Volume 5 Number 1 Summer 2007 “The Bridge between Eastern and Western Cultures” From the Editor’s Desktop In This Issue Richthofen’s ‘Silk Roads’ ...... 1 Richthofen’s “Silk Roads”: Toward Special feature on food: the Archaeology of a Concept Georgia: A Culinary Crossroads...11 Food, Medicine & the Silk Road . 22 Seeking Mongolian Barbecue .... 36 In the year now drawing to a close a scholarly discipline (Oster- we are marking the 130th hammel 1987, p. 150). Trained Xiongnu Royal Grave at Tsaraam 44 anniversary of Ferdinand Freiherr especially in geomorphology, he
Tsaraam Chinese Inscription ...... 56 von Richthofen’s publication of the studied areas of East and
Ancient Anatolian Tracks ...... 59 term “die Seidenstrasse,” the Silk Southeast Asia, and then between Mongolia exhibition book ...... 66 Road. Almost any discussion of the 1862 and 1868 worked in the Dunhuang Centenary ...... 68 Silk Road today will begin with the American West. Today a 3944 m Upcoming programs ...... 73 obligatory reminder that the noted peak in Colorado bears his name. German geographer had coined Between 1868 and 1872, he spent the term, even if few seem to much of his time traveling in Next Issue know where he published it and China; his initial observations from what he really meant. For some those travels already appeared in Hermann Parzinger on Eurasian time now I have wondered exactly an English edition in Shanghai in archaeology what the good Baron said, which, 1872. While the political dis- Reports on the 2007 Silkroad as it turns out was something both turbances in Xinjiang prevented Foundation-Mongolian National narrower and broader than what his visiting that region, the range Museum excavations and survey those who invoke him have tended of mountains bordering the Gansu in Khovd aimag by Bryan Miller, to suggest. Corridor on the south (Qilianshan) Jessieca Leo, Veronica Joseph for a long time bore his name. His and James Williams Rather than use my space initial academic position was as a primarily for editorial comment on Odbaatar on a Uighur cemetery geologist, but in 1886 he became the contents of this issue of our chair of the Geography De- near Kharbalgas journal, I decided to undertake a Lin Ying on the Boma cup kind of archaeological investi- and more… gation, digging a test pit to discover what is in the layer containing Richthofen’s original About formulation. Readers should be warned that, like Heinrich The Silk Road is a semi-annual publi- Schliemann at Troy, I am going to cation of the Silkroad Foundation. The ignore most of the intervening Silk Road can also be viewed on-line at
2 environment but is also influenced director (1902-5) of the Institut archaeological, and he was further by exchange between areas of für Meereskunde (Institute for the limited by having to rely on human settlement. Thus Richt- Study of the Seas) in Berlin. translations of the Chinese texts.3 hofen is taking a “geosystems” Richthofen noted that following approach to writing human The specific context for the establishment of a Han economic geography, in which Richthofen’s use of the term presence in Inner Asia in the exchange creates conditions for “Seidenstrasse” in his China, Vol. second century BCE, references the development of more complex I, is his examination of the history by the western sources to the societies. The emergence of nodal of geographic knowledge in the Serer increased in frequency. After points for exchange is a direct West with regard to China and a period of decline toward the end consequence of their occupying conversely, in China with regard of the former Han, under the latter key positions on the routes of to the West. He devotes particular Han the trade revived to flourish communication. Communication attention to the earliest acquisition for about a century down to ca. invariably involves the intersection of this geographic knowledge in 150 CE. As we now know, of routes, the points of inter- the relatively narrow period subsequent publications of section often joining land routes encompassing the Han Dynasty additional primary source texts with water routes. As Jürgen and Imperial Rome. In this large and especially the new ar- Osterhammel has suggested, in section of his book, Richthofen chaeological discoveries would certain ways Richthofen’s ideas analyzes the evidence in Greek soon substantially revise many about socio-economic develop- and Roman sources which first details of Richthofen’s analysis ment anticipated “modernization speak of the Serer, those (see especially Herrmann 1910, theory” as it would emerge in the connected with the trade in