Silk Roads Final

Bubonic yersinia pestis

Infection of white blood cells and lymph nodes through fleas/rodents

• decomposing skin

• hemorrhaging lymph nodes that swell into buboes

Pneumonic yersinia pestis

Airborne infection of the lungs

• often longer bubonic infection that has spread to lungs and now infects others

• symptoms can develop in a few hours to 1-3 days

• death (respiratory failure) can be as quick as 2 days after symptoms appear

Septicemic yersinia pestis

Infection in the blood

• usually secondary after bubonic/pneumonic infection

• vomiting, fever, patches on skin

• very high death rate

Yersinia pestis spread

Rodents and fleas

Through trade encouraged by Mongols

Drier Central Asian climate → pastoralists moving south → more contact between peoples

Wetter period in Europe → fewer crops → less nutrition and strength

Disease

Impairment of normal state of living body that interrupts or modifies the performance of vital functions

Due to environment and/or inherent defects of organism

Pathogens

Agents that cause illness

Feed off living hosts as parasites (consumers) or release toxins (mostly consumers but sometimes simply live near host)

Mainly spread to humans through food, water, and soil

Spread on their own or through a VECTOR

Ex. animals, fungi, bacteria, viruses

Malaria

Animal-like single cell that infects humans through the vector of mosquitoes- parasitic infection

Present in tropical/sub-tropical regions worldwide (sub-Saharan Africa, S/SE Asia)

Can spread in urban, rural, or agrarian environments- as long as there’s mosquitoes

Mosquito bite → cells reach liver → mature and enter red blood cells → are sucked up by new mosquito bite → continue to spread

Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, rapid heart rate, fatigue, shortness of breath, organ failure through clogged blood circulation, anemia (destruction of red blood cells)

To prevent- cover your body, use nets, Chinese artemisinin (sweet/annual wormwood) plant

Smallpox

Virus that directly infects humans through contaminated surfaces and airborne droplets

Present in China and across Silk Roads

Could spread much more rapidly in urban environments

Symptoms include fever, vomiting, muscle aches, severe fatigue, a few days after initial symptoms, red spots that fill with clear fluid, then pus, then 8-9 days later fall off and leave deep scars

To prevent- inoculation (using fluid/pus on a cut/wound to introduce milder form and increae immunity), has now been eradicated due to vaccines

Mongols

Spread rapidly due to highly organized military and advanced archery/cavalry

Horse riding was strongly influenced by their pastoralist lifestyle and steppe home

Domestic animals

Pigs- China/SE Asia- important source of meat and leather

Sheep- Fertile Crescent/Turkey- source of meat, milk, and wool (woven cloth, felt)

• important for pastoralist groups as herd animals → can move with people

Camels- Dromedary from Central Asia and Bactrian from Arabia- can survive almost anywhere

• essential for transporting goods along trade routes

• also important source of hair, meat, and milk

Yaks- Tibetan Plateau/Himalayas- evolved to move in mountains

• adapted to cold/thin air/poor diet/etc. with long hair, short legs, bulky body, fat

• also important source of meat, milk, fiber, fuel (dung)

Garlic

Herb from Central Asia

Leaves and bulbs used for flavor

Ginger

Spice from Southern China

Rhizome (underground stem) is used for flavor and medicine

Turmeric

Spice from India

Rhizome (underground stem) used for flavor, medicine, and dye

Coriander

Herb from SW Asia/Mediterranean

Leaves (cilantro) and seeds (with dry fruits inside) used for flavor

Non-Indigenous Plants Trade

Peaked during Han and Tang dynasties

Periods of unity, wealth, and expansion in China

Chinese Medicine

5 phases/agents all corresponding to each other

Wood, fire, earth, metal, water → green, red, yellow, white, black → liver, heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys → eye, tongue, mouth, nose, ears → etc

Holistic approach that considered energy, food, plants, and more

Camellia sinensis

Evergreen- bush/shrub- native to China

Leaves contain caffeine alkaloids as defense

Grows best in mild, mountainous areas with wet summers and dry winters

• mountainous areas → leaves grow slower → more tender and higher caffeine

Harvesting- apical bud and two leaves for high quality green tea with more caffeine, and apical bud and four leaves for fermented, mature black/oolong/pu’erh

Green tea

Withered to 60-80% water content → fired to inactivate enzymes and preserve grassy flavor → rolled/shaped and dried to 3% water content to stop any oxidation

Pue’rh tea

Fired to deactivate enzymes → rolled/shaped and drying to remove water and stop oxidation → piled for bacterial/fungal fermentation and sun-dried for 3 days → compressed in cloth → steamed → shaped and dried

