Map 6 Asia Orientalis Compiled by M.U
Map 6 Asia Orientalis Compiled by M.U. Erdosy, 1997 Introduction Map 6 embraces four distinct regions: central Asia and the Indus valley, which had lengthy contacts with the Greeks and Romans; and Tibet and Chinese Turkestan, which had practically none. The first two entered Western consciousness through the eastward expansion of the Achaemenid empire, which brought them into the orbit of Greek geographical knowledge, and won them prominence as the theaters of Alexander the Great’s eastern campaigns. Although colonization in the wake of Macedonian conquests was short-lived, classical influence on the arts and crafts of the area, if not its religious and political institutions, remained prominent for centuries. Moreover, even though the Parthians and Sasanians effectively severed overland links between central Asia and the Mediterranean world, the Alexander legend helped preserve geographical information for posterity (albeit frequently in a distorted form), even if little in the way of fresh data was added until Late Roman times. By contrast, areas to the north and east of the Himalayas remained in effect terra incognita until the nineteenth century, when the heart of Asia first received serious exploration by westerners, mostly as a by-product of the “Great Game.” Despite the impressive lists of toponyms and ethnonyms found in Ptolemy’s Geography and Ammianus Marcellinus, few cities and tribes can be localized with any certitude, since ancient geographers not only lacked first-hand knowledge of the area, but were also hampered by a defective image of the world, which was sure to produce serious distortions in peripheral regions. As a result, the eastern half of Map 6 is largely devoid of identifiable sites (although it contributes extensively to the list of unlocated toponyms and ethnonyms), while the western half is densely populated.
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