silk, 1938). The revision of the writings of Max Weber (Oster- or Serica, the land of silk. He “standard” history of the Silk hammel 1987, p. 189). examines as well the evidence in Roads continues today. the Chinese annals concerning the Of particular interest here is the first missions to the Western Of particular importance in fact that for Richthofen in the Regions and the consequent Han Richthofen’s narrative are the longer historical view communi- campaigns leading to expansion geography and world map of cations by water seem, if into Central Asia. Much of this is Marinus of Tyre, known to us only anything, to have been more the now familiar story of the indirectly through Ptolemy important than communications beginnings of the “Silk Road.” In (Richthofen 1877-1912, Vol. I, pp. by land. He admits though that we citing some of the pioneering 477ff). Marinus’ information about lack sources to say anything analyses of exchange with China the overland route from the concrete about those routes in (notably by Joseph de Guignes Mediterranean to the borders of East Asia before the time of and Jean Baptiste Bourguignon the land of silk derived from an Ptolemy, whose evidence is d’Anville in the 18th century), account by the agents of a difficult to interpret and seems in Richthofen acknowledges that Phoenician merchant Maës fact to reach only as far as the Gulf much of what he has to say about Titianus. While Richthofen of Tonkin. The initiative in using the trade routes is not new admitted the difficulty of matching the sea routes seems to have (Richthofen 1877-1912, Vol. I, pp. Marinus’ and Ptolemy’s place come from the West, not from 460-462, 476). He also drew names with ones known from the China, although in the fourth and heavily upon the publication a Chinese sources, he nonetheless fifth centuries, Chinese ships decade prior to his own book of identified “Issedon Serica” with made their way into the Indian Cathay and the Way Thither by Khotan [Fig. 2] and “Sera Ocean. The sea trade blossomed Henry Yule, in the Islamic period and in Mongol whose engraved times, but seems to have been portrait oc- controlled largely by the cupied a place of westerners. It is perhaps in- honor in Richt- dicative of Richthofen’s priorities hofen’s Berlin that, when he delivered lectures apartment to the German Geological Society (Hedin 1933, p. anticipating some of the themes 33), and the of the first volume of his China, translations of the lecture on communication by early Chinese sea (Richthofen 1876) preceded sources by Emil the one on communication over Bretschneider. the Silk Roads (Richthofen 1877).2 Richthofen’s The father of the “Silk Road” sources were Fig. 2. Richthofen’s Issedon Serica (detail of map, concept was also the founding textual, not China, Vol. I, facing p. 500).
3 “Strassen” (roads or breadth of Eurasia from China to routes), “Haupt- the Mediterranean. Clearly the strassen” (main idea of trade in stages fits within routes) or “Handels- his scheme. strassen” (trade routes), even as he At first blush, we might be stresses that it was puzzled by Richthofen’s assertion the trade in silk that, for several centuries after the which fueled the Han withdrew from Central Asia in development of the the second century CE, overland Inner Asian con- exchanges of any consequence tacts.4 When he ceased. His own evidence seems later discusses the to contradict this, where he takes overland trade up (granted, in a rather routes in the Islamic compressed way) developments period and Pego- such as the spread of Buddhism lotti’s 14th-century into China, the rise of the Türk description of the Empire, and evidence in the Sui route to China, annals and in accounts such as Richthofen mapped those of Faxian and Xuanzang. In them respectively as fact, when he talks of cessation of the “Hauptverkehr- exchanges he seems specifically strasse” and to be referring to the trade, if “Haupt-Handels- diminished, now being in the Fig. 3. Richthofen’s caption to his map showing strasse,” the latter hands of merchants other than the Marinus’ “Silk Road.” running from north Chinese (Richthofen 1877-1912, of the Caspian, Vol. I, p. 523). The other Metropolis” with Chang’an, and south of the Aral Sea and then important factor in his view was concluded that the route north of the Tien Shan to Barkol, that the transmission of the secret described was that passing south Hami, and the Gansu Corridor of silk to Byzantium in the 6th of the Taklamakan desert. Where (Richthofen 1877-1912, Vol. I, century and consequent rise of a Richthofen differed from some facing p. 566 and p. 672). silk industry