Fermented (oolong and black) tea

Withered to 60-80% water → leaf edges bruised (oolong) OR leaves cut up (black) → partial/short fermentation (oolong) OR longer/full fermentation (black) → firing to deactivate enzymes → drying to stop oxidation

Buddhism

Four noble truths- Life is suffering, Suffering comes from desire, Overcome desires=overcome suffering, To overcome suffering, follow Eightfold path

Middle Way

Spread from India

Different forms- Greater Vehicle/Mahayana in China/Tibet- followers say its more palatable

Elder’s Teachings/Theravada- followers say original teachings of Buddha

Vajrayana/Diamond Way- Tibet/Mongolia- more emphasis on oral teachings

Dunhuang caves

Show Indian influence in earlier art and increasing Chinese influence

Earlier central pillar design replaced by Chinese-style shrines

Huge amounts of art could be easily and quickly produced

Donors painted onto walls

Sealed up for centuries and forgotten as Silk Roads faded

Silk production

Began across China, not just in central/southern

Process-

• start out with eggs

• hatch into larvae that are very dependent and must be fed (mulberry leaves)

  • not too hot, not too cold

• larvae go through their instars and make their cocoon after 5th when they’re really huge

• cocoons are boiled/steamed to kill moth inside and remove sericin that glues it together and reeled (around 8-15 cocoons unraveled to make one thread)

  • some cocoons are set aside to produce new eggs- selective breeding

• dye threads into prefered color and weave into cloth

  • patterns are possible, especially with advanced looms

Cycle of mulberry trees shading pond, silkworm feces feeding fish and going into sludge, and sludge having nutrients for mulberry trees

Silk trade

Used as taxes, wages, and other payments for soldiers, gov. employees, etc.

Han and Tang- lots of silk moving to Central Asia to feed soldiers

North and South China

NORTH- often seat of political power

climate- drier

crops- millet, barley, wheat

herbs/spices- mustards, Chinese chives and leeks, Sichuan pepper

fruits- plum, jujube, peach, pear, apricot

tea- more sinensis/Chinese variety, 5-6 months of harvest

metals/bronze- copper mining rare but present

SOUTH- often provides food/silk/products to North

climate- wetter, tropical/subtropical

crops- some millet, mostly rice

herbs/spices- ginger, cinammon, sugarcane, star anise

fruits- citrus (oranges, lemons)

tea- more assam variety (tropical), 7-8-year round harvest, Dragonwell tea today

metals/bronze- copper, tin

Pastoralism

Moving as a unit, often between multiple fixed locations

Moving higher in late spring/summer to not overgraze in lower, winter camps, have more access to vegetation, and have cooler weather

Often practiced protofarming

Khitans

Liao Dynasty, 907-1125

Pastoralist group north of China during Song (960-1279) w/ family unit groups and no fixed locations

Set up dual administration → south-facing bureaucrats had Chinese influence and Khitan version of civil service exam, north-facing had more access to Khitan emperor and military

Jurchens

Jin Dynasty, around 1116 (conquers Khitans)- 1200s (Mongols)

Lived mostly in settled communities with fishing/hunting and some agriculture

Conquered northern half of Song in 1127 and demand huge yearly tributes

Karez irrigation

Irrigation in arid places with deep groundwater, no year-round rivers, high surface evaporation, and nearby snowy mountains

Vertical shafts accessing a tunnel bringing groundwater from mountains, where it’s higher up and easier to access

Originated in Persia around 2500 BC and spread from there

Very common in Tarim Basin

Not possible in very sandy places

Sogdians

Central Asian empire engaged in lots of trade along Silk Roads

Lasted 2-9 centuries

Letters showing communication across long distances and debt system

Archeological preservation

Tarim Basin is ideal- dry sands w/ little decomposition

Entertainment

Acrobatics and dancing from Central Asia into China- 2nd c. BCE

Instruments-

• Xi gin- bowed, two string instrument- Mongolian steppe in 6-7th centuries

• Karna- double reed woodwind instrument (oboe, bassoon)- Persia in 6th BCE

• Tanbor- Anatolia in 1300 BCE- develops into oud (M.East/N.Africa), lute (Europe), guitar

• Chinese Pipa- frets and 4 strings- enters China from C. Asia around 2nd CE

Board games- chataranga from South Asia, Ziangqi/elephant chess from Tang China, shatranj from Persia/India which becomes modern chess

Central Asian horses

Highly prized, especially in martial Tang era

Tea-horse trade through Tibet after An Lushan rebellion in Tang lets Uighurs sell bad horses for fixed prices

