lectute #6 culture of proto-turks

1.

Culture of Proto-Turks
Lecture #6

2.

The Xiongnu (the 3rd century BC to the late 1st
century AD)
Sima Qian (c. 145 – c. 86 BC), Chief Historian of the
Tang China
The Xiongnu were a tribal confederation of nomadic
peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources,
inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe Modu Chanyu, the
supreme leader after 209 BC, founded the Xiongnu Empire.

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4.

The Scythians, the Sarmatians and the
Massagets (the 8th and 7th centuries
BC)
Herodotus (c. 484- c. 485), Greek historian, book
History
Scythians (also called Scyth, Saka, and Sacae),
Massagets and Sarmatians were nomadic
peoples, originally of Iranian stock, who migrated
westward from Central Asia to southern Russia
and Ukraine.

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6.

The word “Steppe”, meaning grassy plain in Russian, has become synonymous with the
vast belt of the Eurasian grasslands that extends west for thousands of miles from the
Great Wall of China into Central Europe. During the First Millennium BC, it was inhabited
by groups of pastoral people whose economies were based upon a combination of stock
raising, herding, hunting, and agriculture, depending on the regional ecology. The steppe people
have often been portrayed as wandering barbarians more intent on raiding and stealing goods
from their settled neighbors than trading with them, but today’s scholars are gaining a more
accurate picture of nomadic life. Organized around prescribed seasonal migrations over long
established routes from home campus to known destinations, which provided water, pasture, and
hunting grounds , their lives were in fact highly structured.

7.

The steppe zone of Eurasia has played a major role in Eurasian history, although its importance is often
overlooked. In antiquity it served as an important information highway, connecting east with west and
opening up transregional trade routes that would be used for centuries, such the famous Silk Road through
the deserts of Central Asia and the later Tea Road spanning north and west from Beijing to St. Petersburg.
The nomadic groups that lived on the steppes were intermediaries in the transmission of many innovations
from one place to another. Wheeled transport, for example, was introduced into China in the late second
millennium BC through contact with neighboring pastoral peoples and some four hundred years later
horseback riding was brought into China the same way.

8.

• The vast Eurasian landmass is not ecologically homogeneous,
although its grassland belt runs for thousands of miles, almost from
the Pacific Ocean to the North Sea, part of a beautiful mosaics of
deserts, forests, lakes, mountains, rivers and seas. In the distant past
these areas were not defined by political boundaries. Today the main
body of the steppe lies within the borders of the former Soviet Union.
To the east, it extends to Mongolia and Northern China, while to the
west it reaches as far as the Caspian mountain range in central
Europe. The ancient pastoral peoples inhabited not only the
grasslands of the steppe but also the territory adjacent to the north
and south.

9.

• In many regions these roads are still in use today and comprise the
only roads available across the vast expanse of the steppe. The
Eurasian pastoral peoples were integral parts of larger regional
systems that included settled communities. Over time both groups
developed strong, mutually beneficial ties, and the exchanges
between them infused both cultures with a remarkable hybrid vigor
that resulted in an explosion of artistic productivity.

10.

The Scythian Golden Animal Style