there diminished earlier commentators was in his significantly in the West demand questioning whether the route This is not to say that in focusing for Chinese silk. through the Pamirs went via on the routes beginning in the Han Samarkand and the Ferghana period Richthofen is oblivious to He thus justifies his assertion Valley. On the basis of the latest interactions across Eurasia earlier, that when the Tang Dynasty re- Russian geographical explora- but he portrays the earlier trade conquered Central Asia, the very tions, he felt there was reason to contacts as episodic exchange nature of the silk trade had think that the early silk merchants from hand to hand, not as changed. By this time, silk was had traveled in a more direct line something organized and not just a form of luxury textile, it from Bactria to the east through involving long distance travel and was also a form of currency, in the Pamir-Alai. large quantities of goods (Ibid., p. central China and in the Chinese 458). Only with the extensive northwest. The changes in turn While this discussion introduces results of modern archaeology affected Chinese interest in the term “Seidenstrasse” in the across Inner Asia are we now fully geographical knowledge. While singular specifically with reference appreciating how widespread were new information about the West to Marinus’ route [Fig. 3], it also those earlier contacts which was being acquired under the uses the term in the plural for moved in a great many directions Tang, there was no longer an effort routes both east and west of the (for a good overview, see to integrate it with the old into a Pamirs (Parzinger 2005 notes that Parzinger 2005). For Richthofen larger picture of world geography. Richthofen used the plural). He it is important that, during what Even though there was a takes pains to emphasize that “it he considers was the relatively concerted government effort to would be a mistake to consider brief flourishing of the Eurasian gather information, especially that it [Marinus’ route] was the trade under the Han, Chinese about Inner Asia, Chinese horizons only one at any given moment or merchants (presumably he means shrank to that which immediately even the most important one.” In ethnic Chinese) were traveling all adjoined their borders, and with general, rather than “Seiden- the way into Central Asia. the Tang withdrawal from Central strassen,” Richthofen prefers the However, he does not claim that Asia after the middle of the eighth terms “Verkehr” (communication), merchants traveled the whole century, those horizons them-
4 selves diminished (Ibid., pp. 547, traditional kinds of compilation, unlimited range of economic and 578).5 The rise of Islam capped despite the evidence for the cultural exchanges across Eurasia. this fundamental shift away from significant presence of Chinese in While the title of his lecture to the the kind of interaction across western parts of the Mongol Geological Society included the Eurasia that had taken place Empire where they must have had term “Silk Roads,” the substance centuries earlier. In short, as he ample opportunity to learn about of the lecture reiterated the concluded in his presentation to the wider world (p. 587). arguments of the book.7 By the the Geological Society in Berlin, time he read his general lectures “The concept of the trans- Finally, regarding Richthofen’s on settlement and communication continental Silk Roads had lost its treatment of the East-West a number of years later, he did not meaning” (Richthofen 1877, p. exchange of geographical even use the term “Seiden- 122). knowledge, I might note the strasse.” Indeed, trade in silk oddity of his sweeping comments occupied less than a page in that At very least we might point out about Ming isolation (p. 619). He narrative, where, in his discussion that Richthofen’s analysis for the himself understands that such was of ancient human “Handels- th Tang era ignores the over- not the case in the early 15 verkehr,” gold, precious stones whelming evidence of pervasive century, when there were and spices merited more foreign influences and contacts in embassies exchanged with the attention. Nor did Richthofen use that period. He is simply wrong Timurids. Even though he is the term “Seidenstrasse” in his about an absence of evidence for acquainted with Clavijo, he correspondence with Hedin, the cultural interaction between Persia ignores what the Spaniard tells us last letters of which date from the and China in the pre-Mongol about the Chinese in Samarkand. time when Hedin’s discoveries and period (p. 556). Yet at the same And