vii I was introduced to the riches of the study of ancient Central Asia and of the myriad roles that trade played in the evolution of the cultural diversity of the region over twenty years ago. A colleague of mine in the Department of History, Alfred Andrea, asked me if I would be interested in team-teaching a course. I agreed to the proposition because what he suggested was a course for first-year students on a subject about which neither of us knew too much so that we would be discovering the material along with our students. We chose the Silk Road, and because of our many discussions over good wine and cheese and our experience in jointly teaching the class, I have been hooked ever since. I had begun my career several years earlier as an art historian trained in the Classical world. I had confined my scholarship to matters Greek and Roman and had only moved a little way out of that research groove to explore architectural developments in the ancient Near East. The explo- ration of Central Asia opened my eyes to an entirely new set of research options and to a completely different range of issues and problems. Unlike the fields of Classical and ancient Near Eastern studies, the scholarship on ancient Central Asia and the Silk Road did not possess the same degree of accepted interpretations. Nor had the range of possible avenues of explora- tion been so hierarchically structured. There was much greater latitude for how to approach the material. Over the years, I have developed and taught several versions of courses on the Silk Road and ancient Central Asia. I have begun to find my voice in the scholarship and have published a few articles on specific aspects that interest me. I have abandoned neither my Mediterranean scholarly back- ground nor bias, but I have worked to broaden my understanding and to offer a different perspective in my studies. One of the things that I have noted is the lack of a good introductory book that focuses on objects, which is my area of expertise and interest. There are good introductions to both ancient Central Asia and significance of trade represented by the Silk Road. Valerie Hansen’s two books, The Silk Road: A New History 2012 PREFACE
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