Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses the cross-cultural interactions between various Central Asian populations and members of the Hephthalite and Sogdian elite. The main corpus of evidence for their economic exchanges comes from clusters of coins found in Mongolian and Chinese tomb inventories dated to the early medieval period. Starting from ten Sasanian coins of the Bayannuur tomb found in Mongolia, it will examine various Sasanian coins found in China and Central Asia to determine the manufacture as well as the provenance and circulation of a Sasanian coin. As the coins of the Hephthalite and the Western Turks were manufactured after the Sasanian model, it will also discuss the possible connection among the Sasanians, the Hephthalites, and the Sogdians along the Oasis Road and the Steppe Road.