Table of Contents

• Introduction
• A Tragic Century . . .
• “Every Earth Zone . . .”
• Earth . . . the Progenitor of all Things
• Part I. The Steppe Belt in the Mega-Structure of the Eurasian World
• Chapter 1. The Formation of the Eurasian World
• Structure and Mega-Structure in Eurasian Geoecology
• Culture and Subsistence Strategy
• The Long Road to a Continental Mega-Structure
• Four Continental “Enclaves”
• Chapter 2. Transitions from North to South: Geoecology, Subsistence and the Eurasian Steppe Belt
• North–South, East–West
• The Geoecological “Cake” of Eurasia
• Differences between the Domains
• The Geoecology of the Eurasian Steppe Belt
• The West-Eurasian Steppe and Its Borders
• The Dzungarian Gate and Mongolian Mountain Steppe
• Arabian Desert Plateaus
• The Domain of Nomadic Culture
• Chapter 3. Transitions from East to West: Across the Layers of the Eurasian Geoecology
• The East in Eurocentric Perspective
• Dividing Lines and Defining Borders: The Mountains between East and West
• The Line between Asia and Europe
• West and East Beyond the Geoecological Framework
• Anthropology
• Linguistics
• Ideological Systems
• Part II. The Archaeology of Nomadic Cultures
• Chapter 4. Archaeology and History: Sources of Difference
• Archaeology and History: Pre-Literate and Literate
• Understanding Differences in Method and Approach
• Interpreting Archaeological Sources
• The Complexity of Burial Structures
• Archaeologists as the Denizens of the Afterworld
• The “Mongolian Syndrome” of Nomadic Cultures
• Chapter 5. “Gifts” from the Nomads: Pastoral Contributions to World History
• Self-Perception and the Perception of Others
• Perception of the Steppe Nomads
• Horse Riding
• Monotheism
• Mounds and Mausoleums
• The “Bridge” between East and West
• The Tides of Cultural Influence
• Chapter 6. Nomadic Cultures in the Early Metal Age: Archaeological Time, Technology, and Territor
• The Duration of Archaeological Time
• Riders and Metal
• Metal and the “Ages” of Prehistory
• At the Origins of Metallurgy
• Other Innovations of the Early Metal Age
• Accepted Norms and Acceptable Industries
• Early Metal Age as a Eurasian Phenomenon
• Territorial “Leaps” of Early Metal Age Cultures
• The Problem of Spatial Stagnation
• Chapter 7. The “Proto-Metal” Age in Eurasia
• The Roots of the Early Metal Age
• Eastern Anatolia: Çayönü Tepesi, Tell Halula, Nevali Çori and Göbekli Tepe, Körtik Tepe
• Central Anatolia: Asikli-Höyük, Çatal-Höyük
• The Levant: Jericho and Tell Aswad
• The End of the “Proto-Metal” Age
• Chapter 8. Metallurgical Revolution in the Carpatho-Balkan Region
• Beginning of the Metal Age: Chalcolithic/Eneolithic
• The Balkan Neolithic
• The Structure of the Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province
• The Central Block: The Varna Necropolis, the Ai Bunar Copper Mine
• The Second Block: The Tripolye Community
• The Third Block: Herders in the Steppe
• Cultural Continuity in the Steppe
• Driving Change
• Chapter 9. The Origins of the Circumpontic Metallurgical Province
• The Emergence of a New Province and the Start of the Early Bronze Age
• The Mounds of the “Maykop”
• “Maykop” Settlements and Economy
• The Mysteries of the “Maykop”
• Chapter 10. The Circumpontic Metallurgical Province and Caucasian “Corridor”
• The Turn of the Middle Bronze Age in the Southern Domain
• The “Occupation” of the Carpatho-Balkan Zone
• Arslantepe: The “Hall of Weapons” and the “Royal Tomb”
• The Metal in Arslantepe and Its Parallels
• Traces of the South in the “Maykop” North
• From the Proto-Circumpontic to the Circumpontic Metallurgical Province
• The Drift of Gold around the Black Sea
• Northern Axes in the South
• Chapter 11. The Circumpontic Province and the Nomads of the Steppe Belt
• The Middle Bronze Age in the Northern Domain
• Three Groups of North-Caucasian Cultures
