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Monsieur Le Chat's avatar

My special interest is central asian history because it’s rich and not easily accessible to English speakers. Thank you for the enlightening article!

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Prateek Dasgupta's avatar

Glad you enjoyed it! I’ll be brining more stories from Central Asia and Eurasian Steppes.

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Jack Nicholas's avatar

Another great read Prateek! I’m glad I found you on Substack. This is a period of history I know very little about. I have decided to start posting here as well so look forward to seeing more of your content.

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Prateek Dasgupta's avatar

Hi Jack, welcome to Substack! Nice to see you here. On Substack you have the full freedom to enjoy writing as you want, without worrying about algorithms :) I share deeper analysis on historical topics, and also updates on the latest breakthroughs in archaeology.

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Ishani Dasgupta's avatar

Very interesting article enlightening us on the script of the steppe nomads. When we say nomad we think of a rustic uneducated group of people. The very fact that they tried to devise their own script goes a long way in changing our idea of nomadic people.

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Prateek Dasgupta's avatar

Yes, the Steppe warriors clearly knew about the benefits of writing and communication.

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Mary Catelli's avatar

Me, I would be real suspicious of the Yue story because if the Chinese tell it, it's explaining that they had to get it from the civilized people

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Prateek Dasgupta's avatar

Adapting scripts of others wouldn’t be uncommon in the ancient world, such as Greeks adapting the Phoenician script. The exact details might be exaggerated but much of the administrative set up of the Xiongnu was adopted from the Han, but they made further refinements to suit their needs as they ruled over a multi ethnic confederation which needed to be kept happy.

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Mary Catelli's avatar

And there's always Sequoyah as a concrete example of how little it takes. Then, Sequoyah was a Cherokee.

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Prasanna Weerawardena's avatar

Fantastic to read for a flower of Central Asian history! Thanks

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Prateek Dasgupta's avatar

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

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Prasanna Weerawardena's avatar

It’s great ! Fantastic for a enthusiast like me, who’s always keen on Central Asia, but in general as well

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