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Silk, Slaves, and Stupas. Susan Whitfield
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isbn 9780520957664
Автор произведения Susan Whitfield
Издательство Ingram
Toward the beginning of that year [1940], a young monk, entrusted with the repair works of the small wall sustaining the terrace where the church rises in the cemetery area of the convent, found in a small natural cave below the terrace, the relics of a wooden box along with eleven small gold plates, tweleve [sic] small bands of same metal, and of various lengths, and a considerable number of gold coins. The coins along with the gold plates and bands (which presumably formed part of the ornamentation of the box), were brought to Asmara, and the prior of the convent, mamher Takla ab Tasfai sold the entire lot to an Italian jeweller; who, in turn, sold it to a person of culture, who felt interested in the hoard.86
This raises the question of the casket, for whose story we have even less evidence than for that of the coins, since at least we can be fairly certain of their origin. For a start, it is assumed that the pieces of wood, gold, and green stone found in the same place as the coins originally formed a casket. Mordini, one of the few people to see these, is confident on this point and describes them: “They consisted of ten small plates, partly rectangular and partly square; one large plate of hexagonal shape, slightly pyramidal and twelve bands of various sizes all decorated in light bas-relief with ornamental vines and stylish flowers of peculiar character.”
In 1943 Mordini located the nook and sieved the earth in it to find more remains of the casket, including pieces of wood, about thirty gold nails, “which, it is clear, must have served to fix the plates and the bands to the casket,” and some thin plates of green stone, which he could not immediately identify. He also found some potsherds that he judged to be from the Axumite period. In a later article, the Russian scholar S. I. Berzina suggests that the casket was Indian made and similar to a casket excavated by Neville Chittick.87 However, since the casket was found in pieces and, as far as I have been able to ascertain, the pieces were not photographed or drawn, this conclusion must remain extremely tentative. David Phillipson gives information suggesting that the pieces of the casket were later discarded, so it is unlikely that we will ever know more.88 The assumption that the coins were held in the casket is reasonable, given that we could expect such a rich hoard to be housed in some sort of receptacle. But whether this was the original receptacle or one used later—perhaps when the coins were moved—and where the box originated remain too uncertain to call.
The sale of monastery treasures was not unusual—and continues to this day (see chapter 9). It is fortunate that Mordini had the opportunity to study the coins after they were sold on.89 This was sometime prior to 1959, when Mordini published his original account. I have not been able to find the identity of the Italian jeweler or the “person of culture,” although both might be noted in archives. The 1939 census of Asmara counted fifty-three thousand Italians among a total population of ninety-eight thousand in the city and a total of seventy-five thousand Italians in all of Eritrea. Among them there were presumably several jewelers. The nationality of the “person of culture” is unclear, but again details might be found in archives. As far as I know, this is the last record of the coins. While they might remain intact in a private collection, there is also the possibility that they were melted down to realize their value as gold.90
Whatever the story of these coins and how they traveled, they reflect many aspects of the Silk Road. Created in the “dynamo” of Inner Eurasian history by an exiled agro-pastoralist people who had perhaps largely adapted to a settled city life, they reflect the importance of the Kushan for trade by both land and sea. While the early pieces probably circulated as money, the newest issues were probably never used for this purpose, instead being kept unmarked and unworn as treasures. At some point they traveled from Central Asia to East Africa by land, river, and sea on routes used by Silk Road merchants, possibly in a wooden casket. They later became the property of a Christian church, surviving over centuries. We can only hope that they remain as a treasured collection. If so, although inaccessible to most, they continue their entanglement with their collector and to tell their story.
1. I owe a great debt to the work of numismatists for this chapter and would like to thank Joe Cribb and Robert Bracey in particular for their generous advice and suggestions. All mistakes, misunderstandings, and omissions are my own.
2. Agriculture is found here, but on a relatively small scale compared to Outer Eurasia. Cities are also found here.
3. Christian (1998: xxi).
4. See Chang et al. (2003) for a discussion of the Yuezhi as agropastoralists—farmers and herders.
5. Some have linked them to an Indo-European group known as the Tocharians, but this remains speculative.
6. The Yuezhi were renowned for their army of skilled archers, but the Xiongnu had mobile mounted warriors.
7. For a discussion of these, see Thierry (2005). For a detailed account of the Yuezhi migration, see Benjamin (2007). The historical record is always subject to support or otherwise from the archaeological record. They do not always tally, especially in the indiscriminate use of Xiongnu in the Chinese histories, where the archaeological record suggests different cultures.
8. Mainly in juan 123 of the Shiji and juan 96A of the Hanshu. Various translations are available for both, cited below.
9. Shiji 123, trans. Watson (Sima Qian 1993: 234).
10. Some probably stayed as well. A notable descendant of these was the Buddhist monk Dharmarakṣa (fl. mid-third century, Zhu Fahu). It is recorded that he came from a Yuezhi family that had lived for generations in Dunhuang.
11. And, by extension, as a major factor in the start of the Silk Road. See Whitfield (2018b) for further discussion of this.
12. As Holcombe has noted, “Three subjects that mainstream traditional Chinese historians seldom addressed were trade, Buddhism and foreigners” (1999: 285).
13. Shiji, trans. Watson (Sima Qian 1993: 234). The archaeological record suggests the Yuezhi were agro-pastoralists, but the nuances of the lives of different groups of the steppe were not necessarily acknowledged by the historians in China.
14. Ibid.
15. For a discussion of this interaction in relation to the Yuezhi, see Liu (2001).
16. As noted above, Chang et al. (2003) have studied contemporary settlements in southeastern Kazakhstan, supposedly the first stopping point of the Yuezhi, and have found evidence of an agro-pastoralist society.
17. See Michon (2015: 110–51) for a discussion of these.
18. There is considerable discussion about the equivalents of the place-names used by the Chinese. For example, Anxi is linked by some with Parthia and by others with the Parthian kingdom of Gondophares in Gandhāra.
19. Hou Hanshu 88, “Xiyu juan” [Chapter on the Western Regions], trans. Hill (2003).
20. Millward (2007: 15).
21. Christian (1994: 182).
22. “Writing Kusana history is like constructing a giant mosaic. Scholars have pieced together parts of the outer frame and a few internal configurations, but whole areas are still empty” (Rosenfield 2011: 10).
23. Lam (2013: 440).
24. Trainor (1997: 86).
25. By sea as well as land.
26. Holt (1988).
27. Dates for the Kushan and its early rulers are the subject of much debate, as discussed below, so no firm dates are given here.
28. For a recent discussion of the importance of coins for the historian, see Holt (2012), who calls them “the very backbone on which the frame of Central Asian history has been built” (31).
29.