there is only a passing those of Aurel Stein and the time, he makes it clear that the mention in Richthofen’s account German archaeologists under the sea trade flourished, and evidence concerning one of the great sands of the Tarim Basin were in the Chinese annals indicates Chinese fleets in the Indian Ocean becoming known. So Richthofen th Chinese vessels made it all the during the first third of the 15 both denied that the concept of way to Siraf in the Persian Gulf. century. transcontinental “Silk Roads” had Idrisi (12th century) even has them Richthofen’s use of the term any broader application at the visiting Aden (p. 568). For the same time that he never most part though, this trade was “Silk Roads” is really quite limited. He applies it, sparingly, only to the subscribed to a narrow concept of in the hands of Arabs and Persians an ancient East-West super- (p. 578). Han period, in discussing the relationship between political highway where the central part of It may be easier to agree with expansion and trade on the one the route was of little consequence Richthofen that during the post- hand and geographical knowledge except as a transmission belt Han period, the West in effect on the other. The term refers in between the civilizations of East forgot what it had known about the first instance to a very specific and West. His narrow interest China.6 Indeed the establishment east-west overland route defined pertained to analysis of specific of a Nestorian presence in China by a single source, even though written sources, whereas his under the Tang seems to have left he recognizes that at that time concept of human geography was no trace in Western geographical there were other routes in various in fact much broader than those knowledge (p. 555). While Islamic directions (pp. 459-462) and at who invoke his “Silk Road” seem geographical works would least to some extent appreciates to have understood. eventually include much new that silk was not the only product information about Central and carried along them. If the Silk Once he had enunciated the idea East Asia, little of this became Road of Marinus was a of “Silk Roads” though, did it catch known in medieval Europe. Hauptstrasse, it is only because on? This is a subject for a separate that is the route which his lone study, but let us look quickly at Even though the conditions for informant used. some evidence. Reviewers of his travel and cultural exchange China seem to have been little changed dramatically under the This limited use of the concept interested in the phrase, focusing Mongol Empire the impact of this served Richthofen’s immediate their attention instead on whether on geographical knowledge was purpose of explaining the or not he was correct in his far more pronounced in the West transmission of geographical discussion of dating and precision than in China. Richthofen knowledge and the evidence of a of the information contained in the expresses disappointment in not few ancient sources. In fact he ancient texts (e.g., Gutschmid finding a conceptual change in the never uses the term in discussing 1880). There is no indication that Chinese understanding of the the later part of that history, nor Hedin in his early books paid any world. Instead, he finds geo- did he intend that the concept be attention to the concept. In fact graphical inquiry limited to extended to other periods and an when he went off to Central Asia,
5 he evinced little understanding of the early sources, reconstructing Silk Roads sparked an interest in the cultural history and human (somewhat controversially, I the broad reading public. If not geography which was so important believe) the ancient Chinese maps Herrmann then, what about Hedin to Richthofen. This, despite the and including in his still useful or Stein? Any analysis of their fact that Hedin had been Historical and Commercial Atlas of impact will need to take into introduced to China, Vol. I, before China several maps on which the account what seems to have been he went to study in Berlin in 1889, quite numerous branches of the an insatiable appetite of large and despite Richthofen’s urgings “Silk Roads” are illustrated audiences in the late nineteenth that he pay attention to Inner (Herrmann 1935).9 and early twentieth centuries for Asian human history. As we shall lectures and books on exploration, see, Hedin eventually invoked his Herrmann’s work culminated in adventure travel, and archaeo- mentor’s phrase, albeit inci- a second “silk road” volume logical discovery. We may well ask dentally to other priorities. (Herrmann 1938) which left only whether the