Silk Roads, UNSW Seminar Series 2021
Date: Tuesday 10 August 2021
Time: 12:00–1:00pm AEST
Location: Online
Although China’s cultural development rose in parallel with the other early great Old-World centres in Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus valley, her physical isolation meant that contact between China and the west developed very slowly and very late, relative to the rest of Asia. This talk presents the recently documented and remarkable story of the first east-west contact, a story that is almost invisible, except for fragile traces in the palaeobotanical record.
About the Speaker
Professor Alison Betts is Edwin Cuthbert Hall Chair of Archaeology and Mythology of the Ancient Middle East at the University of Sydney. She specializes in the archaeology of the lands along the Silk Roads from the Near East to China, with a particular interest in nomadic peoples. She has worked extensively in eastern Jordan, Central Asia, and China, and currently run major field projects in Uzbekistan and Xinjiang, both of which have been supported by ARC Discovery grants.