Abstract
The Hengduan Mountains, located at the convergence of the eastern and western cultural transmission routes of the eastern Eurasian continent, serve as a significant corridor for cultural interactions and human migrations along the eastern Tibetan Plateau. During the pre-Qin period, this region had frequent interactions with northern China and the Eurasian Steppe, reflecting both the historical connections among ancient ethnic groups in China’s frontier regions and the broader cultural exchanges between ancient China and the steppe. The early cultural interactions between the Hengduan Mountains and northern regions reached their peak in the late Bronze Age. Compared to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, this period featured a wider spatial scope, richer content, and more complex mechanisms of cross-regional interactions. The present article focuses on weapons, tools, daily implements, horse gears, and horse bone interment, which were highly representative in the bronze cultures of both the Hengduan Mountains and northern regions, exploring the specific connections, mechanisms, and historical contexts of the cultural interactions at the time. This article argues that interactions occurred through a complex network of multiple connections, each with a distinct temporal and spatial orientation. The Hengduan Mountains acted as a crossroads where diverse eastern and western cultures collided and fused, contributing to the complexity, diversity, and inclusivity of the region’s late Bronze Age cultures. The southward migration of northern cultures, along with nomadic and semi-nomadic groups, was a key external driver for the formation and development of late Bronze Age cultures in the Hengduan Mountains, while selective absorption, reorganization, and innovation of diverse cultural elements provided the internal impetus. The process highlights the remarkable integrative characteristics of the local cultures owing to the status of the Hengduan Mountains as a cultural corridor.
Keywords
Hengduan Mountains; northern China-Eurasian Steppe region; cultural integration; interactive network; pastoral culture
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