Photo By Nara National Research Institute/AFP (c) 2012, Used without permission.
by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
In the 5th Century CE, the world was a much more isolated place than it is today but it was still interconnected. Most people lived and died within 30 miles of where they were born. Yet even then, the world was an interconnected place where the far reaches could touch one another. Travel was restricted to by foot, horseback or boat. Regular communication depended upon trade routes or carrier pigeons. However, distance and geographical isolation did not prevent distant parts of the world from knowing about each other. The impact of foreign countries within a given country in the ancient world, both near and far, raises some interesting questions about interconnectedness, influence and the impact of telecommunications and air travel on the modern world. For context, let’s consider this recent archaeological find announced by the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.
On Friday, they announced that they found three glass beads in a tomb near Kyoto that can be traced to ancient Roman manufacturing techniques. The tomb itself dates back to the Yamato period of Japanese history, an era marked by inter-provincial warfare when the Imperial capitol was located in Nara. The definition of the Yamato period (named for the clan that became the Imperial dynasty during that time) is somewhat disputed. Conventionally assigned to the period 250–710 (including both the Kofun period (c 150-538) and the Asuka period (538-710)), the actual start of Yamato rule is disputed and the Kofun period is considered an archaeological period while the Asuka period is considered an historical period. This distinction is unpopular with modern Japanese historians, but the period does contain demarcations in Japanese culture. The Kufun period marks a time when Chinese and Korean culture are impacting Japanese culture and the dominate religious influences were the domestic Shinto religion and the Chinese imports Confucianism and Taoism. The Asuka period marks both the rise to Imperial supremacy by the Yamato clan and the introduction of Buddhism to Japanese culture which was to have a long and profound effect. The tomb the beads were found in dates from the late Kofun period which is named for the style of burial mounds commonly used by nobles and dignitaries of the time.
To provide context, at the height of the Roman Empire under Trajan and Hadrian in the 1st and 2nd Century CE, the Empire stretched from modern day England south across the Mediterranean and in to what is now Iraq. The glass making techniques of the beads utilized natron – a natural salt best known for being part of the Egyptian embalming process for creating mummies. Although the process had been used by the Romans since at least the peak of their Empire, the beads found in the Kofun near Kyoto date from a tomb created as the Roman Empire of the late 400’s and early 500’s was in decline and rapidly losing territory. While it may come as a surprise to some, this is not the first evidence of radically distant and disparate contact between East and West that pre-dates Marco Polo‘s famous trade mission of the 13th Century CE.
In 1954, in Helgö on Ekerö Island in Lake Mälaren in Sweden, archaeologists were excavating a Viking ruin dated to the 8th or 9th Century CE when they found a small bronze buddha subsequently dated to the 6th Century CE and of suspected Indian origin. Some suspect the buddha came along for the ride with Vikings travelling the “Amber route”, one of the vast Viking trade networks which utilized rivers to transport amber, silk and others goods to the north through the Russian rivers and stepps although others think it was taken from treasure obtained raiding Ireland although how the Irish would have came to be in possession of such a statue remains a mystery. In 2010, archaeologists and genetics researchers examining a Roman graveyard near Vagnari in Southern Italy found a 2,000 year-old skeleton with mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) that showed a body buried there had East Asian lineage.
If the interconnectedness of the ancient world is to be believed on the evidence (and I think it should), what does that say about the modern world where cultures can influence each other via telecommunications at the push of a button and easy air travel – discounting the hassles of airport security – is readily available? Is “globalization” inevitable as cultures meet, merge, and share ideas or will geographical isolation still shape individual pockets of relatively homogeneous culture? Will geographically closer cultures tend to have dominant influence such as the relationship between ancient Japan and China or modern Mexico and America or will technology make geography increasingly irrelevant? Are we moving toward a universal human culture or not? If so, are we moving toward a universal set of laws or not? Is this a good thing? A bad thing? Something in between?
What do you think?
Source(s): Yahoo! News, Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, “Town Origins and Development in Early England, C.400-950 A.D.” by Daniel G. Russo (p.177), Science Daily
In terms of the discovery of artifacts of distant cultures in the Japanese Tomb, there are many such stories.
One suspect culture is Carthage, a Phoenician culture formed when some left the Phoenician homeland (Tyre, Sidon) to form Carthage in North Africa.
Here is a link to a PDF book that explains their great naval power that kept Greece and Rome at bay in the Mediterranean.
Various authors who read ancient historians have the Carthaginians traveling the Atlantic at will, and taking copper and tin from what is now upper Michigan.
Odd artifacts have been found that indicate there was more ocean travel by some of the masters of sail than stock history books take note of.
Just sayin’ …
Gene asked:
Current private minority empires do not have the same sentiments as public thinking that majorities in various nations have.
They will be working against unification via propaganda that pit peoples against one another.
Usually when they say “globalization” they mean “global domination”, and are working in that direction.
Universal laws are appropriate in many cases, especially when it comes to stopping the massacre of hundreds and thousands of species, stopping the choking of the planet, stopping ecocide.
If history is the final arbiter, then war will cripple the current commerce, trade, and internationalization trends of the past decades.
