This volume provides a thorough conspectus of the field of Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek studies, mixing theoretical and historical surveys with critical and thought-provoking case studies in archaeology, history, literature and art.
The chapters from this international group of experts showcase innovative methodologies, such as archaeological GIS, as well as providing accessible explanations of specialist techniques such as die studies of coins, and important theoretical perspectives, including postcolonial approaches to the Greeks in India. Chapters cover the regions archaeology, written and numismatic sources, and a history of scholarship of the subject, as well as culture, identity and interactions with neighbouring empires, including India and China.
The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World
is the go-to reference work on the field, and fulfils a serious need for an accessible, but also thorough and critically-informed, volume on the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms. It provides an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the Hellenistic East.
This volume provides a solid grounding in the field of Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek studies, mixing theoretical and historical surveys with critical and thought-provoking case studies and in archaeology, history, literature and art.
1. Introduction. Rachel Mairs Part I: Interactions
2. The Seleukid
Empire
3. South Asia
4. Parthia
5. Central Asia and the Steppe
6. China and
Bactria during the reign of Emperor Wu in written tradition and in
archaeology Part II: History of scholarship
7. The quest for Bactra:
Scholarship on the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom from its origins to the end of
colonialism
8. The original failure? A century of French archaeology in
Afghan Bactria
9. Hellenism with or without Alexander the Great: Russian,
Soviet and Central Asian approaches Part III: Regional Archaeological survey
10. Afghan Bactria
11. Southern Uzbekistan
12. Southern Tajikistan
13.
Sogdiana
14. Merv and Margiana
15. Arachosia, Drangiana and Areia
16.
Gandhra and North-Western India Part IV: Written sources
17. Greek
inscriptions and documentary texts and the Graeco-Roman historical tradition
18. Reading the Milindapańha: Indian historical sources and the Greeks in
Bactria
19. Chinese historical sources and the Greeks in the Western Regions
Part V: Numismatic sources
20. History from coins: The role of numismatics in
the study of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek worlds
21. Two sides of the
coin: from Sophytes to Skanda-Krttikeya
22. Dating Bactria's independence to
246/5 BC?
23. Monetary politics during the early Graeco-Bactrian kingdom
(250-190 BCE)
24. The last phase of the Indo-Greeks: Methods, interpretations
and new insights in reconstructing the past Part VI: Culture and identity
25.
Ai Khanoum, between east and west: A composite architecture
26. Globalization
and Interpreting Visual Culture
27. Representation of Greek Gods/Goddesses in
Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek visual culture
28. Roman objects in the Begram
hoard and the memory of Greek rule in Kushan Central Asia Part VI: Beyond the
Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek worlds
29. Central Asia in the Achaemenid
period
30. Achaemenid north-west South Asia
31. Greekness after the end of
the Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms
Rachel Mairs is Professor of Classics and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Reading, UK. She has previously held positions at New York University, the University of Oxford and Brown University. Her publications include The Hellenistic Far East:Archaeology, Language and Identity in Greek Central Asia (2014), Archaeologists, Tourists, Interpreters (with Maya Muratov, 2015) and From Khartoum to Jerusalem: The Dragoman Solomon Negima and his Clients (2016). In 2016 she founded the Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network.
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