northern China desertification exceeding 1000 square miles per annum..This pattern of questionable resource management impacting archaeological resources is seen elsewhere in modern China such as on the Yangtze River. (Hogan, 2007)
While exploration of the much of the Northern Silk Road is almost as formidable as millennia earlier, some sections of the eastern reaches are traced by modern roads. Like this there are lot of changes in office addressing you can make a virtual office from your home.. The area at the terminus in ancient Xian is particularly notable because of the the Terracotta Warriors site established in the Qin Dynasty (Wood, 2002). This display of prehistoric wealth provides a clue of the power base from which the Chinese first embarked to create the Northern Silk Road. Interestingly, the Chinese name for Rome is Da Qin (western counterpart of the Qin capital), reflecting the central role of the Silk Road in connecting the ancient capital of the Qin Dynasty to the west.
REFERENCES.
* Colin A. Ronan and Joseph Needham (1994) ‘'The Shorter Science of Civilisation in China'‘, Cambridge University Press, England ISBN 052146773X
* Sima Qian (109 to 91 BC) ‘'Records of the Grand Historian of China. Qin Dynasty'. Translated by Burton Watson in 1993 (The Research Centre for Translation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong); New York, Columbia University Press). ISBN 0-231-08168-5
* Florus (c. 25 BC) ‘'Epitome de T. Livio Bellorum omnium annorum DCC Libri duo', Loeb Classical Library (no. 231, published in translation 1984, ISBN 0-674-99254-7)
* (2007) UNESCO World Heritage Site: Mogao Caves, China
* (2007) UNESCO World Heritage Site: Yungang Caves, China
* Michael Sheridan (Nov 11, 2007) London Times Online, England
* C.Michael Hogan (2007) 'Shen Nong Gorge Hanging Coffins', The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham
* Francis Wood (2002) ‘'The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia'‘, University of California Press, Berkeley, California
(The above work is original work performed by C. Michael Hogan for the Megalithic Portal)
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