The Origins of Complex Political Organisation in Ancient Inner Asia

This book explores the origins of complex political organisation in Inner Asia which enabled mighty empires, proto-state entities and confederacies such as the Cimmerians, Scythians and the Xiongnu Huns to emerge and dominate large swathes of the Eurasian continent during antiquity.

Autorentext

Hyun Jin Kim is a professor of classics in the discipline of classics and archaeology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of nine books, including The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe (2013) and The Huns (2016).

Selim Ferruh Adal is a professor of ancient history in the department of history at the Social Sciences University of Ankara, Türkiye. He has authored multiple articles and books, including The Scourge of God (2011) and 'Cimmerians and the Scythians' in Eurasian Empires in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (2017).

Inhalt

1. Introduction; 2. Cimmerians and Scythians; 3. 'Classical' Scythians and the Saka; 4. Political Organisation of the Scythians and the wider Iranian world; 5. The Shang Political System; 6. The First Steppe Empire? Origins of East Eurasian 'Feudalism'; Conclusion.