Best Countries To Study Steppe History

[boleslawi]

Hello!
So far, according to my understanding, it seems that the Former Soviet Union, Russia, Ulkraine, Poland and Hungary are among great countries which held prestigious institutions specialised on Steppe History. In the East we have China and over the ocean, of course, is US.
I would like to ask if you any other countries which held prestigious institutions or have had long tradition in the Steppe studies (linguistic, political and social history and so on).

[sarmat]

There are a lot of famous Steppe scholars in Germany and France and recently Turkey. Russia is naturally one of the centers, of course, Hungary as well.

But I can't say the same about the rest of the countries you mentioned.

[tadamson]

Assuming you are looking to study history, it probably doesn't matter too much at undergraduate level, and even at doctoral level as long as the institution has the necessary resources.

Any particular subject area ? favourite group, time, geographical region ?

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Russians are the best in archaeology, no one can beat them. They are followed by Germans and Japanese in that, I guess. The Germans are also leading Old Turkic language studies, especially Old Uyghur, whereas Russia, Turkey and Mongolia have quite a lot of Old Turkic experts as well. The Hungarians now focus mostly on lingual matters I suppose, but I'm sure they must be good at archaeology too. The Americans focus mostly on either linguistic or recent historical areas, in general.

[keaganjoelbrewer]

What experts are in France? I didn't know of any.

[sarmat]

From the top of my head: Chavannes, Rene Grousset, Jean-Paul Roux, Irene Melikoff etc.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

You should not forget Paul Pelliot

Currently, I don't know any French scholars who study on CA/Steppe/Turkic history-linguistics. There is only Jean-Paul Roux left, but he is also too old.

[keaganjoelbrewer]

Yes but they are all dead... so unless they can lecture from beyond the grave (zombie style ) then that's not much use hehe

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Indeed ;D ;D

[sarmat]

Well, Jean-Paul Roux is still alive, but what I meant is that France at least has a notable Central Asian history school and for a professional historian of the steppe knowledge of French language and familiarity with works of the French school would be only helpful.

[boleslawi]

Hey, Gumilev wrote a very comprehensive book upon the Ancient Turks, Ihsan Erkoc, have you read them? (I assume you known Russian). The title was Древние тюрки.
A free version is here:
gumilevica.kulichki.net/OT/

[sarmat]

Of course Ihsan knows Gumilev, he is a professional historian. In my opinion any serious scholar of the steppe should read him. :-)

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Thanks for the share Yes, I read that book, and I must say it contains some important errors. I got some of his other books too, but didn't have time to read them all.

I don't know Russian (yet), but I have plans of learning it. Most of Gumilëv's books have been translated into Turkish already.

[Alanus]

Agreed. The Russians are the best. But I think both Harmatta and Bona are Hungarians, so give that country a plus. As far as the U.S.? Hard to find out anything about ancients from any geographical location, let alone the steppes! U.S. studies are all about female-equality history, black history, commerce history, social history, financial history... and the list goes on and on. Americans are "too new," and the word "ancient" intimidates them.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Actually, Denis Sinor, Peter Benjamin Golden and Michael Drompp should be counted from the US, because they all are great names in medieval steppe history researches.