• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.424-437
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• 2016

The study will analyze the costumes of the Scythians tribes who lived in the region of Altai in the 3-5 century BC. The purpose of this study is to prepare new material to re-examine the theory, which claims that the origin of the circular motives of korean costumes are to be found in the typology of the Scythian costumes. In this study, we analyzed the most recent reports of archaeological excavation about the unearthed clothes in the Pazyryk region and compared its information with european literature. The conclusion of this study is as follows: The jackets of the Pazyryk region are classified in two types, (1) opened jacket with narrow sleeve and (2) enclosed jacket with narrow sleeve. Trousers were separated by (1) narrow and (2) extreme wide trousers. The enclosed jacket of tunic form and extreme wide trousers are newly excavated. It proves, there was a vivid exchange between the Scythians and their neighboring cultures. It can be noted, that there existed a diverse Scythian culture of costumes, besides the commonly known clothing culture of the "Pazyryk-rider". Based upon the results of the previous research, it can be said that the opened jacket with narrow sleeve and narrow trousers are costume typologies which are common for all Scythian tribes of the whole Eurasian region. The hem of the edge of jacket is proven to be a connective element, which is common to all Scythian tribes.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-38
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• 2022

Many knotted carpets from western China and Central Asia from 700 BCE to 700 CE demonstrate strong resemblances to the Assyrian-Persian stone reliefs and Hellenistic-Romanmosaics. Egypt reveals the earliest samples in plain linen fiber and carpets with colorful designs in the mural paintings. The Egyptian wall decoration in faience shows the motifs of waterlily in two variations in the design, both of which appear in the Assyrian floor thresholds designs. The same waterlily or four-petal design in the Egyptian and Assyrian stonework also appear in the Pazyryk knotted carpet in the same manner. The Assyrian thresholds show a composition with a central area and borders in a square or rectangular overall design, which again parallels the Pazyryk carpet. The ideas of composition and motifs commonly seen in the Hellenistic and Roman mosaics appear in the carpets of Central Asia and western China. The similarities between the stone mosaic works and carpets demonstrate clearly that the remote places and peoples in ancient times learned from, and exchanged with, each other the ideas and artistic styles, and integrated to create some local artistic traditions, thanks to the roles the easy-to-carry textiles played throughout the Silk Road. The carpets played their roles: as practical material for daily use, and as carrier of cultural information through their designs.

• Proceedings of the Costume Culture Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.55-55
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• 2006

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.133-152
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• 2022

Both in popular perception and specialized literature, the Achaemenid Empire, for over two centuries the most important player from the Aegean to the Indus, is rarely evoked in correlation with the complex of socio-cultural dynamics which shaped the spaces of what has become known as the Silk Road(s). Building on the case study of the Pazyryk carpet on the one hand (King 2021, 353-361, Linduff and Rubinson 2021, 88-97), and of the spread of an artistic motive such as the quatrefoil on the other (Kim 2021), this paper explores the rich and complex nature of the commercial networks that flourished across Central Asia under the aegis of Achaemenid Great Kings. Both archaeological and literary evidence shall be discussed (especially the Aramaic Documents from Ancient Bactria: Naveh and Shaked 2012, and now King 2021, 315-320). If taken together and read against the grain, such material is significant for the following reasons. First, it suggests the existence - and the scale - of commercial activities directly fostered or indirectly promoted by the imperial administration in Central Asia, an area of crucial importance within the Achaemenid domains, but for which our evidence is rather scanty and difficult to assess. Second, it shows how the Achaemenid "Imperial Paradigm" (Henkelman 2017) affected the social and economic landscape of Central Asia even after the demise of the Empire itself, thus considerably shaping the world of the Silk Road(s) a century before the Ancient Sogdian Letters (de la Vaissière 2005, 43-70) or Zhāng Quiān's famous report.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.54-73
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• 2012

In this article, we examined the patterns of activities of the Sarmathians though in a humble measure, with a focus on the regions where the Sarmathian sheaths spreaded. One of the main weapons the mounted nomads like the Scythias, the Sarmathians, and the Alans used at war was a spear. Though complementary, a sword was the most convenient and appropriate weapon when fighting at a near distance, fallen from the horse to the ground. The Sarmathian swords continued the tradition of the Akinakes which the Scythias or the Persians used, but those of the Sarmathians showed some advances in terms of the easiness with which a sword was drawn out from a sheath, and the way the sheaths were worn to parts of a human body. It turns out that the Sarmathian sheaths, which were designed for the people to draw swords easily, having the sheaths attached to thighs through 4 bumps, spread extensively from Pazyryk, Altai, to South Siberia, Bactria, Parthia and Rome. The most noteworthy out of all the Sarmathian sheaths were the ones that were excavated from the 4th tomb in Tillatepe, Afghanistan which belonged to the region of Bactria. The owner of the fourth tomb of Tilla-tepe whose region was under the control of Kushan Dynasty at that time, was buried wearing Sarmathian swords, and regarded as a big shot in the region of Bactria which was also under the governance of Kushan Dynasty. The fact that the owner of the tomb wore two swords suggests that there had been active exchange between Bactria and Sarmathia. It seemed that the reason why the Sarmathians could play an important role in the exchange between the East and the West might have something to do with their role of supplying Chinese goods to Silk Road. That's why we are interested in how the copper mirrors of Han Dynasty, decoration beads like melon-type beads, crystal beads and goldring articulated beads, and the artifacts of South China which produced silks were excavated in the northern steppe route where the Sarmathians actively worked. Our study have established that the eye beads discovered in Sarmathian tomb estimated to have been built around the 1st century B.C. were reprocessed in China, and then imported to Sarmathia again. We should note the Huns as a medium between the Sarmathians and the South China which were far apart from each other. Thus gold-ring articulated beads which were spread out mainly across the South China has been discovered in the Huns' remains. On the other hand, between 2nd century B.C. and 2nd century A.D. which were main periods of the Sarmathians, it was considered that the traffic route connecting the steppe route and the South China might be West-South silk road which started from Yunnan, passed through Myanmar, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and then went into the east of India. The West-south Silk road is presumed to have been used by nomadic tribes who wanted to get the goods from South China before the Oasis route was activated by the Han Dynasty's policy of managing the countries bordering on Western China.