Heavenly horses, blood-sweating horses

Paper production

Bast fibers formed from water suspension using a screen

1. harvest and process/ret plant in water to isolate bast fibers

2. pound/scrutch to remove hard xylem and turn fibers into pulp

3. add alkali (wood ashes) and heat to dissolve remaining non-fibers and create slurry of suspended fine fibers

4. mix slurry in water

5. dip screen, shake, drain, and dry

Woody plants can also be used → isolate inner bark w/ peeling and steaming instead of fibers

Fleshy fruits

Are eaten by animals → seeds dispersed

fleshiness= fruit wall containing sugars, starch, vitamins, bitter/defensive compounds and lots of water

Fruit= ovary of flowering plant (with seeds)

N. China- plum, jujube, pear, peach, chestnut (seed)

S. China and SE Asia- citrus (oranges, lemons)

Central Asia- apricot, apple

Mediterranean/SW Asia- date, pomegranate, fig, grape

Africa- many melons

Minerals

Jade- jadeite (color variety, brighter green) and nephrite (color variety, lighter green)

• very hard, status symbol, often from Khotan

Ammonium chloride- mordant in dyeing, flux in metal working, leather preparation, etc.

• extremely useful and could be found all along the Silk Roads

Lapis Lazuli- Persia, Egypt, mountains south of Khotan, etc.

Plant fibers

Cellulose- can be boiled and w/ get softer and stronger with washes

Bast fibers (hemp, ramie)-

• retting- soaking stems in water, letting them sit and decompose (stop before decomposition reaches walls w/ lignin)

• scrutching- breaking/crushing stems to remove non-bast fibers

• hackling- straightening/aligning fibers and remove other tissues

• spinning, weaving, dyeing

Cotton- fiber from seed- remove seeds from fruit and remove hair from seeds (ginning)

Leaf fibers- hard fibers w/ more lignin from big leaves often used for rope and twine

Animal fibers

Protein- cannot be boiled

Silk, sinew, hair/keratin (sheep, goats, camels, rabbits)

Hair processing- shear or gather dropped hair → card/align and separate fibers with brush and paddle → spin to twist fibers into longer, stronger, thicker thread

OR felting- matting, condensing, and pressing hairs together w/ water to interlock them

Skins/hides- tanning w/ tannin to produce leather or curing w/ salt to remove water and prevent bacteria growth and temporarily dry the skin/hide

Stirrups

Originated as simple strap in India around 2nd C. BCE → toe stirrup 2nd-1st c. BCE → platform stirrup around 1st c. CE → full, mounting stirrup present in China by 300s CE

Horses

Originally from North America

Domestication first occurred likely in steppe near Black and Aral seas

Originally an important source of meat/milk → became hugely culturally important

Tarim Basin mummies

Preserved in high salt and arid environment

Evidence of ancient land routes and cultural exchange (patterns, bronze, textiles)

Plant domestication

Very slow biological process of genetic changes

Wind vs animal pollination could prevent problems

Selecting for leaves, stems, roots, taste, dye, fruits (size, ripening rate, nutrients, ease of harvesting), seeds

Domesticated species become genetically distinct from wild species

Animal domestication

Very slow biological process of genetic changes

Domesticated species become genetically distinct from wild species

Selecting for color, size, strength, speed, etc.

Agriculture

Need access to water during plant-growing season

Early cities with storage for food/seeds, laws, specialized professions, social/political hierachy, written language and record keeping

Soil cores and pollen

Pollen has thick outer wall/exine with sporopollenin that is hard to break down → lots of fossils

• can identify plant family, genus, and very rarely species from size, shape, and pattern

• comes from seed plants- either wind-pollinated conifers/cone seed-plants w/ lots of pollen production OR flower/fruit seed plants pollinated by animals

Spores are produced by spore plants w/o seeds (mosses, ferns)

• simple cell, smaller than pollen, fewer species than wind-pollinated, wetter climate

Soil cores show layers of fossils from different areas

Vegetation

Appearance or structre of all plants growing in a defined area

measured by-

• size- shows how much water and sun is in area- taller plants have more

• growth form- trees vs shrubs vs herbs (non-woody- shorter/younger)

• % of ground covered by plants

• layers of plants

• density of plants

Vegetation reflects latitudinal pattern- day length, rainfall, temperature

• also reflect altitude and proximity to large bodies of water

Climate= rainfall + temperature

Cereal grains

Fruits of grasses

1. till/plant

2. harvest

3. thresh- beat to separate grains from spikelets

4. winnow- separate grain from chaff w/ wind and/or sifting

5. mill- polish/remove seed coat (bran) and germ (baby plant) to leave endosperm w/ starch behind

6. storage to protect from animals and elements

Select for traits like synchronized ripening, more seeds per/plant, reduced shattering at spikelet, non-brittle stem