You are cordially invited to a seminar entitled “Reappraising the Silk Road: Byzantium and Ancient China” organised by the Department of History.
Date: 16.04.2021, Friday
Time: 17.00 (Ankara time zone)
Title: Reappraising the Silk Road: Byzantium and Ancient China
Speaker: Qiang Li, Northeast Normal University
***This is an online event. To obtain Zoom link and password, please contact us. byzantiumatankara@hotmail.com
Abstract:
In recent years, the Silk Road (or Roads) has being becoming a very popular subject in academic and non-academic circle all around the world. This phenomenon has many causes, and the foremost is the impact of the globalization of the world. In this special time with the COVID 19, we can clearly and strongly feel the impact of that on us. As to the Silk Road in history, how should we see it? There are already a lot of views on that, accepting, rejecting, or exaggerating it, etc. In this talk, as a Chinese byzantinist, I will present the recent focuses on Byzantium and ancient China along the Silk Road, based on which, to reappraise the significance of the Silk Road in the historical context. The talk will include three parts: 1. a short introduction for the Roman-Byzantine Empire and ancient China in sources of them; 2. archaeological evidence for their interactions; 3. reappraising the Silk Road in the historical context.
Biography:
Li Qiang, Associate Professor in Byzantine studies, Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations (IHAC), Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China. He received his PhD in 2015 from the University of Ioannina, Greece, with Thesis titled “The Image of the Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) in Chinese Sources: 1st-7th C”. His research interests include Byzantine historiography, diplomatic -military history, Byzantium and the Silk Road, etc. He has co-edited Byzantium in China. Studies in Honour of Professor Xu Jialing on the Occasion of her Seventieth Birthday, Changchun (2019), published articles and reviews in Eirene. Studia Graeca et Latina, medieval worlds, Porphyra, Journal of Ancient Civil