explorers and shreds of the original detail of academics invented the “Silk The scholar who seems first to Richthofen’s scheme intact and Road” as a popular phenomenon have done something with presented at least the illusion that or whether, instead, the impetus “Seidenstrasse” was August one might really be able to was public demand. Stein’s Herrmann, a proper analysis of quantify distances in the ancient explorations were often reported whose work cannot be my task texts. In particular, following on in the London Times (Wang 2002); here. Herrmann’s 1910 book was the first reviews of Richthofen, Hedin’s collection of newspaper the first to use “Seidenstrasse” in Herrmann emphasized how his clippings concerning his exploits its title. Its use of the term, as in predecessor had misconstrued the extends over several meters of Herrmann’s subsequent writings, reference points used by Ptolemy archival shelving.10 In the days seems to have been consistent and failed to understand that before television, the lecture tour with Richthofen’s limited original Ptolemy had arbitarily halved the was a significant form of public intent. That is, the task Herrmann distances on the eastern part of entertainment. Hedin had the set himself was to review the his map. Marinus, his source, had ability to mesmerize audiences earliest evidence concerning East- committed the opposite mistake with tales about his foolish West geographical knowledge, the of overextending them. Herrmann escapade of trying to cross the emphasis being on the relatively thus set about to reconstruct more Taklamakan in 1896. Stein, I think short period embracing the Han accurately Marinus’ lost map. much more reluctantly, also Dynasty. Herrmann had in hand a Probably the most significant lectured. good many texts which had not conclusion he reached was that been available to his predecessor, Marinus’ route was not the incorporated new information from southern one around the From his earliest days as an exploration and archaeology, and Taklamakan but rather the two explorer, Hedin was successful in seems, by and large, to have had intersecting northern ones. finding good publishers for his a much deeper knowledge of According to Herrmann, Issedon narratives. Richthofen expressed Greek and Roman geography than Serica referred not to Khotan, but amazement at how quickly the did Richthofen. to the region farther east, Shan- young Swede could write up his Shan/Kroraina (i.e. including travels and have them in print Only in passing (Herrmann Charchlik and Lou-Lan), even (e.g., Hedin 1933, p. 82); 1910, p. 10) did Herrmann though, somewhat illogically it producing the books became kind comment on Richthofen’s seems, Sera Metropolis was not of a Hedin family business formulation “Seidenstrasse,” Chang’an, as Richthofen had it, enterprise. Both Hedin and Stein suggesting (not entirely but Wu-Wei, farther to the west. produced rather bulky “popular accurately) that Richthofen had By 1938 Herrmann was using the narratives” of their explorations as confined it to describing the term Seidenstrassen (plural) quite well as dense scholarly compendia Chinese route into Central Asia, freely in his text. Probably the with technical details. Modern even though it might also be only reason he did not do so in readers often find themselves put extended to describe as well the the title of the monograph — off by even the “popular route westwards to Syria. where he used “Land der Seide” narratives.” I happen to like Stein Herrmann justified his “correction” to refer to the ancients’ China — for his detail about excavating with reference to work published was the fact that his colleague ancient garbage dumps and dislike by Friedrich Hirth in 1889 Sven Hedin (who wrote a brief Hedin for his tiresome reminders regarding the eastern trade. preface to Hermann 1938) had of temperatures, stream flow, Following the appearance of his published two years earlier his altitude and bad weather. I have monograph, Herrmann published own book entitled The Silk Road. heard exactly the opposite opinion in 1915 an essay on “The Silk from others. Hedin was a Roads from China to the Roman It is a bit difficult to imagine that publishing sensation in Germany Empire.”8 He continued to work on Herrmann’s dense analyses of the after he was taken on by the firm
