Horse Lords of the Eurasian Steppe. A Historiographical Comparison, 300–900
Between the fourth and ninth centuries, various peoples from the Eurasian steppe, such as the Huns, the Avars, the Xianbei and the Turks, reached its western and eastern fringes. These peoples left behind almost no written records apart from inscriptions and reliefs, but, through various encounters, found their way into the works of contemporary authors from the Latin-Greek and Chinese worlds. This research project analyses and compares the literary discourse on steppe peoples in eastern and western historiographies of the fourth to the ninth centuries, focusing on significant themes that reflect key elements in the culture of a given society, such as origin stories, social hierarchy, marriage customs, gender roles, and burial rites. By combining these original Latin, Greek, and Chinese written accounts, it provides a fresh, global perspective on the diversities, parallels, and cultural habitus of the Eurasian steppe peoples.
Sandra Wabnitz is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna and an affiliated member of the Excellence Cluster EurAsian Transformations. From 2020 to 2024 she was a pre-doc researcher on the ERC Synergy Grant HistoGenes at the University of Vienna. Within the Visiting Student Research Collaborator programme, she was a visiting researcher at the East Asian Department at Princeton University (Sept.–Nov. 2023). Prior to her PhD, she studied Sinology and History (BA) as well as Historical Research, Auxiliary Sciences of History and Archival Studies (MA) at the University of Vienna. Her research interests include early medieval historiography, Eurasian steppe peoples, cultural history, gender studies, social history, and the Global Middle Ages.
mit Salvatore Liccardo, »Family Matters. The Levirate Marriage as a Nomadic Custom in Medieval Eurasia«, in: Medieval Worlds 20, 2024, S. 191–227.
»Soziale Hierarchie bei den zentralasiatischen Tuoba (4. bis 6. Jahrhundert) – Ein Modell für andere Steppenvölker?«, in: Harald Meller und Falko Daim (Hg.), Grenzüberschreitungen – Reiternomaden in Mitteleuropa, ihre östlichen Wurzeln und Verbindungen, 14. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 7. bis 9. Oktober 2021, Halle (Saale) 2022, S. 93–100.