takes issue with the oft-cited interpretation that the Xiongnu moved into the Ordos at this time, arguing that the area was still occupied by “tribes of Loufang and Baiyang” (2015: 326).
23. On the Yuezhi as both farmers and herders, see Chang et al. (2003).
24. The battle took place at Baideng—to the east of the Ordos. The Chinese forces were led by the emperor Gaozu (r. 202–195), who only narrowly escaped capture.
25. For discussion of the heqin, see Psarras (2003: 132–42). Many of the so-called princesses sent in such marriage alliances were not in the direct imperial line. The system continued in later periods. For an account of marriages that did involve genuine imperial princesses sent to marry Turkic Uygur kaghans in the Tang period, see “The Princess’s Tale” in Whitfield (2015b).
26. Quoted in Kroll (2010: 113).
27. See Kim (2016: 22) and his map on 26.
28. The intelligence on goods and potential markets gained by Zhang Qian is usually given as a factor in the Han expansion west and the growth of trade—one of the factors in the start of the Silk Road (but certainly not the only one—see chapter 2).
29. Pines (2012b: 34).
30. Under the Roman emperor Hadrian (r. 117–38), walls were built throughout the empire, including northern Europe. Edward Luttwak discusses the point of such defenses and challenges the arguments that their regular breaching by enemy forces proves their failure, arguing instead that “they were intended to serve not as total barriers but rather as the one fixed element in a mobile strategy of imperial defense” (1976: 63). For an insightful discussion of the Chinese “Great Wall,” see Waldron (1990).
31. And beyond: Reynolds quotes the 1483 work of the chronicler Jacobo Filippo Foresti da Bergamo: “The Bactrians and Parthians descended from the Scythians, as did Attila the Great. . . . Our Lombards, Hungarians, Castellani, and Goths are all descended from the Scythians. . . . The Turks too . . . came from Scythia. Indeed the nation of Scythians traces its origins back to Magog” (2012: 53).
32. For Parthian history, see Colledge (1986).
33. Although the capital of China for most of its history from the Qin onwards was located much further south along the Yellow River (Chang’an [Xian] and Luoyang).
34. Miniaev (2015) points out issues with the archaeology records and the dating of these tombs. He argues that M3 is earlier and M9 much later and that these tombs belonged to separate graveyards.
35. Xigoupan (1980: 7: 1–10) and Tian and Guo (1986).
36. As Psarras (2003: 77) points out, the published literature makes this claim on the presence of surface finds including pottery shards, an ax, a hoe, an awl, knives, fragments of armor, and stone beads. This is hardly conclusive as evidence of a settlement.
37. For the headdress, see Tian and Guo (1986: pl. 4) and A. Kessler (1993: 62).
38. The earrings are shown in A. Kessler (1993: 62, fig. 35), So and Bunker (1995: 24), and Whitfield (2009: 57, cat. 27). They are not always shown in the same combination.
39. They are usually both identified as dragons. See discussion below.
40. As far as I know, the origin of the glass has not been explored; see chapter 2.
41. True granulation does not use metallic solders but either heats the gold surface and the granule sufficiently to enable bonding or uses nonmetallic solders, such as copper salts. Granulation is found on earrings dating from the third millennium BC found in a grave at Ashur on the Tigris (P. Harper 1995: 55).
42. Bunker, Watt, and Sun (2002: 114). Sun’s argument suggests that granulation is found in the Harappan culture of the Indus, but there is no evidence of this. See Wolters (1998) for the history and variations of the technique.
43. For Akkadian-period (2334–2154 BC) earrings with granulation found in Ashur on the Tigris, see P. Harper (1995: cat. 35a–d).
44. Although, as Linduff (2008: 181–82) points out, the data from twelve tombs can hardly been taken as representative.
45. Di Cosmo (2002: 85). Although note his comments about the weakness of the evidence for a settlement.
46. “The problem of the geographical-cultural origin of the form of the ‘Chinese’ mirror must remained unsolved for the present, but it clearly lies outside of or on the peripheral areas of China” (Rubinson 1985: 48). See also Juliano (1985).
47. Li Jaang (2011).
48. She cites a scientific analysis of the many jades found in the tomb of the Yin elite woman and general Fu Hao ( Jing et al. 2007), which concludes that the jade was possibly not sourced from Khotan, as was long assumed. Khotan was reached through the Hexi corridor, passing through the proto-Zhou culture, and she suggests that such a route was not likely at the time (Li Jaang 2011: 42). For the Northern Zone, see Di Cosmo (1999: 885, 893).
49. Pohl (2002); Schopphoff (2009)—as a sign of power, rank, adulthood, spiritual status, etc. Brosseder (2011: 350, see fig. 1 for a distribution map). Also see chapter 2 for belt plaques found in Nan Yue in South China.
50. Miniaev (2016) dates this as the first to second century AD on the basis of analysis of bronzes from Dyrestuy cemetery.
51. Jacobson (1995: 25), who also groups the Yuezhi under this Scythic-Siberian culture (see chapter 2).
52. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, B16744a/b. See A. Cohen (2010: 108, fig. 48).
53. See A. Cohen (2010: 93–101) for examples.
54. See A. Cohen (2010: 108, 93–118) for discussion of the theme.
55. See A. Cohen (2010: 110) for Montaigne. She also notes Jacobson’s argument that the direction of influence was the other way, citing the Hellenistic elements in a fourth-century winged griffin (A. Cohen 2010: 319, 160n; Jacobson 1999: 62–3).
56. A. Cohen (2010) also discusses the theme of the hunt, in tandem with the animal predation theme. See chapter 8 for further discussion. For an insightful discussion about possible diffusion of a very distinctive representation of the animal predation theme, see Nathalie Monnet’s presentation at the Symposium “Cave Temples of Dunhuang: History, Art, and Materiality,” May 20, 2016, session 2, “Dunhuang: East and West,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBNgfAeJy6E.
57. Pulleybank (2000a: 53). Also see A. Cohen (2010: 17–18) for a discussion of similarities in their political systems.
58. Some centuries later, the so-called foreigner’s dress of a short tunic secured with a belt over baggy trousers became a fashion statement among both men and women in China. See Shen Congwen (2012) for a history of Chinese dress.
59. Discussed in Bunker, Watt, and Sun (2002: 101) and Brosseder (2011).
60. Bunker, Watt, and Sun (2002: 101). But see comments from the Russian archaeologists of Xiongnu sites at Noin-Ula on the Xiongnu “schematization” of Scythic-Siberian animal subjects to geometric compositions (Davydova and Miniaev 2008: 22).
61. Di Cosmo (2002: 85). For images, see Brosseder (2011: 357) and Linduff (2008: 176). However, Psarras
