Historical Witness of Human Colonization of the Plateau: Archaeological Research on the Silk Road on the Plateau from prehistoric to Tang Dynasty

2023-05-17

When it comes to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, known as the "roof of the world", people often think of endless snow ridges, wastelands, deserts and other natural landscape. It is unimaginable that as early as prehistoric times, humans not only set foot on this plateau, but also began to connect and interact with the external world, opening up the earliest plateau channels. As is well known, the concept of the "Silk Road" was first proposed by German geographer Lichhofen. Its original meaning was to refer to a transportation route from China to the West during the Han Dynasty, mainly through silk trade. Later, this concept constantly changed with the development of the times: in terms of time dimension, people realized that as early as the Han Dynasty, there had already been east-west exchanges based on the Central Plains region of China as the starting point. Therefore, it has been traced back from the Han Dynasty to the prehistoric era, and also continued back to the Han, Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, including different routes of east-west exchanges from different eras; In terms of geographical space, it breaks through the spatial scope of the land Silk Road (also known as the "Desert Silk Road") in a narrow sense, and proposes different concepts such as the "Grassland Silk Road" in the north, the "Maritime Silk Road" in the south, which focuses on maritime transportation, and the "Southwest Silk Road" formed between regions. However, so far, few people at home and abroad have taken into account the vast and geographically important Qinghai Tibet Plateau in southwestern China in this system. From the prehistoric era of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau to the Tang and Tubo era, and then to the subsequent historical periods, with the deepening of field research and excavation work in the field of Tibetan archaeology, there are more and more material evidence about the communication and exchange between the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and the outside world. Many important archaeological discoveries are related to traffic routes, and even many important archaeological discoveries are related to the excavation of famous international routes since the Tang Dynasty, Chinese and foreign eminent monks, envoys, businessmen Historical facts such as the movement of various people in the military on these roads. For over thirty years, with the support of the National Social Science Foundation project, we have delved into the mountains and rivers of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, conducting archaeological investigations and excavations with perseverance and rigorous scientific spirit. This provides a large amount of physical evidence for the research of this project and lays a solid research foundation. So, how should we evaluate and recognize the main research methods and academic value of this achievement? Firstly, the era of the "Plateau Silk Road" we are discussing is not limited to the Han Dynasty, where silk trade was the main form of the so-called "Silk Road", but includes the routes of communication between the Qinghai Tibet Plateau region and the external world (including foreign countries and mainland China) since prehistoric times; Secondly, these transportation routes of different eras not only have main arteries but also include several important branch lines, which have actually formed a transportation network; Third, these routes have both export-oriented international channels, which can directly lead to today's outer regions, and inward channels, thus connecting these international channels through the Qinghai Tibet Plateau with the "Land Silk Road", "Maritime Silk Road", "Grassland Silk Road", "Desert Silk Road" and other routes starting in the mainland and coastal areas of China; Fourthly, the functions played by these routes in history are not singular, they are related to politics

Edit:qihang    Responsible editor:xinglan

Source:GMW.cn

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