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Black Death, Silk and the Mongols

Exploring Another World

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Ferghana Valley

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Last summer of 2014, I traveled to Uzbekistan, and as part of this trip,

I went by car from Tashkent to the Fergana Valley. Part of this trip involved

a visit to the archaeological ruins of Kuva, which was a Buddhist temple

complex in the 4th and 5th centuries C.E.

Here are some other photos from this trip:

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Remains of Kuva temple sight

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Schematic of Kuva comlex (located in National Museum in Tashkent)

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Statue of Shri-Devi Goddess with her crown of skulls

which was extracted from Kuva site.

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Another deity – buried with the Shri Devi

goddess above – possibly Makaravaktra Dakini

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A photograph of the large Buddhist statue that was unearthed in

the 1950s at Kuva. It had been destroyed (along with other

statues), likely by Arab invaders in the 7th and 8th centuries.

Map for Quiz

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Map-of-Eurasia

Please consult this map and note the following locations. Some of these locations don’t appear on this map but were discussed during lectures – please consult your notes and maps from these sessions.

Manchuria

China

Mongolia

Xinjiang

Tibet

India

Altai Mts.
Tianshan Mts.

Kunlun Mts.
Tarim Basin

Taklamakan Desert
Gobi Desert

Xi’an
Urumchi

Turfan

Dunhuang

Beijing

 

A Few Extra Resources

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Hey folks,

In searching around online, I’ve come across a few resources which may or may not be of use to people — whether for the course, or general interest/supplementary information.

This first link is to a site called Project Gutenburg, which has a fairly good reputation: if you’re looking for a text the copyright of which has lapsed by some time, there’s a good bet you’ll find it here in a number of formats.

In this case, the first text is The Travels of Marco Polo (by Marco Polo – surprise). The first link goes to Volume 1, the second to Volume 2:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10636
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12410

This next link is from the University of Washington, and contains maps, descriptions of locations, and a collection of historical texts which might be of particular interest as references (I would strongly suggest consulting with Dr Mitchell regarding these, should you intend to use them in your papers). I’ve posted the link to the historical texts separately below.
https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/
https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/texts.html

Hopefully this is some help. If I find anything else, it’ll go here — also, if anyone else finds things, this is probably a good place to share resources!

Cheers,
Alex