Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity

This conference features nine distinguished scholars presenting their latest work on the Silk Road and the origins of the Tarim Basin Mummies.

This public symposium is the first major event in over fifteen years to center on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archeological discoveries and scholarly advances have been made, creating a need to critically reshape the very idea of the “Silk Road.” Major topics of discussion include ancient transportation and economies, the origins of early westerners in Central Asia, the excavations of textiles in Xinjiang, and a reinvestigation of the Tarim Basin mummies.

Distinguished speakers include:

Colin Renfrew
Before Silk: Unsolved Mysteries of the ‘Silk Road’

J.P. Mallory 
Indo-European Dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe: Research Agendas

Victor H. Mair
The Northern Cemetery: Epigone or Progenitor of Small River Cemetery No. 5?

David W. Anthony
Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes

Michael D. Frachetti
Seeds for the Soul: East/West Diffusion of Domesticated Grains along the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor

Elizabeth Wayland Barber
The Xinjiang Textiles: More Corridors in the Goldmine

Joseph G. Manning
At the Limits: Long Distance Trade in the Time of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Kings

Peter Brown
The Silk Road in Late Antiquity: Politics, Trade, and Culture Contact between Rome and China, 300-700 CE

Philip L. Kohl
Concluding Q&A session and discussion

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