Lesson test: What survives

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What survives

1.[3p]
Roughly seven hundred documents survive from Niya and almost nothing comparable from Pataliputra. What follows about their relative commercial importance?

Nothing: the two sites differ in the variable that controls document survival, which is water

Correct

Niya was clearly the larger trading centre

The answer is: Nothing: the two sites differ in the variable that controls document survival, which is water

Pataliputra must have traded only in goods that leave no records

The answer is: Nothing: the two sites differ in the variable that controls document survival, which is water

Niya's documents were better protected because its rulers valued archives

The answer is: Nothing: the two sites differ in the variable that controls document survival, which is water

2.[3p]
Match each body of evidence to what it is.

Niya documents
Sogdian Ancient Letters
Astana cemetery
Dunhuang cave 17

a sealed store of about fifty thousand manuscripts
wooden tablets in Kharosthi script
a mailbag that was never delivered
waste paper recycled into burial goods

Show the answer

Niya documents: wooden tablets in Kharosthi script Sogdian Ancient Letters: a mailbag that was never delivered Astana cemetery: waste paper recycled into burial goods Dunhuang cave 17: a sealed store of about fifty thousand manuscripts

3.[2p]
Cave 17 held about 50,000 items. If secular documents are five per cent of them, how many secular documents is that?

CorrectNot quite: 2500

4.[2p]
The Sogdian Ancient Letters are dated by tying an account inside one of them to events at Luoyang recorded in Chinese sources.

True

Correct

False

The answer is: True

5.[2p]
In which script are the Niya documents written? One word.

CorrectNot quite: Kharosthi

6.[3p]
W. B. Henning dated the Ancient Letters to 313 or 314, and János Harmatta proposed 196. What kind of argument decides between them?

Whether the letter's sequence of events matches the recorded disorder of 311 or that of the late second century

Correct

Radiocarbon dating of the paper

The answer is: Whether the letter's sequence of events matches the recorded disorder of 311 or that of the late second century

The date written at the head of each letter

The answer is: Whether the letter's sequence of events matches the recorded disorder of 311 or that of the late second century

The reign name of the Sogdian king mentioned in Letter II

The answer is: Whether the letter's sequence of events matches the recorded disorder of 311 or that of the late second century

7.[3p]
Which of these make claims about the volume of overland trade hard to support?

Select all that apply

There are no runs of customs records anywhere in Central Asia

Correct

Cheap bulk goods could not cross overland, so the trade is nearly invisible archaeologically

Correct

A failed caravan is dispersed rather than preserved intact

Correct

The surviving documents come mainly from a few oasis towns

Correct

The Niya tablets are written in a script nobody has deciphered

The answer is: There are no runs of customs records anywhere in Central Asia, Cheap bulk goods could not cross overland, so the trade is nearly invisible archaeologically, A failed caravan is dispersed rather than preserved intact, The surviving documents come mainly from a few oasis towns

8.[2p]
Why is the "sacred waste" explanation for the sealing of cave 17 useful to a historian?

Discard is a weaker selection filter than deliberate preservation, so the contents are closer to a random sample

Correct

It proves the manuscripts were copied at Dunhuang rather than imported

The answer is: Discard is a weaker selection filter than deliberate preservation, so the contents are closer to a random sample

It means the collection contains only the most valuable texts

The answer is: Discard is a weaker selection filter than deliberate preservation, so the contents are closer to a random sample

It dates the sealing precisely to the year 1000

The answer is: Discard is a weaker selection filter than deliberate preservation, so the contents are closer to a random sample

9.[2p]
A silk fragment is identified as Chinese by its weave structure rather than its pattern. Why is that stronger?

A pattern can be imitated on local equipment, while a weave structure records the loom that made it

Correct

Patterns fade in the ground and structures do not

The answer is: A pattern can be imitated on local equipment, while a weave structure records the loom that made it

Weave structure can be radiocarbon dated and pattern cannot

The answer is: A pattern can be imitated on local equipment, while a weave structure records the loom that made it

Chinese weavers never repeated a pattern

The answer is: A pattern can be imitated on local equipment, while a weave structure records the loom that made it

1.[3p] Roughly seven hundred documents survive from Niya and almost nothing comparable from Pataliputra. What follows about their relative commercial importance?

2.[3p] Match each body of evidence to what it is.

3.[2p] Cave 17 held about 50,000 items. If secular documents are five per cent of them, how many secular documents is that?

4.[2p] The Sogdian Ancient Letters are dated by tying an account inside one of them to events at Luoyang recorded in Chinese sources.

5.[2p] In which script are the Niya documents written? One word.

6.[3p] W. B. Henning dated the Ancient Letters to 313 or 314, and János Harmatta proposed 196. What kind of argument decides between them?

7.[3p] Which of these make claims about the volume of overland trade hard to support?

8.[2p] Why is the "sacred waste" explanation for the sealing of cave 17 useful to a historian?

9.[2p] A silk fragment is identified as Chinese by its weave structure rather than its pattern. Why is that stronger?

1.[3p]
Roughly seven hundred documents survive from Niya and almost nothing comparable from Pataliputra. What follows about their relative commercial importance?

2.[3p]
Match each body of evidence to what it is.

3.[2p]
Cave 17 held about 50,000 items. If secular documents are five per cent of them, how many secular documents is that?

4.[2p]
The Sogdian Ancient Letters are dated by tying an account inside one of them to events at Luoyang recorded in Chinese sources.

5.[2p]
In which script are the Niya documents written? One word.

6.[3p]
W. B. Henning dated the Ancient Letters to 313 or 314, and János Harmatta proposed 196. What kind of argument decides between them?

7.[3p]
Which of these make claims about the volume of overland trade hard to support?

8.[2p]
Why is the "sacred waste" explanation for the sealing of cave 17 useful to a historian?

9.[2p]
A silk fragment is identified as Chinese by its weave structure rather than its pattern. Why is that stronger?