Money on the Silk Road

Description

This book focuses on the money of Eastern Central Asia to c. AD 800, a period of over 900 years, across a vast geographical area with a very diverse population of different cultures and traditions. The only relevant historical accounts are those found in the Chinese dynastic histories, yet these contain few references to money in Eastern Central Asia. This study therefore depends almost entirely on the archaeological evidence for money found at sites in the region, in the form of coins and contemporary documentary evidence. The book is arranged in four parts. The first part presents the background to the study, the second the numismatic evidence, the third gives the evidence for money in the contemporary documents excavated at sites in Eastern Central Asia, and the concluding part brings together the data from the numismatic and documentary evidence to create a new framework for money in early Eastern Central Asia.

Helen Wang is Curator of East Asian Money in the Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum. She is the author of Sir Aurel Stein in The Times, editor of Handbook to the Stein Collections in the UK and co-editor (with Eva Apor) of Catalogue of the Collections of Sir Aurel Stein in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She also contributed to Studies in Silk Road Coins and Culture.

a very significant contribution to Silk Road studies. it is recommended to every enthusiast in the field of Central and Inner Asian studies... Helen Wang has accomplished a masterful task with the publication of this book'--Shailendra Bhandare"Antiquity" (01/01/2006) The results obtained by Wang after examining coins and documents underline the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach for a new understanding of money along the Silk Road.'--N. Smirnova"Ancient West & East" (01/01/0001)