30.03.2022Transcontinental cultural contacts of China during the Bronze Age

Lecturer

Lothar von Falkenhausen, University of California

Date and Time

30 March 2022, 15:00–16:00 CET

Location (online and on-site)

To attend online via Zoom, please register by submitting the registration form.

The lecture will also be held as an on-site event: University of Zurich, Room SOD-1-104, Schönberggasse 9, 8001 Zürich

Organization

Research project «Sino-Indo-Iranica rediviva», Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies – Chinese Studies

Abstract

In light of a century of archaeological research, it is becoming ever more clear that the rise of China’s unique civilization did not occur in a vacuum, but was linked—in more or less tenuous ways—to developments elsewhere in Eurasia.  Without going much into detail, this lecture will provide assorted comments on a provisional list of cultural elements that may have reached China from areas further West before the late 2nd-century BC expansion of the Han empire into Inner Asia.  One may preliminarily distinguish three phases of cultural contacts, with indication of a considerable increase in their intensity during the early to mid-first millennium BC.