6 of Brockhaus in Leipzig, which Otherwise, but for a few compassed much of what we find issued long, intermediate length photographs and sketches of parts in the more expansive definitions and short versions of the same of the Great Wall and watchtowers of “Silk Roads” today. He wrote books and reprinted them in large and a paragraph or two on the well and his magisterial pages numbers (Hedin 1933, p. 43; Sino-Swedish discoveries, there is breathe a willingness to tackle Waugh 2001). There was some nothing. The book is really about large ideas. True, his lectures on competition between Stein and Hedin’s extended motor journey settlement and communication Hedin in terms of publication.11 from 1933-35 in the last stages of are textbookish, an accurate the multi-year expedition he had reflection of their genre. To a Of course much of the Hedin organized. The book is typical degree though that impression material had little to do with the Hedin, largely a travel tale derives from the fact that what we ancient silk roads, but by the involving occasional exciting find in them is ideas that we now 1920s there were compactly adventures during the period of take for granted, even if when first written popularizations (not the civil unrest in Xinjiang. The mirage enunciated they may have stuck earlier so-called “popular nar- of the title notwithstanding, it is his listeners as new. In contrast, ratives”) which would have led hard to imagine that with this his China is anything but readers to the subject, if not focus the book could have served simplistic. For its time, despite its necessarily to the specific term as the catalyst for the more biases, internal contradictions and “Silk Road.” Among them was modern overblown enthusiasms the limitations of its source base, Hedin’s autobiography, with its for the Silk Road. The modern it tells the story of the Silk Roads colorful verbal excess about his developments include such amazingly well. Possibly re- discovery of Dandan Oilik, where excesses as the NTK-CCTV multi- reading Richthofen would he “won, in the heart of the desert, million yen 30-part television encourage us to excavate in the a new field for archaeology” and spectacular of the 1980s, full of lower layers of the cultural stood “like the prince in the blowing dust, the quickly deposit, which conceal the works enchanted wood, having wakened stultifying music of Kitaro, and of his eminent predecessors who, to new life the city which has often inane commentary, even if like Richthofen, are nowadays little slumbered for a thousand years” some of the footage is quite read. We just might discover that (Hedin 1925/1996, p. 188). Von inspiring. “Silk Road Studies” now their vision too in many ways Le Coq produced a decent may mean modern geopolitical anticipated that of our reputedly overview of the German Turfan and security studies of oil more enlightened and better expeditions, mixing ethnographic pipelines, Central Asian trans- informed times. and archaeological material (Le portation and ethnic unrest.13 Coq 1928), and Stein’s Lowell Of course another response to Institute (Boston) lectures So in its inception Seidenstrasse Richthofen might be to follow the appeared as In Ancient Central was a convenient shorthand, advice of Warwick Ball and dismiss Asian Tracks (Stein 1933). All of auxiliary to a specific treatment of the concept of the Silk Road as a these books have been reprinted ancient written sources. Does this meaningless neologism which and are still available. then mean that we should ignore bears little relationship to the the good Baron who invented the realities on the ground in early By the 1930s, Richthofen’s term? On the contrary, I would Eurasia (Ball 1998). Certainly the original formulation was barely argue that we can benefit from main point in his ex cathedra more than a footnote. Hedin, in reading him, not for the details pronouncements about the fact, may have been the first to which in so many cases are now modern popularization of the invoke his “Silk Road” for its obsolete or to club him for his concept has its merits, even if he romantic aura as a means of “orientalist” and “imperialist” has not read his Richthofen, gets marketing a book which had little views, but for his breadth and some of his facts wrong, and to do with what his mentor had depth of understanding of the misunderstands important said. The book in question, The interaction between man and the aspects of how Eurasian exchange Silk Road (first published in environment and for his ap- operated in earlier times. I would Swedish as Sidenvägen in 1936) preciation of the significant role of readily admit the concept of the was soon translated into English communication in human ex- Silk Roads is lacking in analytical and German, and the German change across the centuries and value, especially if it includes edition within a few short years in various parts of the