Sino-iranica ─ Commodities and Cultural Exchange from 1000 Bc to Medieval Times

In this his most important work, the pioneering anthropologist Berthold Laufer documents the cultural transfers that took place between China and Iran in early times. Few other works provide so much informative detail about the way human activity has modified the natural world through the movement of plants and other natural resource products from one historical civilisation to another. Walnut, peach, apricot and olive, minerals, metals, precious stones and textiles, as well as more exotic products like jasmine, lapis lazuli, coral, ebony, zinc and myrrh, are all included in their migration from Persia to China and from China to Persia. With an introduction by Brian Spooner, this classic work is once more available for all scholars of Iran, China and cultural exchange.

Berthold Laufer (1874-1934) was a pioneering anthropologist, orientalist and linguist. He played a major role in shaping American anthropology whilst at Columbia University, led field expeditions to China and the Far East and finished his career as Curator of Anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.