Silk, Slaves, and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road

by Susan Whitfield

Following her bestselling Life Along the Silk Road , Susan Whitfield widens her exploration of the great cultural highway with a new captivating portrait focusing on material things. Silk, Slaves, and Stupas tells the stories of ten very different objects, considering their interaction with the peoples and cultures of the Silk Road—those who made them, carried them, received them, used them, sold them, worshipped them, and, in more recent times, bought them, conserved them, and curated them. From a delicate pair of earrings from a steppe tomb to a massive stupa deep in Central Asia, a hoard of Kushan coins stored in an Ethiopian monastery to a Hellenistic glass bowl from a southern Chinese tomb, and a fragment of Byzantine silk wrapping the bones of a French saint to a Bactrian ewer depicting episodes from the Trojan War, these objects show us something of the cultural diversity and interaction along these trading routes of Afro-Eurasia.
 
Exploring the labor, tools, materials, and rituals behind these various objects, Whitfield infuses her narrative with delightful details as the objects journey through time, space, and meaning.  Silk, Slaves, and Stupas  is a lively, visual, and tangible way to understand the Silk Road and the cultural, economic, and technical changes of the late antique and medieval worlds.   
 

Genres: History, Material Culture

376 pages, Paperback

Published March 13, 2018

About the author

Susan Whitfield is an English historian and librarian who works at the British Library in London, England. She obtained a PhD in historiography from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and now specialises in the social and intellectual history of the Tang Dynasty, and the history of the Silk Road.

She is currently director of the International Dunhuang Project, and in this capacity is involved in research and cataloguing of Central Asian manuscripts at the British Library. She has a particular interest in identifying forged manuscripts from Dunhuang.

Reviews

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

And interesting arrangement studying a complicated, interwoven and long legacy of trade, one that is historically burdened with antique guesswork and restricted access. You almost never hear mention of the slave trade, and one has to wonder about how many slaves were exchanged in either direction in return for either silk or glass. The best tidbits drawn from this, are details about the role vihars (refuges) played in providing not only a place to practice meditation, but were placed in choice sites of natural beauty, with scenic views, and many probably also served as a kind of resort system for travelers on the long road. It was also fascinating to learn about the scarcity of glass in China, and a truth about archeology... though most early glass found there came from the west, this does not remotely mean that it was not produced there. It's just that glass breaks and there is so little ancient glass that has survived. History in most cases mainly describes the facets of the grain of salt we should take away! In other words, don't be like all those ultra nationalist kooks - don't be too sure about a time and place you have never seen, no matter how much stories about it fill your dreams! #criticalthinking #skepticism #readyfordiscovery

[Arjen Taselaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book rather disappointing. There is no doubt that Whitfield knows her subject inside out. Her knowledge is staggering, her research impressive. And the premise of this book is very interesting: to use objects found along the Silk Road to reconstruct production and trade, and human contact between the many cultures in the countries of the Silk Road. Parts of the book are fascinating, for example the pages about the diverse aspects of the spread of Buddhism. The chapter about silk is illuminating. But the chapter on slavery shows such regional variation that its link to the Silk Road becomes rather tenuous. And in the chapter on the Blue Qur’an the link with the Silk Road is far-fetched at best. After the chapter on slavery, the book just ends. Whitfield rightly notes in the introduction that there are many gaps and uncertainties in our knowledge of the Silk Road. So, one would have expected a conclusion in which she ties some of the threads from her research together. But sadly, this is missing, and the book left me wondering how to make sense of it all.

[Gail Goodrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book shows a great deal of knowledge and research I was a bit disappointed as the author doesn't attempt to draw any conclusions. It is a series of discussions and research on separate objects or subjects in the case of the brief discussion on slavery. Nevertheless, anything written about the Silk Road is fascinating to me.

[Mh430 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I preferred the author's previous work (Life Along the Silk Road) but still, Ms. Whitfield's knowledge of* and enthusiasm for her topic are infectious and this one is also an enjoyable read.

3.5 stars

* The book's bibliography is 39 pages long :-)

[Zeitgeist · Rating 3 out of 5]

絲綢之路上的十件古物中“奴隸”這章比較有意思