Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part iv | migrations of cultures
Mural depicting Korean ambassadors. Afrasiab.
now to turn to direct or indirect evidence, albeit limited, of contacts between the
ancient regions of Central Asia and Korea.
The earliest evidence of this contact is most likely the bronze statuette of a warrior
wearing a distinctive Athenian helmet found in southern Korea, dating from the 6th
to 5th centuries BC. It is possible that the statuette came to Korea from Central Asia,
where Hellenistic artefacts from this early period were found in the Amu Darya hoard
(the Oxus Treasure) and where the first Greek settlement, of the Branchidae, emerged
under the Achaemenid king, Xerxes (486–465 BC). Finds in Korea dating from the
5th–6th centuries AD include glass vessels of Roman origin unearthed during the
excavation of a burial site in Gwangju, South Korea. Korean scholars believe that they
were made in the eastern Mediterranean or in southern Germany and most likely came
to Korea along one of the routes of the Silk Road crossing Central Asia. In the catalogue
of a collection of masterpieces of ancient art from the National Museum of History in
Seoul, which mainly consists of objects recovered by the Otani Japanese expedition
in Xinjiang, is a semi-spherical silver bowl from the 5th–6th centuries AD found in a
burial site in Gwangju. The outer surface of the bowl is divided into three bands edged
by concentric circles. In the upper band is a double row of palmettes, with similar
palmettes decorating the lower band or base. The middle of the vessel is divided into
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