globe. He under its umbrella almost any and had been reprinted at least ten certainly is one of those who all forms of human exchange times. For the first three-fourths shared with other pioneering across all of Eurasia and over two of the book Hedin barely mentions scholars in the nineteenth century or more millennia. Yet to interpret the Silk Road. Then he pastes in a an understanding of the centrality it this broadly seems consistent perfunctory 10-page overview of of Central Asia. Even though he with Richthofen’s vision of what its history, mentioning both never extended his neologism to human geography was all about, Richthofen and Herrmann.12 later periods, his vision en- even if to do so ignores the limited
7 use he made of the specific References Herrmann 1935 phrase. Albert Herrmann. Historical and Commercial Atlas of China. Thus, I am quite comfortable Ball 1998 Harvard-Yenching Institute. with presenting as part of “The Silk Warwick Ball. “Following the Monograph series, Vol. 1 Road,” on the pages which follow mythical road.” Geographical (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard here, articles on topics as Magazine 70/3 (1998): 18-23. University Press, 1935). The maps disparate as the transmission of (not text) may be found on-line food and medicines, Chinese Chichagov 1983 at
8 China im Altertum und Mittelalter.” jubilaeen/2005/richthofen.html>, locations more closely connected Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft accessed November 6, 2007. with inland China. für Erdkunde zu Berlin 1876: 86- 3. “Da er niemals über Elemen- 97. Waugh 2001 Daniel C. Waugh, “A Sven Hedin tarkenntnisse der chinesischen Richthofen 1877 Bibliography.” On-line at 9 p. 500 delineates in red “die of the Western Lands. He 11. As Helen Wang indicates, in Seidenstrasse des Marinus.” summarizes the argument in his order to fund their expeditions, book concerning Han expansion 5. As Helen Wang has reminded they had to prove they were and the evidence in the Chinese me, Richthofen could have fleshed worthy of support, and get annals that the southern route out his account with reference to financial backing. The press picked around the Tarim Basin antedated the An Lushan rebellion, which up on this. See for example, the in importance the northern one. nearly toppled the Tang, and the illustration to Wang 2007, p. 230, In support of the book’s Tibetan occupation of Central Asia. in which the Illustrated London arguments that the Western News of 30 January 1909 shows 6. “…So verlor sich doch im merchants might have taken more portraits of 15 “men who fill in the Westen allmälig die Kunde von der direct route from Balkh through gaps, the great explorers of the Existenz eines Volkes der Serer; the Pamirs, he cites in his paper moment,” with Stein at No.1 and denn die Chinesen waren aus den new reports on explorations which Hedin at No.15. Bazars verschwunden, der he had received while his book was 12. Even though he mentions Seidenhandel zu Lande nahm already in press. wahrscheinlich bedeutend ab, und Richthofen in only one sentence, gelangte in die Hände von Völkern, 8. “Die Seidenstrassen von China Hedin correctly pointed out that die man unter ihren eigenen nach dem Römischen Reich,” in his mentor had used “Silk Road” Namen kannte. Man fragte nicht Mitteilungen der Geographischen specifically in mapping the route nach ihrem weiteren Ursprung und Gesellschaft in Wien 1915: 472ff. transmitted by Marinus of Tyre: “I brauchte daher keine Serer (cited Herrmann 1938, p. 3 n. 2). texten till sitt berömda verk China, mehr…” (p. 523). Note, of course, I, talar han om ‘Die Seidenstrasse’ 9. See especially: http:// that this is not an indication that och på en karta om ‘die map.huhai.net/24.jpg and http:/ there was no silk trade what- Seidenstrasse des Marinus’” /map.huhai.net/37.jpg, the first soever, but simply that it was no (Hedin 1936, p. 310). showing the Han routes in Central longer being carried by Chinese Asia; the second the situation in 13. I have in mind here the Silk merchants. Central Asia ca. 660. Road Studies Program, based in 7. The 1877 presentation begins Uppsala, Sweden, a joint with allusions to how recent 10. I owe the information about undertaking with the Johns geographical discoveries were now the clippings on Hedin to Axel Hopkins University Central Asia- making it possible and desirable Odelberg, who discussed his Caucasus Institute. See the to re-examine the ancient texts in forthcoming biography of Hedin at website at Photo copyright © 1969 Daniel C. Waugh during the period of Tang control Fig. 1. A street in old Tbilisi. 10