The Greco-Bactrians the Greco-Bactrians have led expeditions as far as Kashgar and Ürümqi in Xinjiang, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 220 BCE. The Greek historian Strabo too writes that: "they extended their empire even as far as the Seres (Chinese) and the Phryni".
Several statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been found north of the Tien Shan, on the doorstep to China, and are today on display in the Xinjiang museum at Urumqi (Boardman). Greek influences on Chinese art have also been suggested. Designs with rosette flowers, geometric lines, and glass inlays, suggestive of Hellenistic influences, can be found on some early Han dynasty bronze mirrors. Excavations at the burial site of China's first Emperor Qin Shi Huang, dating back to the 3rd century BCE, also indicate Greek influence in the artworks found there, including in the creation of the famous Terracotta army. It has also been suggested that Greek artists may have come to China at that time to train local artisans in making sculptures.
Numismatics also show that some technology exchanges may have occurred on these occasions: the Greco-Bactrians were the first in the world to issue cupro-nickel coins, an alloy technology only known by the Chinese at the time under the name "White copper". A number of Chinese envoys were then sent to Central Asia, triggering the development of the Silk Road from the end of the 2nd century BCE.
The Greco-Bactrians were known for their high level of Hellenistic sophistication, and kept regular contact with both the Mediterranean and neighbouring India . They were on friendly terms with India and exchanged ambassadors. The ruins of Niya is an archaeological site located about 115 km (71 mi) north of modern Minfeng Town (Niya) on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin in modern-day Xinjiang, China. The ancient site was known in its native language as Caḍ́ota, and in Chinese during the Han Dynasty as Jingjue. Numerous ancient archaeological artifacts have been uncovered at the site. Niya was once a major commercial center on an oasis on the southern branch of the Silk Road in the southern Taklamakan Desert. During ancient times camel caravans would cut through, carrying goods from China to Central Asia. In Hanshu , an independent oasis state called Jingjue, generally thought to be Niya, is mentioned: The seat of the king's government is the town of Jingjue, and it is distant by 8,820 li [probably 3,667 km/2,279 miles] from Ch'ang-an. There are 480 households, 3,350 individuals with 500 persons able to bear arm. [There are the following officials] the commandant of Jingjue, the leaders of the left and the right and an interpreter-in-chief. Hanshu, chapter 96a, translation from Hulsewé 1979.
Niya became part of Loulan Kingdom by the third century. Towards the end of the 4th century it was under Chinese suzerainty, later it was conquered by Tibet. In 1900, Aurel Stein set out on an expedition to western China and the Taklamakan Desert. In Niya he excavated several groups of dwellings, and found 100 wooden tablets written in 105 CE. These tablets bore clay seals, official orders and letters written in Kharoshthi, an early Indic script, dating them to the Kushan empire. Other finds include coins and documents dating from the Han dynasty, Roman coins, an ancient mouse trap, a walking stick, part of a guitar, a bow in working order, a carved stool, an elaborately-designed rug and other textile fragments, as well as many other household objects such as wooden furniture with elaborate carving, pottery, Chinese basketry and lacquer ware. Aurel Stein visited Niya four times between 1901 and 1931. Official approval for joint Sino-Japanese archaeological excavations at the site was given in 1994. Researchers have now found remains of human habitation including approximately 100 dwellings, burial areas, sheds for animals, orchards, gardens, and agricultural fields. They have also found in the dwellings well-preserved tools such as iron axes and sickles, wooden clubs, pottery urns and jars of preserved crops. The human remains found there have led to speculation on the origins of these peoples.
Niya was a small , landlocked yet cosmopolitan city - state where ancient Chinese peoples and cultures blended with those of India, Persia and Macedonia. The urban center was a major stop on the Silk Road , the long, overland trading route that linked the two great civilizations of Han China and the Roman Empire. Camel caravans carried Chinese silk, tea and porcelain west and brought European gold, glassware and silver east. Ideas and cultural traditions also flowed both ways. According to scholars , Niya' s population included soldiers of Macedonia' s Alexander the Great, known to have spread Hellenistic culture throughout much of the ancient world and to have reached the Pamir Mountains just west of Niya during the 4 th century BCE. Legend says that one of Alexander' s expeditionary forces disappeared in the region. If Alexander' s troops reached Niya, that might account for the Hellenistic style of furniture found there by British explorer Aurel Stein in 1901. Led by a local Uyghur camel driver, the Stein expedition was the first from modern Europe to find the place and reveal the multicultural nature of Niya. In a town centered on the Buddhist shrine, or stupa a legacy of the spread of Buddhism from India to the southeast in the 1st century C.E. Stein pillaged Greek - style furniture from the houses. He found documents written on wooden tablets in the long - dead Kharoshthi language. On clay seals on the wooden covering of the tablets,
Stein saw depictions of Greek Gods, including Eros, Athena and Hercules. Since Stein 's expedition, Niya's past has intrigued archaeologists worldwide. European and Japanese adventurers followed in his footsteps, gambling with their lives by braving torrid heat and sandstorms in the hope of unearthing more relics from the ancient kingdom. But not until a 1993 expedition, equipped with various high tech gadgets, including Global Positioning System instruments for determining Niya' s location precisely, were further major discoveries made. After 57 miles, the expedition found the Niya River ending near Kabake- Arsihan, a dusty village of 110 Uyghur-speaking households that rely on water from wells dug in the dried riverbed. The residents looked more European than Asian, with deep- set eyes, long noses and long heads. Old men grew full beards. The villagers all knew about Niya, and claimed that their families originated from the people of that city.If that is true, those villagers may be carrying Macedonian blood inherited from Alexander' s soldiers. Caucasians in ancient Niya are thought to have entered the desert by crossing the Pamir Mountains, a huge range that had halted the armies of ancient Rome and of Alexander the Great. Thanks to the flourishing trade route that traversed the region , these city states, which included Loulan, Hotan, Milan and Jing - jue (now called Niya), had been the meeting places of Western and Chinese cultures, religions and arts. Niya was said to be the most prosperous from the 2nd century BCE to the 6th century CE. The presence of a European artistic style in a Chinese temple astonished researchers.
Source:Author : Isidoros Skliros- Economist, Historian,Researcher . Email: greek.history.and.prehistory99@gmail.com
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