The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads
Website for the digital exhibition The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads. Organized by the Freer|Sackler in Washington, DC, the exhibition brings together scholarship of Sogdian art and culture from the United States, Russia, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Uzbekistan. The exhibition is curated by Thomas Wide (Smithsonian Institution), Judith A. Lerner (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU), and Kimon Keramidas (XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement, NYU).
The exhibition revolves around a set of six new scholarly essays examining aspects of Sogdian life and culture. Each of these pages gets a unique two-color treatment, which carries through the length of the pages via headers, links, and other interface elements.
-
Interactive footnotes appear in-line.
-
Sidebar maps in running text are marked with a map pin; on click, the map appears in the margin of the page.
The narratives are heavily illustrated and contain in-line interactive footnotes and sidebar maps that give geographic context for site users who might be unfamiliar with some of the (sometimes historic) Central Asian place names.
In select places, interactive “set pieces” were developed to add depth. The Rustam Cycle mural, above, is made of a series of episodes, running horizontally along the length of the walls. Each episode tells a story or Rustam’s exploits.
A map-based geo narrative traces a historical trade route of the Sogdians from Sogdiana all the way to China.