• An Impulse to the North: The Steppe Kurgan Cultures
• The “Yamna” Archaeological Community
• The “Pioneers” of Mining-Metallurgical Industries in the Steppe
• The First Wave of Nomadic Migration from West to East
• The Catacomb Archaeological Community
• The Radiocarbon Chronology of Steppe Cultures
• Montelius’s Morphological Paradigm and the Steppe Communities
• Chapter 12. Great Leap and Great Stagnation
• The Late Bronze Age
• A Genie, Bursting out of the Furnace
• Defining the Great Stagnation
• The Cultural Core of Eurasia
• Chapter 13. The Second Millennium: Revolutionary Changes in the Eurasian Steppe
• From the Ruins of the Circumpontic Province
• The West-Asian (Eurasian) Metallurgical Province: Change in the Character of Cultures
• The “Democratic” Character of the Steppe Cultures
• The Dawn of the West-Asian Province
• The West-Asian Province: The Period of Stabilization
• The Kargaly Mining-Metallurgical Center Phenomenon
• The Disintegration of the West-Asian Province
• The Second and Third Waves from the West to the East
• The Peculiarities of the West-Asian Province and a Number of Unanswerable Questions
• Chapter 14. The Neighbours of the West-Asian Metallurgical Province
• The Formation of New Systems
• The European Metallurgical Province
• The Caucasian Metallurgical Province
• The West-Asian, European and Caucasian Provinces: The Differences in Focus
• The Iranian-Anatolian Metallurgical Province
• The Hyksos–Manetho–Josephus Flavius
• Chapter 15. From the Center of Asia to the West: The Forerunners of Genghis Khan?
• The Seima-Turbino Transcultural Phenomenon
• Cemeteries or Memorial Sanctuaries?
• The Metal of “Seima-Turbino”
• Chemical-Metallurgical Groups
• Animal Images on the “Seima-Turbino” Metalwork
• A Caravan of Animals: The “Hallmarks” of Strangers from the East
• The Cultures of Central Asia and the “Mongolian Syndrome”
• Foreign Warriors
• The End of the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon
• Chapter 16. East Asian Steppe and Ancient Chinese Metallurgical Provinces
• In Search of “Seima-Turbino” Heritage
• The Karasuk Culture and the East Asian Steppe Metallurgical Province
• The Ancient Chinese (Shang-Zhou) Metallurgical Province
• Chapter 17. At the Roots of the Age of Iron
• The Fifth Age of Metal
• The Spatial and Chronological Framework of the Iron Age
• The Periodization of Technological and Social Development: The Problem of Coordination
• Chapter 18. The Scythian World through the Eyes of Herodotus
• The Scythians: Who Are They?
• The Origins of the Scythians According to Herodotus
• On the Funerals of Kings
• The Scythians and the Hellenes: Inter-Perceptions
• Chapter 19. The Scythian World through the Eyes of Archaeologists
• The Scythians: Who Are They (Archaeologically)?
• Two Thousand Years On: The Heirs of the “Maykop” Culture
• The Greatness of Scythian Burial Mounds
• The Royal Kurgans and Their Geography
• Scythian Metals and Their Sources
• Scythian Gold
• The Rejection of the Old World
• The Irrational Aspect of Culture
• The Sarmatians Replace the Scythians
• Part III. Nomadic Culture in Historical Context
• Chapter 20. The Transformation of the Pastoralists of Arabia
• On the Sources of Revelation
• The Battle of Badr and the Beginning of the Muslim Conquests
• First Wave of Conquests
• Second Wave of Conquests: Iberian Peninsula
• Battle of Talas and Dzungarian Gate
• Chapter 21. A Collision of Worlds: Islam and Catholicism
• Intellectual Rise in Arab Caliphates
• Geographical Lore in Europe
• Europe Aims at Palestine
• The People’s Crusade
• The Capture of Jerusalem
• The Further Adventures of the Cross
• Chapter 22. The First Wave from the East: the Huns
• Collapse of the Pillars of Stability
• The Huns in the West
• Attila the Hun
• After Attila
• Chapter 23. The “Huns” in the East
• Where Are Their Roots?
