Before Silk: Unsolved Mysteries of the Silk Road by Colin Renfrew

Colin Renfrew speaks on the Unsolved Mysteries of the Silk Road at the Silk Road Symposium held at the Penn Museum held in March 2011.

The extent of contact between east (China) and west (Europe and Western Asia) in the prehistoric period has been much debated but remains little understood. In 1921 John Gunnar Anderson's excavations at Yangshao in Henan province led him to interpret the painted neolithic pottery found there as derived from that of neolithic Greece, a suggestion discounted by most subsequent scholars. Yet the genetics of the millet found in the neolithic of China and of eastern Europe leads archaeobotanists today to suggest a single source. The origins of copper and bronze metallurgy are likewise debated, and the mechanisms of transmission from the west of the horse-drawn chariots seen in burials of the late Shang dynasty are still open to question. Xinjiang province, with its remarkable preservation and its many insights from the second and first millennia BC offers tantalising clues, not least the Tarim "mummies" with their wonderfully preserved clothing and their western appearance. The presence there in the eighth century AD of the Tocharian language, the easternmost in the Indo-European language family, has led to intriguing speculations. These will be critically addressed. It will be argued that we are the dawn of a new era in the archaeology of prehistoric Eurasia, with the Silk Road offering challenges to many long-held ideas.

Colin Renfrew is the former Disney professor of Archaeology and Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. He is now Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute.

[rugosetexture]

Colin Renfrew is the best! Thank you for this.

[chronosschiron]

i dare anyone to have a full beer everytime the speaker says "ah"

[JimFortune]

Go to 4:50 if you want to skip the intro and the intro to the intro.

[connoroverall]

The 'Witches of Subeshi' are a few of the often forgotten mummies of the Silk Road. A lecture regarding these other finds would be rather informative.

[raziamohamed]

Love the sites, artefacts and preserved bodies that are shown - very interesting to look at.

[astrazenica]

What's with the full screen slides? Not synched properly

[linktojinx]

I thought I was a history major in college, even took two whole classes about the silk road alone. Anyway, a decade later and much more internet research and many more books into it, I've got to say without a doubt the entire narrative of 99.9% of all history, at least that of which we are told in Western society, is completely and utterly wrong, not just a little bit wrong, I mean like paradigm shatteringly wrong.

If you were to ask me to explain that, I would probably stutter for about 15 minutes just deciding where to even start and whether to go backwards or forwards. I'd be better off at giving you a long and detailed source list, but not just sources also clues and hints that would direct you to unlikely sources.

If you want something takes off the top of my head that's the most interesting if you're not a deep diver, look up all the explanations for every Capitol building in America, try to find construction photos, and look at what they're made out of in the intricacy compared to the level of technology we are believed to have had at that time.

After you've done that, look around the world and try to come up with an explanation as to why every continent (well, Antarctica has yet to be proven here) but why are there these Greco-Roman type buildings in every continent on the planet including China up until about the early 20th century when a lot of them started getting repurposed, torn down or just outright blown up in some war.

Take a look at all the cathedrals around the world, look at all the Muslim mosque, start looking deep into Peru and even Australia and you find without a doubt and inexplicably architecture all based in the same types of constructions and stylings all in a time when horse and buggies or maybe in some cases you had some steam trains or hot air balloons here and there, all built before highway systems, internet, even gasoline being a thing, all before trucking during a time when we are tall everyone is scattered about and unconnected.

And for giggles, go try to figure out what in the world tartaria or Grand tartery really is. And I don't mean look at the standard definition of it being lands in Asia that Christians and Europeans didn't know or understand yet, actually read some really old books that mention it and talk about going there and give accounts about it and then ask yourself once more, is our technological progress really what we are told?

Did anyone else know that there were ultra low frequency acoustic weapons all the way back in world war I that caused the landslides and flooded trenches? Did anyone know that microwave weapons were being produced during world war II before there was even a microwave oven in anyone's house?

This is getting long, I could go on forever and this is just free flowing off the top of my head, not like I'm submitting a paper here or anything, but with any hope one day I actually will.

[anrb]

I am not sure if the chariots referred to at 31:55 is the spoked wheel variety or not, but solid wheel chariots with decorated spokes have been found in non-Haprappan graves at Sanauli, Uttar Pradesh, India and were dated to 2000-1800 BCE.

[linktojinx]

Why are they going to record it on a videotape and then put it on the internet? Why not just record it directly digitally? Can these people not afford even a Galaxy s23?

[mtollin]

What a great talk. Renfrew is great. He really puts to rest all those idiotic "conquering" indoe-eurpoean theories you see flying around the deep recesses of the web. And since he's studied it all his life, he's far more trustworthy.

[edwinstorz]

I really find the Adventure of finding these kind of places, even though i am no Academic and for from one, i do admire these Doctor's and such, i do wonder about those who really work hard in the elements in that part of the world. Thank you for sharing such information i cannot even begin to make since of, though i am familiar with the misinformation we were taught in School.
Again, Thanks!

[apowrs]

Has anyone measured “The Witches Hat” against the gold hats kept at Berlin Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte?

[catherineszabo]

There is a photograph of an ancient saddle at 14:32 - with a drawing of a horse and saddle at 14:41 - the drawing is inaccurate in so many ways i couldnt begin. The saddle shown on the horse looks completely different from the photograph of the ancient saddle. If we are going to take "experts" seriously, then museum artwork, which show ancient artifacts need to reflect expertise even at a fundamental level. If the artifact somehow gets destroyed then all we have left is an inaccurate drawing of it. This serves us no purpose if we claim to be interested in preserving ancient history. This isnt the first time i have seen from museums and universities very poor drawings that claim to represent relics, artifacts and costumes. I have come to distrust any and all drawings shown in museum displays and textbooks without having a photograph of the item in which to compare it.

[rocketskids]

"Disney professor of Archaeology" ... what a title.

[peterhamilton]

This was a great conference. Time is coming round for another :)

[lindanwfirefighter]

Sometimes the pictures don't match what the speaker is saying. Very frustrating indeed.

[hammadthegreat]

i dont understand that why european/ american scholars declare everything ''western world/ western art', ' for chinese everything lies in the west, even india, but for the europeans everything lies in the east except europe, so why dont they just state the obvious that certain art is indian, persian, central asian etc, why do they have to bring their agenda and claim ''western'' in everything it is like they mischievously putting stamp of europe in them.

[thomasf.]

🎩 The tall hat reminds me of the  Berlin Golden Hat which was a calendar showing moon cycles.
🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

[stefangeorge]

Visit the Penn Museum in Philadelphia! Incredible place.

[eszterhorvath]

The step or taklamaran desert was not that dry 4000 years ago, it is proof that there where lakes and they ate fish. And thats about nomads, they never overdue the grasing to kill the nature, they go to other place, and come back when vegatation regrows. And also they had their livestock and wheat, so they are in the safe side to survive all trouble of that time.
And time to work to process nice fabrics. During Winter like in all pasture cultures.