Objectives
The Central Eurasian world, which stretches from Northeast West Asia to Xinjiang and Northwest East Asia, is a regional space comprised of multiple trans-regional lines and surfaces, which has formed organically over time under the influence of political-military powers to the north, east, south and west. From the 19th century onwards, these regional spaces were reorganized into the regional spaces we know today, influenced not only by the existence of empires such as Russia, which adopted a policy of southward expansion, and Britain, which sought to protect its interests in India, but also the construction of inland railways and changes in mobility with the maritime world, as well as the nation-state system of the 20th century.
West Asia has a historical connection to the Central Eurasian world, where agricultural and pastoral regions became intermixed following the rise of Islam. In order to clarify the cultural dynamics in Northeast West Asia, this project will link artifacts from the regions connected via the trans-regional network historically formed in inland Eurasia from Northeast West Asia to Northwest East Asia, and build a database that spatially visualizes the cross-regional spread of the region’s material culture.
Description
West Asia is located in the western part of the Eurasian continent and developed an advanced civilization centered on the Arabian Peninsula following its Islamization in the 7th century. Although the northeastern part of the region is on the geographical and cultural periphery of West Asia, the region is also connected to Central Eurasia’s agro-pastoral ecotone. It is an important border zone connected to the trans-regional trade network known as the Silk Road, which moved people, goods and knowledge across Central Eurasia from east to west and north to south.
When investigating the cultural dynamics of this region, while keeping the globalization of recent years in mind, it is necessary to adopt a perspective of trans-regional cultural connections and the visualization of a synchronic global society along a time axis, and from there, view this regional space as one created diachronically, which exceeds existing regional divisions. In other words, in order to grasp the culture dynamics of Northeast West Asia, it is necessary to view the area as a whole, connected through a trans-regional network, which goes beyond the area divisions of West Asia, Central Asia, and China.
On the other hand, cultural links is also important point. It spread historically within the trans-regional network have been reorganized in the cognitive framework of national consciousness and regional commonality, formed within the modern nation-state and contemporary political and economic regional systems. These may manifest themselves in a politically charged way in conjunction with ethnic identity. In light of this, it is not only necessary to define the regions from the researchers' perspective, but also to record the awareness of parties involved at a nation-state level living today in relation to trans-regional artifacts.
In this project, we aim to do the following: (1) Conduct a basic study using related literature to examine and enrich the information in the existing artifact catalog database relating to a total of 855 items. These are comprised of the Turkish nomad artifacts from northern and northeastern Iran, which had not been sorted during the 3rd term Info-Forum Museum project, as well as related materials from northern Afghanistan, Kashmir, and northwest China, which are connected to the target region via the Silk Road. (2) By adding geographical information to these and the Central Asian artifacts (1,198 items) already sorted through the “Material Culture in Central and North Asia: Ethno-Cultural Objects at the National Museum of Ethnology” project (FY2018-2022) (project leader: Hirofumi Teramura), we will construct a database that provides a visualization of the spatial distribution of these items on a map. (3) In order to understand the contemporary awareness of the artifacts in question, we will hold workshops involving people from the collection areas, utilizing the “Material Culture in Central and North Asia” database, which is already available to the public.
Expected results
As a pilot model for a cross-regional Info-Forum Archives of Human Culture project, we aim to deepen cross-regional understanding of the artifacts in the database, and to make data publicly available that will serve as a precedent for displaying information about artifacts on a map. In conjunction with other projects, we will also cooperate with researchers both in Japan and overseas to stimulate international joint research through the shared use of the database.
In addition, we will make the database (monitor and PC) available to the public at the Special Exhibition entitled “Tales of Silk Road Merchants: distant Eurasian exchanges” (provisional title) scheduled to be held at Minpaku from March 2026 as a way of visualizing the research results and disseminating them to society. A designated area will also be set up in the exhibition which uses geographical information to display the research results.
Outcomes from 2024
This fiscal year, we carried out the following three tasks: (1) Sorting information on artifacts using literary sources; (2) Conducting field studies of artifacts; (3) Organizing methods for publishing the data.
(1) We used a Google spreadsheet to organize the information on the artifacts gathered from our literature survey, providing a platform for the work being done by joint researchers at Minpaku and elsewhere. Based on the research plan, geographical information was added to the basic information about the artifacts, along with information on local names and usage collected from the literature survey and field studies described below. We have also compiled links to external sources of data, such as the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, and Cultural Heritage Online, which can continue to be used even after the information has been updated in the form of a database.
(2) The original plan for a field study to investigate the materials collected in northwest China and Kashmir was replaced by a literature survey, but field studies were conducted in Uzbekistan and Iran for the materials collected in Afghanistan and Iran. During the field study carried out in Uzbekistan in September, a meeting was held with the cooperation of the international research collaborators to exchange ideas about this research project with Ashirov Adkhamjon Azimbayevich (Head of Center of Ethnology and Anthropology , the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan). Interviews regarding materials collected in Afghanistan were also conducted in locations, such as the city of Termez on the Afghanistan border. During the former exchange of ideas, we reaffirmed the importance of spatially visualizing the artifacts, considering the cultural stratification of a mobile culture and the influence of the nation-state. During the latter interviews, we added information on South Uzbek and Dari, the languages spoken by the Uzbek people in Afghanistan, and the text in those languages were written using abbreviations that conform to international standards. The field study in Iran had originally been scheduled to begin at the end of August, but had to be postponed due to the tensions between Iran and Israel as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so was carried out from the end of February to early March. The study enabled us to gain an understanding of the recent state of Iranian research into the material culture of nomadic societies living in the area stretching from Iran to Central Asia and Afghanistan, and we were able to exchange opinions about this research project with researchers from the Iranian Institute of Anthropology and Culture and the Nomadic Affairs Organization. In addition to the exchange of opinions, we held a workshop on 27 February at the Turkmen Cultural Center in Tehran, bringing together independent Turkmen, Azerbaijan and Qashqai researchers. Information was shared regarding the project's plans and target materials, and a system of cooperation was established for future field studies.
(3) Regarding the publication of data and visualization using WebGIS, once we had sorted the basic information to a certain degree, we worked in consultation with the Info-Forum Archives of Human Culture editorial team to establish the basic design conditions for a program based on Open Street Map, but which can also support Google Maps and other platforms as a tile layer, using Javascript. In addition, as a way to promote understanding of the historical process behind the cultural transnationality visualized through this research project, we attempted a new visualization method by producing a video on the topic.