The World in the Year 1000 - Presentation by Valerie Hansen October 23, 2012

In the year 1000, the non-Chinese Liao dynasty of the Kitan people ruled Beijing and much of the grasslands spanning Eurasia. They had formal diplomatic relations with many of their immediate neighbors, including Song-dynasty China (960-1276). Commodities from many more distant places, like the Baltic, have surfaced in the former Liao territory, allowing us to determine the extent of the world known to the Liao and to speculate about how these goods may have arrived in Liao territory.

Valerie Hansen is a Professor of History at Yale University whose works include Voyages In World History (with Ken Curtis, Wadsworth CENGAGE, 2010) and The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600 (W. W. Norton, 2000). Her current project, "A New History of the Silk Road," presents an integrated political, social, and religious history of the Tarim Basin.

This presentation is sponsored by the Winton Chair in the Liberal Arts.

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