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Samarkand! The city along Silk Road's main trade route where the royal palace of the Sogdians used to be and still proudly presents the splendor of all sorts of architecture demonstrating the Timurid Empire's prosperity. From this crossroad, an extensive trade route emerged since the ancient times to connect the Mediterranean coast, Syria, Azerbaijan, Iran, India to its west with Tashkent and the Talas region to its east, which continues to stretch through China, Mongolia, to reach the Korean peninsula. And ten kilometers to the northeast of Samarkand lies the historical site of Afrasiyab.

International Academic Conference at Samarkand, Uzbekistan

From 1965 to 1968, L. I. Al'baum, who had been part of an excavation team led by V. A. Shishkin, uncovered "Relic no. 23" among Afrasiyab remains. It was a mural painting hinting at international political circumstances and local customs at the time of the mural's creation. Having revealed itself once more after 1,300 or so years, the work caught the attention of Korean scholars because of the two figures among a procession of twelve ambassadors wearing feathered caps called jowugwan (鳥羽冠) and ring-pommeled swords called hwandudaedo (環頭大刀). This sparked discussions about something that had previously been unthinkable: communication between ancient kingdoms on the Korean peninsula and the inland areas of Asia.

Five or so decades after the mural's excavation, the Northeast Asian History Foundation in Korea entered into a three-year agreement with the Afrasiab Museum of Samarkand in 2013 to create a digital restoration of the mural, which contributed to restoring Korea's exchange and relations with Samarkand. The mural's discovery opened up various possibilities for research in Korean history and culture and some working for local governments or at institutions involved in forming and executing cultural policies in Korea have begun to engage in human exchange with their counterparts in Samarkand.

On September 28 and 29 of 2017, an international academic conference to review civilizations along the Silk Road was held at Samarkand State University under the theme "Civilizations of the Great Silk Road from the Past to the Future: Perspectives from Natural, Social and Human Sciences." Held in the same year marking the twentieth anniversary of the fulfillment of UNESCO’s ten-year Silk Roads Project, 40 experts from a total of 18 countries gave presentations at the conference hosted by the International Institute for Central Asian Studies based in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Histories and Cultures that Rose Along the Silk Road

The academic conference consisted of six sessions. Under the first session's topic "Interactions of Civilizations of the Silk Road," the presentation of six research papers was moderated by Deputy Director Shahin Mustafayev of the Institute of Oriental studies of the National Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan. The second session's topic was "Enablement of the Civilizations on the Silk Road" and seven research papers were presented under the moderation of Senior Researcher Yerbulat Smagulov of the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences' A. Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology. Deputy Director Makset Karlibaev of the Karakalpak Branch of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences’ Institute of the Humanities served as moderator for the third session where a total of seven research papers were presented under the topic "Witnessing the Civilizations on the Silk Road."

With “Prospecting the Future of the Silk Road” as the fourth session’s topic, a total of seven presentations were made as professor and former president of Azerbaijan’s Khazar University Farda Asadov served as moderator. The fifth session’s topic was “Bases of Civilizations on the Silk Road” and a total of seven presentations were given under moderation by Professor Sergey Yatsenko of the Russian State University for the Humanities. In this particular session, research fellows Ko Kwang-eui and Jang Seog-ho of the Northeast Asian History Foundation each contributed presentations under the titles “Digital Restoration of the Afrasiab Palace Mural” and “A Study on the “Cosmic Animals” Portrayed in Ancient Eurasian Petroglyphs.” A total of six presentations were given as Senior Researcher Gennadiy Bogomolov of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archeological Research served as moderator for the sixth session’s topic “Ancient Footages on the Silk Road.”

Through the six sessions, the conference attempted to review the rise of histories and cultures along the Silk Road from the perspectives of natural, social and human sciences and also look at the Samarkand region’s future prospects. The participants who presented at the conference have each been focused on studying different areas across the vast Eurasian continent including the Mediterranean coast, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, southern and western Siberia, and the northwest region of China.

Exchange Along the New Twenty-first Century Silk Road

The academic conference’s keyword Silk Road is a transportation network that connects deserts, oases, irrigated farmland, and mountainous areas throughout the Eurasian continent. The 40 conference participants have been investigating old capitals, residential areas, farmland, ceremonial spaces, paintings on stones and walls, and tombs situated along the Silk Road. Presentations and discussions were devoted to sharing one another’s research outcomes from studying excavated remains, ways to preserve remains and relics for posterity, and solutions to resolving political, economic issues or conflicts involving historic sites and bring peace.

For experts studying Eurasian history and culture to convene from all over the world and share their research methods and outcomes can be considered an exchange of civilizations along a new Silk Road of the twenty-first century. Together, they were able to remember and appreciate cultures that blossomed along the Silk Road as well as consider what needs to be done in the future to be able to preserve and pass on cultural heritages to posterity.

Properly establishing Korean history within world history is very difficult, but absolutely necessary. And internal, external circumstances are not necessarily sympathetic toward such a purpose. But Korea has constantly been subject to historical distortions by its neighboring countries, which is why we cannot give up on the task. And the key to dealing our neighboring countries’ arguments on East Asian culture may emerge from examining ancient Korean history in the context of the history of Eurasia, including that of the Silk Road. And this is the precisely why Korean scholars must work on diversifying their frames for research.