Coins, Art, and Chronology

Book excerpt: The pre-Islamic history of southern Central Asia--modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India and the surrounding areas--continues to pose challenging problems that can be solved only through interdisciplinary efforts. In the tradition of "Coins, Art and Chronology" (1999), this volume comprises 24 articles by leading experts in the fields of history, art history, numismatics, archaeology and linguistics in order to document the current state of research and presents the results of two international conferences at Kyoto and Vienna in autumn 2008. While the first "Coins, Art and Chronology" concentrated on the period of the Kushanas and the Sasanians, this volume explores the post-Kushana period and questions concerning the Hunnic and Turkic phases in the history of the region, the main focus of most of the contributions. The volume is published within the framework of the National Research Network "The Cultural History of the Western Himalaya from the 8th Century," financed by the Austrian Science Funds.