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Review of the Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Road Exhibition

I recently came across The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads online exhibition and I couldn’t help but leave a review. This past year I took a course on The Silk Road and ancient Central Asia, and this exhibition perfectly complimented my previous knowledge and interest in history. I began at the ‘Historical Trade Routes’ section and found such an interesting fact! The journey between the two major cities of Afrasiab and Chang’an was the equivalent of the distance between the east and west coast of the U.S.. I couldn’t imagine traveling that far by foot!! Talk about blisters. In the Ferghana Valley portion of this section, I stumbled upon a piece of information that was familiar to me ! In class I had learned about the life on the nomadic steppes, and that the horses that ancient Eurasian nomads bred were a prized possession which is echoed in this section. The Taklamakan Desert was also mentioned in this section, which both echoes as well as magnified my understanding of this treacherous landscape! The temperature fluctuated from -4ºF to 100ºF and there were literal hurricane dust storms… I’m all set lol! Being able to see their trade routes visually laid out in front of me definitely aided my understanding and perception of where the Sogdians were situated as well as the landscapes that were traversed during antiquity. 

Personally, I liked the arts and culture portion of the exhibit the best as I’m a super visual learner, and I loveeeee art museums! I had previously done a project on the Mulla Kurgan Ossuary, although being able to browse through the other objects was fascinating! I love the ossuaries as the Zoroastrian death ritual is super interesting to me. I especially loved the Durman Tepe Ossuary and it kind of gave me Midsommar vibes with the head perched on the very top (if you’ve seen the movie you might understand). Being able to see some examples of what the Sogdians were creating and using in their everyday lives is so wonderfully interesting and it really complements the class that I took! 

And finally, the pieces of writing included were super informative and an excellent addition to the exhibition. The ‘Sogdians at Home’ article positively reinforced what I previously knew about the Sogdians and their acceptance of surrounding cultures and their interconnectedness to other communities, as they were so spread out. Also, at the end of this same article ossuaries were once again discussed, and I was interested to hear about the process of making the vessels, as I was only really familiar with their use. Finally, the article entitled ‘Religion Among the Sogdians’ was probably my favorite of the section, as it continued to complement what I had already learned about the Sogdians and their place on the Silk Road. I really love the emphasis that is put on the Sogdians' openness to other cultures and religions, as it’s one of the things that fascinates me the most about them. This article echoed a point I made in a paper for my previous class on “the crucial role of Sogdians as translators and transmitters of religious ideas and texts across tracts of the Silk Roads”. Overall I found this exhibition to be stimulating, informative, and supportive of my previous knowledge.