Bridging Eurasia: From the Mediterranean and Iran to China, 400–1000 CE

Major political and military changes in the Mediterranean and Western Asia reverberated as far as China. The routes of contact were no longer primarily along the ancient steppe routes. The changing powers of the steppe had forced China to look west along the deserts and oases that are often called the Silk Roads. These contacts are as much evident in material culture as in China’s official histories. Clear signs of the impact of the world of the Mediterranean are prominent in the roads that Buddhist proselytizers took through the desert world of today’s Xinjiang. The architecture of China’s massive Buddhist cave temples, such as those at Kizil, Dunhuang and Datong, show the deep impact of the Hellenistic world of architectural niches defined by columns and arches presenting sculpted figures in stucco or in stone. This architecture was hitherto unknown in China. Indeed, stone-arched or vaulted structures were never fully adopted within China’s indigenous architectural tradition. Concurrently, luxuries from the world of the Mediterranean and Persian courts have been revealed in silver and glass buried within Chinese hoards and tombs. Carried by such intermediaries as the Sogdian traders from Iran, these had a profound impact on China’s own manufacturing efforts.