Visiting Research Scholar Lecture: Merging the boundaries

Recent scholarship in the history and archaeology of Central Asia manifests the blurring of borders between nomad and sedentary society in this complex region. The 1st century BCE corpus of mural art from the monumental site of Akchankhan-kala in ancient Khorezm (in Uzbekistan) has much to add to this discourse.  Visual representations of elements of costume  - and in particular the headgear and the torques - shown on figures in the 'portrait' gallery at Akchakhan-kala find their best parallels in archaeological evidence from the steppe.  These parallels raise vital questions about both the status of this ancient site situated in the irrigated oasis of Khorezm, and its foreign relations.  Who do these figures represent? What purpose did they serve?  What is the function of the building in which the gallery is found?  In an oasis long considered peripheral by scholars, this new material has significant implications for our understanding generally of the interactions that have shaped Central Asia for millennia, and more specifically, of late Iron Age Khorezm.

There will be a reception folowing the event.

To RSVP, please email isaw@nyu.edu.