The prehistory of the Silk Road / E.E. Kuzmina ; edited by Victor H. Mair.

The dynamics of the Eurasian steppe ecology -- Economic developments in the Ponto-Caspian steppe -- The first stage of the food-producing economy -- The second stage of the food-producing economy -- The domestication and early use of the horse -- The development of the pit-grave cultural community -- The spread of wheeled transport: a prerequisite to the opening of the Great Silk Road routes -- The Eurasian steppe in the Bronze Age -- Proto-urban culture in the Urals -- The chariots of the Eurasian steppe -- The crisis of complex economy, the development of nomadism in the Eurasian steppe, and the origins of the Great Silk Road routes -- The origin and spread of the Bactrian camel -- Archaeological cultures of southern Central Asia -- Southern Turkmenistan -- The lower and middle part of Transoxiana -- Ferghana -- Kirghizstan -- Relations between eastern and western Central Asia -- Contacts of the Xinjiang people with the West in the Copper Age, and the Tocharian question -- Contacts of the Xinjiang people with the West in the Bronze Age.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-242) and index.