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For the full pdf text of The Silk Road, Vol. 9 (2011), click here.
CONTENTS

From the editor's desktop 3
 
 
The Brunei Shipwreck: A Witness to the International Trade in the China Sea around 1500,
by Michčle Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens 5
The shipwreck discovered off the coast of Brunei in 1999 contained a remarkable cargo of ceramics, undisturbed by looting. The author, an authority on the ceramics of China and southeast Asia, summarizes here her conclusions about the cargo and the broader significance of the discovery.
 
Zoroastrian Funerary Beliefs and Practices Known from the Sino-Sogdian Tombs in China ,
by Judith A. Lerner 18
Tombs of Sogdians in China continue to provide new information on cultural contacts across Eurasia. This article explains how imagery on some of these sarcophagi and funerary beds reinforces our understanding of the Sogdians’ Zoroastrian funerary practices.
 
The Painted Vase of Merv in the Context of Central Asian Pre-Islamic Funerary Tradition ,
by Matteo Compareti 26
Pictorial material from Central Asia has provided a great deal of information about the culture of Sogdiana. This article explores a little-known depiction from a ceramic vase, where the complex imagery reflects in various ways cultural traditions of pre-Islamic Central Asia.
 
New Evidence on Cultural Relations in Northeastern Iran in the Parthian Period: Results of Archaeological Excavations at Dibaj Damghan ,
by Mahnaz Sharifi 42
Archaeological investigation of Parthian sites in northeastern Iran has to date been limited. In this essay, the author describes results of her excavation at a relatively small but nonetheless very interesting Partian settlement site.
 
The Chaoyang Northern Pagoda. A Photo Essay,
by Daniel C. Waugh 53
The North Pagoda in Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, China, is a remarkable monument to the Buddhist culture of the Liao period, as this photo essay of both the building and its relic deposits suggests.
 
The Azerbaijan Museum in Tabriz,
by Gholamreza Yazdani, Mina Ranjbar, Abdalreza Hashtroudilar 71
Museums in Iran contain significant collections that too often are little known outside the country. One of the more important of Iranian museums is the Azerbaijan Museum in Tabriz, an overview of whose collections is presented here.
 
Museums in Afghanistan – A Roadmap into the Future (with an appendix on Samangan / Takht-e Rostam),
by Alessandro Califano 88
Despite the ongoing warfare and political instability in Afghanistan, serious efforts to improve the situation of museums there have been achieving some success, as this article indicates. The appendix illustrates a Buddhist monastery site.
 
The Frontier Fortification of the Liao Empire in Eastern Transbaikalia,
by Andrei V. Lunkov, Artur V. Kharinskii, Nikolai N. Kradin, Evgenii V. Kovychev 104
The “Wall of Chingis Khan” in northeastern Mongolia and southern Siberia, an impressive earthen structure along which are regularly placed forts, dates in fact from the Khitan (Liao) period (907-1125 CE). This overview of the wall and its forts is based on satellite imagery, field survey and test excavations.
 
Early Contacts between Scandinavia and the Orient,
by Gunilla Larsson 122
An ambitious multi-disciplinary project involving scholars from Sweden and Georgia is undertaking to document contacts between Georgia and Scandinavia in the Viking Age. The scope of the project is outlined here along the background history to the Expedition of Ingvar the Far-Traveller through the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea in the 11th century.
 
Maps of the Xiongnu Cemetery at Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu, Ogii nuur, Arkhangai Aimag, Mongolia,
by David E. Purcell 143
The Xiongnu cemetery at Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu, where excavations co-sponsored by the Silkroad Foundation were undertaken in 2005, is the first Xiongnu cemetery to be fully and accurately mapped. The maps are published here.
 
Review Article: Up from the Ice — a Look at Dress in the Iron Age Altai,
by Irene Good 146
The book by Barkova and Polos’mak reviewed here is a noteworthy contribution to the history of attire and textiles among the Pazyryk population of the Altai in the 4th-3rd centuries BCE.
 
Book Reviews
 
New Turns on the Silk Road [Golden, Central Asia in World History; Liu, The Silk Road in World History; Liu and Shaffer, Connections across Eurasia],
rev. by Jennifer Webster 154
 
“...Full of Sound and Fury...” [Flërov, “Goroda” i “zamki” Khazarskogo kaganata / “Cities” and “Castles” of the Khazarian Kaganate],
rev. by Daniel C. Waugh 156
 
L. F. Nedashkovskii. Zolotoordynskie goroda nizhnego Povolzh’ia i ikh okruga [Cities of the Golden Horde in the Lower Volga River Region and Their Periphery],
rev. by Daniel C. Waugh 159
 
The Gray Eminence of Kashgar Speaks [N. F. Petrovskii. Turkestanskie pis’ma (Turkestan Letters)],
rev. by Daniel C. Waugh 162
 
The Spillings Hoard in the Gotlands Museum,
rev. by Daniel C. Waugh 165
 
Book notices (written/compiled by Daniel C. Waugh 170
 
Unpublished Dissertations 186

For the full pdf text of The Silk Road, Vol. 9 (2011), click here.