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Along the Silk Road
Connecting West and East in Prehistory
The Silk Road (or Silk Route) is surely one of the oldest routes of international
trade in the world. First called the Silk Road in the 19th century, the
4500 kilometer (2800 miles) route is actually a web of caravan tracks
connecting Chang'an (now the present day city of Xi'an), China in the
East and Rome, Italy in the West beginning in the Han Dynasty in the 2nd
century BC up through the 15th century AD.
Routes of the Silk Road
The Silk Road contained three major routes leading westward from Chang'an,
with perhaps hundreds of smaller ways and by ways. The northern route
ran westward from China to the Black Sea; the central to Persia and the
Mediterranean Sea; and the southern to the regions which now include Afghanistan,
Iran, and India.
Its fabled travelers included Marco Polo, Genghis Khan, and Kublai Khan.
The Great Wall of China was built (in part) to protect its route from
bandits.
Historical tradition is that the trade routes began in the 2nd century
BC, the result of the efforts of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty, who
commissioned Chinese military commander Zhang Qian to seek a military
alliance with his Persian neighbors to the west. He found his way to Rome
(called Li-Jian in documents to the time). One extremely important trade
item was silk, manufactured in China and treasured in Rome. The process
by which silk is made, involving silk worm caterpillars fed on mulberry
leaves, was kept secret from the west until the 6th century AD, when a
Christian monk smuggled caterpillar eggs out of China.
Trade Goods of the Silk Road
While important to keeping the trade connection open, silk was only one
of many items passing across the Silk Road's network. Precious ivory and
gold, food items such as pomegranates, safflowers, and carrots went east
out of Rome to the west; from the east came jade, furs, ceramics, and
manufactured objects of bronze, iron and lacquer. Animals such as horses,
sheep, elephants, peacocks, and camels made the trip, and most importantly
perhaps, agricultural and metallurgical technologies, information, and
religion were brought with the travelers.
Archaeology and the Silk Road
Recent studies have been conducted on key locations along the Silk Route
at the Han Dynasty sites of Chang'an, Yingpan, and Loulan, where imported
goods indicate that these were important cosmopolitan cities. A cemetery
in Loulan, dated to the first century AD, contained burials of individuals
from Siberia, India, Afghanistan, and the Mediterranean Sea. Investigations
at the Xuanquan Station Site of Gansu Province in China suggest that there
was a postal service along the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty.
Some archaeological evidence suggests that the Silk Road may have been
in use long before Zhang Qian's diplomatic journey. Silk has been found
in the mummies of Egypt around 1000 BC, German graves dated to 700 BC,
and 5th century Greek tombs. European, Persian, and Central Asian goods
have been found in the Japanese capital city of Nara. Whether these hints
ultimately prove to be solid evidence of early international trading or
not, the web of tracks called the Silk Road will remain a symbol of the
lengths to which people will go to stay in touch.
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