The World’s Most Active Sea Route Before 1492: From the Chinese ports of Quanzhou and Guangzhou to Basra (in Modern Iraq) and Sofala (in Modern Mozambique)
Valerie Hansen

Starting around the year 1000, Chinese ships began to voyage to the Persian Gulf and sometimes even farther to the East African coast, a journey three times as long as Columbus’s voyage to the Americas. The Chinese imported huge quantities of what they called aromatics (the blanket term xiang covered fragrant woods, incense, spices, and tree resins such as frankincense and myrrh) from Southeast, South, and West Asia, and they exported textiles, metal goods, and ceramics to these regions as well as East Africa. These contacts had multiple effects, some of which we can study on the basis of archeological finds, particularly of ceramics. Hansen will explore why this route isn’t better known. Although traditional treatments of the medieval period do not cover this topic, it certainly falls within the purview of the Global Middle Ages.

The Golden Horde: Recent Discoveries in Russia
Morris Rossabi

Until the late twentieth century, many Russians and foreigners portrayed Mongol rule in Russia as totally disastrous and despotic and leading to autocracy in the country’s later history. In the 1980s, specialists on the period of the Golden Horde, while not ignoring the death and destruction caused by the Mongols, asserted that the Mongols contributed to Russia’s first unification, fostered trade and religion, built new cities, and patronized and supported the arts. Historians and archeologists have recently confirmed some positive aspects of Golden Horde rule. This slide-illustrated lecture provides the historical background and shows samples of the latest archeological and artistic discoveries in ceramics, textiles, and metal work.