Imperial Interstices: Agents of Eurasian Interaction in Late Antiquity, University of Chicago, November 11, 2016 1:00–6:15 pm

In the first millennium CE, regions in the interstices of the Mediterranean, the Near East, and East and South Asia gave rise to merchants, political elites, and religious specialists who stimulated social change across Eurasia. The Neubauer Collegium project Imperial Interstices aims to shift our historical perspective away from the Roman, Chinese, Iranian/Islamic, and Indian civilizational centers toward the places in between, such as the Central Eurasian steppes, Indian Ocean ports, and the passes of the Caucasus and Hindu Kush, as centers of economic, political, and religious innovation.

This workshop will focus on the mercantile networks and communities that took shape between empires in the first millennium and explore convergences and divergences in their respective historical trajectories. Subsequent workshops will focus on Political Elites (Feb. 24) and Religious Elites (April 21).

This is the first of three workshops sponsored by the Imperial Interstices Project.
Speakers include: Nicholas Purcell (Oxford University), Bryan Miller (Oxford University), Fanny Bessard (St. Andrews University), and Seth Priestman (Edinburgh University).
Respondents: Ken Pomeranz (University of Chicago) and Michael Frachetti (Washington University in St. Louis).