• The Xiongnu and the Han: The Reliability of Chinese Texts
• A Pendulum of Victory and Defeat
• Weak Han, Strong “Huns”
• A Telling Exchange between Chanyu and Emperor
• Enticing the Xiongnu: The Advice of Jia Yi
• The Importance of Military Organization: The Advice of Chao Cuo
• Strong Han, Weak “Huns”
• The Tombs of the Eastern “Huns”
• Chapter 24. A Second Wave from the East: The Turks
• Chaos in Peoples, Chaos in Chronicles
• The Successors of the Xiongnu: Rouran and Xianbei
• Turkic Khanates
• Rhythms of Victory and Defeat
• The Turkic World
• In Search of Correspondence between Written and Archaeological Records
• Chapter 25. The Heirs of the Western Turkic Khanate
• Who are the Bulgars?
• Khazars and Their Khanate
• The Oghuz
• Chapter 26. The Third Wave from the East: China and the Mongols
• The “Secret History” of the Mongols
• Mengda Beilu
• Dynastic Histories and Chronicles
• Childhood and Adolescence of Temujin
• The First Steps of Genghis Khan
• The Year of the Tiger
• The Conquest of Tangut: The Western Xia Dynasty and the Death of Genghis Khan
• The Defeat of the Jurchen Jin
• The Demise of the Song Dynasty
• The Mongols in Tibet
• Centaurs with Ballistae
• The Great Wall of China
• Chapter 27. Third Wave from the East: The Mongols and the World of Islam
• Beginning: The First Mongol Campaign to the West
• The Fall of Khwarezm
• From Samarkand to Kalka and Back to Mongolia
• From Hatred to Flattery
• Chapter 28. A Third Wave from the East: The Mongols and the Christian World
• Unexpected Strangers
• The Second Expedition to the West: A Decision to Conquer the World
• Endangered Rus’
• The Catholic World Alerted
• Attempts to Organize Collective Resistance
• Catholics Take a More Rationalized Approach
• William of Rubruck and Marco Polo
• Chapter 29. The Fall of the Great Mongol Empire
• The Apogee of an Empire
• Microscopic Polygon
• Three Generations of Conquerors
• Defeats without Battles
• Antaeus and Odysseus
• The Softening of Brutal Souls
• Chapter 30. An Eastern Millennium
• Three Eastern Waves: Similarities and Differences
• Written Sources and Their Advantages and Disadvantages
• Historical Realities and the “Mongolian Syndrome”
• Great Silk Way and Archeology
• The Fate of Mongolian Cities
• Part IV. Rus’, Russia, and the Nomadic World
• Chapter 31. Why Only Rus’?
• History and Archaeology Revisited
• The Historians of the Kievan Rus’
• “Bad Environment, Bad Neighbours”
• Chapter 32. From the Avars to the Time of Troubles
• Avars, Khazars, and Pechenegs
• The Cumans
• The Mongols: The Kalka River
• Four Years and Four Waves of Batu Khan’s Conquests
• The Mongol Yoke and the Russian Princes
• The Kulikovo Battle
• The Weakening of the Horde
• From the Great Standoff on the Ugra River to Ivan the Terrible
• From Ivan the Terrible to the Time of Troubles
• Chapter 33. The Early Modern Period: Rupturing of the Borders of the Eurasian Nucleus
• Climatic Centuries in the Transition to the Early Modern Period
• A Rupture in the West
• The Iberian Wave and the Dream of the Indies
• Amerigo Vespucci and America
• The Gold of South America
• The British Wave and the Global Dream
• Captain Hudson and New Amsterdam
• Thirteen British Colonies and the Origins of the Independence of America
• The British Empire
• Chapter 34. Sarmatia Asiatica and Sarmatia Europeana
• Evaluation of the Events of Two Centuries Ago
• The “Barrier” of Kazan
• From the Urals to Cape Dezhnyov
• Encounters on the Amur: The Manchus
• Peaceful Assimilation?
