Ancient Tibetan Culture

Ａｎｃｉｅｎｔ　Ｔｉｂｅｔａｎ　ＣｕｌｔｕｒｅＡｎｃｉｅｎｔＴｉｂｅｔａｎＣｕｌｔｕｒｅ￥ｂｙＬｏｂｓａｎｇＤａｉｎｚｉｎＴｉｂｅｔｈａｓａｗｒｉｔｔｅｎｈｉｓｔｏｒｙｏｆｓｏｍｅ１，３００ｙｅａｒｓ，ａｎｄｉｔｓｎｕｍｅｒｏｕｓＢｕｄｄｈｉｓｔｓｃ...     

A Companion to Ancient History,Blackwell Companions to the Ancient Worm （Yan Shaoxiang）.

I am wondering if we should have more Companions in ancient history in the 21^st century since we already have numerous companions from the Cambridge Companions and Brill Companions, both series very focused and up to date. The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome （2006） contains a variety of information about the classical world which makes it a useful handbook, and also in Blackwell＇s Companions, quite a few Companions have appeared since the new century, covering ancient history. So far as this paper is concerned, we may list the Companions to the Ancient Near East, Archaic Greece, the Classical Greek World, the Hellenistic World, the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, Late Antiquity, the Roman Army, and Julius Caesar, all of which combined together cover almost every historical stage of ancient history chronologically. Is there any further space left for a Comnanion to Ancient History？     

Ancient Pillboxes In Dainba

In Dainba County of Garze Prefecture, there are many “skyscraping” pillboxes. Dainba County is situated to the east of Khamba. It lies between Gonggar Mountain and Four-Girl Mountain, and is adjacent to Aba Prefecture‘s Xiaojin County and Jinchuan County.     

TeamRepair for Ancient Architecture

ＲｅｐａｉｒＴｅａｍｆｏｒＡｎｃｉｅｎｔＡｒｃｈｉｔｅｃｔｕｒｅＷＡＮＣＤＵＩＴｈｅＬｈａｓａＭｏｓｑｕｅｉｓｋｎｏｗｎｔｏａｌｌｉｎｔｈｅｗｏｒｌｄ．Ｎｏｒｔｈｏｆｉｔｌｉｅｓａｌａｎｅ，ａｌｏｎｇｗｈｉｃｈｃａｎｂｅｆｏｕｎｄａｍａｇｎｉｆｉｃｅ...     

Ancient Watchtowers In Jiarong

ＡｎｃｉｅｎｔＷａｔｃｈｔｏｗｅｒｓＩｎＪｉａｒｏｎｇ￥ｂｙＬｈａｒＷｕｊｉａＭｏｓｔｏｆｔｈｅｗａｔｃｈｔｏｗｅｒｓｒｉｓｅｆｒｏｍｅｉｇｈｔｔｏｔｅｎｏｒｍｏｒｅｓｔｏｒｅｙｓｉｎｈｅｉｇｈｔ．Ｔｈｅｓｔｒｕｃｔｕｒｅｓａｒｅｆｏｕｎｄｉｎｖａｒ...     

Tidbits of Ancient Monasteries

middle-agedlamaliftedtheneedleinfrontofhisface,betrayinghesitationover.whetherto2iveaniniectiontotheyoungwomansittingonthebenchinfrontofhirn.Hisembarrass-mentformedasharpcontrastwiththewomanwhoremainedverycomposed.ThesnapshotwastakenintheTashilhungpoMonas…     

Rescuing Ancient Ruins in Ngari

TheruinsofanancientcastleareperchedalongahighterraceonthesouthernbankofariverbasininNgari,westernTibet.Some700yearsago,thiswasthecenteroftheGugeKingdm,whoserulersfosteredandnurturedthespreadofBuddhism.Theirkingdomsurvivedandthrivedforsome500years.Duringthisperiod,manymonasteriesandbuildingswereerected.TheruinsandrelicsattractnumerousTibetologistsandarchaeologists.Withthearrivalofthe1970s,archaeologistsbegantostudythehistoryoftheGugeKingdomandthesurroundingZhangzhongculture.Acampaignalsobe…     

New Life Comes toan Ancient Land

ＮｅｗＬｉｆｅＣｏｍｅｓｔｏａｎＡｎｃｉｅｎｔＬａｎｄ￥ｂｙＮａｍｇｙａｉａｎｄＮｏｒｂｕＳｏｕｔｈＴｉｂｅｔｏｒｔｈｅＹａｒｌｕｎｇＲｉｖｅｒＶａｌｌｅｙｃｏｖｅｒｓ１３ｃｏｕｎｔｉｅｓｉｎｃｌｕｄｉｎｇＮｅｄｏｎｇ，Ｚｈａｎａｍ，Ｑｏｎｇｇｙａｉ...     

Ancient Road For Tea Horse Trade

For many, manypeople in theworld,a roadexclusively devot-ed to the tea-horse tradewould be considered some-thing of a tall tale.However,such a road did exist,fromthe Tang Dynasty(618-907)to the opening of the Yun-nan-Tibet and Sichuan-TibetHighways in the 196Os.Insome areas,sections of theroad are still used for trans-port purposes.     

NINE-EYE STONES Cash Used in Ancient Tibet

The Nine-Eye Stone was used as currency inTibet some 4,000 years ago.Although it comesof varied sizes,It assumed one of two shapes-bars and balls.Each has holes which Tibetans call eyesto tie threads.     

LHASA QUGONG:Ancient Brilliance of Snow Land

EDITOR'S NOTE:The author is a researchfellow of the Archaeological Research Institute ofthe Chinese Academy ofSocial Sciences. In thefive years from 1989 to1994, he conducted digsand surveys in Tibet. TheQugong Ruins are one ofthe sites where heworked, and bronzearrows found there showthey were produced andused some 4,000 yearsago, or during the reign ofthe 8TH Tubo King, asagainst the 2,000 yearswidely accepted in China.In May 1989, when I went toattend the inauguration ceremony fo…     

LHAZE:Ancient Town Famous For Tibetan Knives

henitisplacedonthetable,itlookslikeripplingautumnwaterthatglistensinthesun;whenitisheldinthehand,one'canfeelcoolnessfromtheblade.SuchTibetanknivesareproducednowherebutinLhaze,anancienttown.AccompaniedbyNamgyi,headoftheCivilAffairsBureauofLhazeCounty,Ivisi…     

The Sacred Economy of Ancient “Israel”

Abstract

Taking up the challenge to develop a new study of the economic patterns in the ancient Near East, including what passes for ancient “Israel’ (the Persian province of Yehud), this article proposes a model of the “sacred economy.” A study in economic history, it seeks to map out the broad contours of this sacred economy in light of the neglected but crucial economically–informed scholarship from the Soviet Union on the ancient Near East. The article identifies the key nodes of the sacred economy as the village–commune, the temple–city complex, the formation of the despotic state, the tensions between labour and class, and mediations between empire and village commune. It traces the development of the State to the tensions between the village commune and the city–temple complex. It also argues that the key features of this sacred economy may be described as regimes of allocation and regimes of extraction. The unique combination of these regimes and the tensions between them make up the sacred economy. The underlying logic of the regimes of allocation was to provide a rationale for the allocation of productive units such as land and fertility by means of kinship, the war machine, patron–client relations and the judiciary. All of this was posed in the language of the sacred, for the deity is the ultimate arbiter of allocation. By contrast, the regimes of extraction undermine the allocatory economic logic by means of a pattern of exploitation in terms of tribute and trade. This article insists upon the necessary centrality of economic analysis in any historiography of the Ancient Near East.