Introduction: The cultural realm of Eurasia
Europe and Asia are not opposites, but are closely linked, with a complex but exciting history. Their history is defined by the dynamics of the peoples. The permeability of transition between Europe and Asia keeps moving. While this transition is presently perceived to be at the Ural, Indo-European peoples penetrated four and three thousand years ago far into Asia; they settled in the steppes of Siberia and Mongolia as well as in India. On the other hand, Asiatic peoples made their marks in the 5 th century A.D. conquering ancient Rome, and, in the 13 th century, their horses pastured in front of the doors of Vienna.
Not only peoples travelled, also ideas and religions. Buddhism was popular in Iran during the 3 rd and 13 th centuries, while the Church of the East, with its see in Seleucia-Ctesiphon near present Baghdad, founded a bishopric in the capital of China in the 7 th century. Even more, the Aramaic script, which emerged in the Eastern Mediterranean area, gave the basis for the Sogdian, Mongolian and Manchurian scripts.
The Society's logo symbolises the internationality of the study of Eurasian cultures. The motive of the so-called “Mistress of animals”, sometimes also featured as “Master of animals”, appeared since the 3 rd millennium B.C. in so different cultures such as in Mongolia, Siberia, Bactria, Iran, the Sumerians, Minoans, Greeks, Scythians, Egyptians, Celts and in the Abbasid Caliphate. The standing figure in the middle not only represents a hunting deity, but also symbolizes the domination of nature by intellectual and rational Mankind, by Man's characteristic capability to develop cultures.
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