• Furs Instead of Gold
• The Steppe Belt and China
• The Colonization of Northern Eurasia and the Blockade of the Steppe Belt
• Chapter 35. Breaking Borders: Colonization in Principle and Practice
• The Burden of “Civilization”
• New Worlds, New Opportunities
• Sources of Pleasure
• The Modes of Russian Colonization
• Crossing Continents: Russian America
• The Fate of the Colonized
• Chapter 36. An Assault on the Steppe
• The Crimean Thorn: The “Fortress” of the Southwestern Steppe
• The Prince of Tauris
• An Ural Foothold
• Kirilov’s Window
• Rychkov: Ethnographer, Historian, and Accountant
• Into the Kazakh Steppes
• The Last Days of the Kazakh Khanate
• At the Gates of Bukhara
• “Zheltorossii”: The Manchurian Project
• The End of the Insuperable Steppe World?
• Chapter 37. The Soviet Steppe
• A Short Road to the Soviet Empire
• “Unbreakable Union of Freeborn Republics . . .”
• The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government
• Successes and Achievements
• Setbacks and Failures
• “Bulwark of Peoples in Brotherhood Strong . . .”
• Central Asia: A Century Later
• Impressions of Mongolia: 60 Years Later
• The Field and the Harvest of Sorrow
• The Steppe
• Part V. In Place of an Epilogue: Difficult Questions and Complex Problems
• Chapter 38. Reflections on Life among Complex Problems
• Thirty Years on . . .
• On the Periodization of the Early Metal Age
• Radiocarbon-Based Chronology and the Paradigm of the Contemporary Archaeology
• Models of Development: Transformation
• Blows to Montelius’s Ideas
• Models of Development: Leaps, Surges, and Explosions
• In Search of the Origins of Technological Innovations and the Issue of Migration
• Chapter 39. Ideology and Culture
• The Normative Factor
• The Normative Factor and the Religious Principles of the East and the West
• The Normative Factor and Funerary Rites
• Chapter 40. Self-Sufficency and Historical Development
• Metallurgy as a Marker of Transformation
• Self-Sufficiency
• Eurasia and Africa: The Fate of the Ancestral Homeland of Humankind
• The Colonization and Re-Colonization of Australia
• Appendix 1. Radiocarbon Chronology of the Early Metal Cultures in Western Eurasia
• Appendix 2. In Thirst of Immortality: Genghis Khan and the Mission of Changchun the Monk
• Appendix 3. Marriott Hotel and Batu Khan
• Appendix 4. The Last Descendant of Genghis Khan?
• Appendix 5. The Great Silk Road and the Secret Mission of Chokan Valikhanov
• Historical Sources
• Bibliography

About the Author

Evgenij N. Chernykh is a Russian archaeologist. A Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he is the Head of the Laboratory of the Scientific Methods of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Professor Chernykh is the author of more than 400 scholarly publications primarily focusing on the scientific methodology in archaeological studies; the development of metallurgy in the ancient cultures of Eurasia; the economic structure of ancient Eurasian world.

Reviews

"Chernykh’s work has a number of qualities that make it a valuable addition to the histories of Eurasia. [...] Every chapter is more extensively illustrated than any other history of Eurasia with color photographs, drawings, maps and charts that make the complex information in that chapter extremely clear. [...] In short, for anyone, student or scholar, with an interest in the history of Eurasia and its place in world history this is a valuable work that can be highly recommended." - International Journal of Russian Studies (2018)