Ancient Asia Archive
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The Silk Road in Late Antiquity: Politics, Trade, and Culture Contact between Rome and China, 300-700 CE
Posted on March 14, 2013 | No CommentsThis is a study of the modes of political and cultural communication which led to a rare level of 'intervisibility' between the various societies and states along the Silk Road in the Late Antique period (roughly 300-700 CE). -
40,000-year-old human leg shows how prehistoric Asians related to Native Americans
Posted on January 22, 2013 | No CommentsAncient DNA has revealed that humans living some 40,000 years ago in the area near Beijing were likely related to many present-day Asians and Native Americans -
Vision, Folly and Balance: Imperial Approaches to Commerce and War in the Roman Near East, 27 BCE
Posted on January 1, 2013 | No CommentsWhen Emperor Marcus Aurelius died on the banks of the Danube in 180 CE at Vindobona, or Vienna, the Roman Empire he left behind was the largest transcontinental, transcultural, singular political entity in history before the rise of the European nation state some fifteen centuries later. -
Ancient Scythians were a genetic blend of Europeans and Asians, researchers find
Posted on November 12, 2012 | No CommentsThe current research is the first to offer scientific evidence of this population mixture on the eastern side of the Altai and indicates that the contact between European and Asian lineages occurred before the Iron Age when populations were present on both sides of the mountain. -
First Iranian military units in the army of Alexander the Great
Posted on November 8, 2012 | No CommentsThis article seeks to analyze not only the numbers but also the place accorded to Iranian troops in Alexander -
The oriental context for the end of Greek rule in the Hellenistic Age
Posted on August 22, 2012 | No CommentsThis work is an account of Seleucid history from 280 to roughly 100 B.C., with a summary account of the end of Seleucid Rule down to its extinction under Pompey for the sake of completeness -
Descendants of Alexander the Great’s army fought in ancient China, historian finds
Posted on July 9, 2012 | No CommentsA recent article is examining the possibility that a contingent of soldiers from the Mediterranean fought at the Battle of Talas River in 36 BC, but instead of being Roman forces, new research suggests they may have been descendants of the armies of Alexander the Great. -
Yayoi Wave, Kofun Wave, and Timing: The Formation of the Japanese People and Japanese Language
Posted on June 24, 2012 | No CommentsWhy did the Korean rice farmers wait so long to cross the Korea Strait and commence the Yayoi era in the Japanese islands? -
The Politico-Economic Impact of the Horse on Old World Cultures
Posted on May 1, 2012 | No CommentsThe politico-military and economic importance of the horse will thus be examined in the rise of the Hittite, Achaemenid, Chinese, Arab, and Mongol empires. -
The Two Orients for Greek Writers
Posted on February 20, 2012 | No CommentsIndia was subdued by Darius I and incorporated into the vast Persian Empire at the end of the sixth century. This conquest stimulated the interest of Greeks living in Persian Asia Minor, such as Scylax, Hecataeus, Herodotus and Ctesias, whose accounts of India are known to us. The aim of this paper is to examine those accounts, and bring forward the authors' views of India, the Persian Empire, and the world.