Peruvians in the mountains look suspiciously like Nepalese. An air crash of aliens stealing Nepal villages in 3000 BC– survivors make in Machupecu or however they spelled it back then. New Yorkers develop an accent that is suspiciously like Martians. Ellis Island was a cover for alien entry into the United States. The Show Me Your Papers Act of Arizona to be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court with an exception for those who look Irish or Italian. Scalia said he was tired of people calling him a WOP when he was a kid and does not want it to happen again. –Weekend Update,
Gene
if transportation and travel costs continue to be relatively inexpensive we will see more and more of a mc-culture on our planet. a big mac in tokyo tastes just as bad as a big mac in atlanta.
but krispy kreme is a health food when the hot donuts sign is on.
shano
we’re a few years too late to stop global climate change. the best we can hope for at this point is to mitigate the effects.
i’m hopeful but not optimistic.
Bedtime. G’night.
Well that matches the vagueness of the thoughts (non-existent) behind my words.
What worries me is what the others note and we all are aware of. When do governments, with the eventual influence of the people, become subordinate to the corporations. We see in effect that now in so many countries. In our own many claim now.
**nationalization of the causes of democratic erosion becomes a tricker proposition.**
Just to be clear. I realized that last comment may have been a little vague.
Your course correction is noted, id707. However, no need to over correct either. Some of those anti-democratic forces behind the push (as opposed to a natural evolution of) globalization do indeed have American roots. But when dealing with the subject of globalization and multinational corporations, focusing on nationalization becomes a trickier proposition.
GeneH,
You mentioned globalization as the alternative forcing the loss of democracy. My assumption of an American connection was incorrect.
Strawmen are erected with a purpose to knock down as surrogates to the real opposing point. Right? Then don’t see that my misconception as being a strawman.
Never mind, just trying to flex my mental muscles.
W=^..^
At 5mm, that would probably be the healthiest size serving of anything on the Krispy Kreme menu. Click on the photo to get a better zoom on it though. In detail, it’s clearly non-edible unless you have pica.
unfortunately the culture we are headed towards is more like Disney World…or ‘Truman’ and the so called treasures of the past are either up for grabs or plundered and paved over for the uber-elite next ……wait a minute…..that…so called glass bead is looking mightily like a chocolate Krispy Kreme ….could that be the ancient inspiration?
(oh please somebody wake me from this nightmare…….)
We should have a global org. to fight climate change. this is one area where only a global initiative would have any effect whatsoever.
Considering that ALL domestic dogs can be traced to China, men and their dogs went all over the place. From South America to the Bering Strait, from the Mississippi to Africa.
And yea, corporations are not what they used to be at all. this is what the older generations of voters do not understand.
The new Multinational corporations create massive inequality everywhere they operate. They have more money than most nation states.
The fact that they create inequality was discovered by a former derivatives trader- he actually was writing math formulas for derivative instruments- Vlad Teichbeg.
Straw man.
I didn’t place blame on anyone. The erosion of democracy is caused by multiple factors working from multiple vectors.
First of all further evidence of the interconnected nature of ancient world is a subject that has long fascinated me. Early on Archaeological theory saw humanity as isolated pockets, rather than culturally interactive. I think much of that insularity reflected cultural bias. As shown here after a point human culture evolved collectively with innovations having influence far and wide.
As for the key question raised I think that there is coming a time when the incorrect concept of the varied “races” will merge to understanding that we all share a common species. As Bettykath cautions though, the purveyors of corporate hegemony, may impose an unwanted uniformity on us all.
BettyKath and GeneH,
There you are putting the blame on America again.
What happened to Michiavelli (sp?) and Rothchild and the nobles and the RCC. Share the blame.
Actually I agree with both of you, but are we so good
at dominating the world?
Until you get rid of the euro….. We are headed to a unified culture…. Well at least for the people that make money making money….. Ask the Rothschild Dynasty…….
But like most people to a train wreck…. I had to stop by…..
You raise a valid point, bettykath.
The retention of democracy may not survive globalization. If so, then I personally don’t think globalization is worth having.
Corporations are actively pursuing a world in which the laws don’t apply to them. The 1% are doing the same. So whatever laws there may be are intended apply to those who might challenge the two lawless groups and for the purpose of making sure they are so busy suing each other that they don’t pay attention to those who don’t have to obey such laws.
The corporate and rich response to OWS is a case in point. Money is made available for military style police operations to enforce laws that are made after the fact.
The new laws made after the fact of many transgressions that allow the government to spy in us, to kill us, to round us up if they so decide, to run military operations in our cities and on and on and on.
In other words, I would hate to see the honor codex of Japan be replaced within the national framework by a universal one which reflects values=relationships=contracts=laws being eradicated for the purpose of unity. It would seem to contradict what we know now from evolutional biology.
Quite a good subject to both speculate and reason about.
Let us remember that the silk route long pre-dated Marco Polo. And the sea route coupled to the arab caravans also provided commercial links. The roman
gold needs came from west africa. And “doubting Thomas” is said to have given himself to slavery to pay his voyage to fulfill his mission to evangelize the east in as it became the tip of India.
Hopefully we will attain and retain our pride of self and our respective cultures. Evolution, if it can be
said to have a function, works best in heterozygosity, not homozygosity. I am speculating that the same applies to cultures.
As to law. What improvement would a unified codex provide. I can’t answer.
Nara, for those having a day over in Kyoto, is well worth the trip: the world’s largest wooden structure—a buddhist temple, from timber imported from USA west coast. And free strolling deer. That and more.