The Great

Silk Road

The Silk Road: Connecting the ancient world through trade - Shannon Harris Castelo

Jun 3, 2014

With modern technology, a global exchange of goods and ideas can happen at the click of a button. But what about 2,000 years ago? Shannon Harris Castelo unfolds the history of the 5,000-mile Silk Road, a network of multiple routes that used the common language of commerce to connect the world's major settlements, thread by thread.

Silk RoadThe Silk Road was a network of ancient trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China in 130 BCE, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce between 130 BCE-1453 CE...

Silk Road also brought plants and animalsExhibition at the China National Silk Museum shows how the ancient Chinese were introduced to many s

Goods Traded on the Silk Road

"What did Europe trade on the Silk Road?

Europe imported rice, cotton, woolens, porcelains, and silk fabrics from Asia and exported glassware, skins, furs, bark for skin processing, cattle, and slaves.

What did China trade on the Silk Road?

China exported tea, silk, porcelain, ornate bronze mirrors, lacquerware, medicines, and paper. In return, China received many kinds of products ranging from precious metals to horses, weapons, woolen goods, glassware, gold and silver, and precious stones and jewels.

From China caravans carried the well-known Chinese china – snow-white vases, bowls, glasses, and dishes with graceful patterns. Only Chinese owned the secret of making the thinnest and resonant porcelain, therefore, it was very expensive in European markets. Bronze ornaments and other products from this metal, ornate bronze mirrors, umbrellas, products from the well-known Chinese varnish, medicines, and perfumery were also popular. Chinese paper, one of the most remarkable inventions of Chinese technical genius, was highly appreciated too. Gold, skins and many other things were exported as well. Merchants also carried tea and rice, woolen and flax fabrics, corals, amber and asbestos. The sacks of merchants were filled with ivory, rhino horns, turtle shells, spices, ceramic and iron items, glaze and cinnamon, ginger, bronze weapons and mirrors.

Central Asia exported camels which were very appreciated in China, military equipment, gold and silver, semi-precious stones and glass items. Samarkand made glass was especially valued due to its high quality. It was considered as luxury goods. Other goods were skins, wool, cotton fabrics, gold embroidery, exotic fruits – water-melons, melons and peaches; fat-tailed sheep and hunting dogs, leopards and lions.

India was famous for its fabrics, spices and semi-precious stones, dyes, and ivory. Iran – for its silver products. Rome received spices, fragrances, jewels, ivory, and sugar and sent European pictures and luxury goods.

Eastern Europe imported rice, cotton, woolen and silk fabrics from Central Asia and exported considerable volumes of skins, furs, fur animals, bark for skin processing, cattle and slaves to Khoresm. Northern Europe was the source of furs, skins, honey and slaves."

https://www.advantour.com/silkroad/goods.htm

https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silkroad-interactive-map

Interactive Map of the Cities Along the Silk Road

The Silk Road: 8 Goods Traded Along the Ancient NetworkThe vibrant network opened up exchanges between far-flung cultures throughout central Eurasia.

www.chinahighlights.com/silkroad/what-was-traded-and-why.htm

What Was Traded On the Silk Road?Spanning a vast 4,000 miles, the Silk Road was an ancient network of travel routes connecting the Eastern and Western worlds in a time before mass...

Timeline of international trade - Wikipedia

Silk Road - Wikipedia

https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/great-silk-roads

UNESCO Silk Roads Project - About the Project

The Great Silk Road is a system of caravan routes crossing in ancient and middle age time Eurasian continent from Mediterranean Sea to China and influencing the emergence and development of trade and cultural ties between people and statehoods located along the way. The legacy of first transnational contact between people of West and East prove importance of implementing this project aimed at launching open source online web portal dedicated to studies on Silk Road and studies about it. Moreover, local surveys and research are aimed to support scientific and cultural cooperation between the scholars and experts representing different regions and countries once surpassed by the Silk Road.

The Silk Road: Connecting People and CulturesThe Silk Road spanned the Asian continent and represented a form of global economy when the known world was smaller but more difficult to traverse than nowadays.

"...The Silk Road system has existed for over 2,000 years, with specific routes changing over time. For millennia, highly valued silk, cotton, wool, glass, jade, lapis lazuli, gold, silver, salt, spices, tea, herbal medicines, foods, fruits, flowers, horses, musical instruments, and architectural, philosophical, and religious ideas traveled those routes. ..

...Since the concept of "Seidenstrassen" or "Silk Roads" was first invented by the German geologist and explorer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877, the "Silk Road" has been used as a metaphor of European and Asian cultural interchange. While largely commercial, the Silk Road provided the vehicle for all sorts of creative exchange between tremendously diverse peoples and cultures...."

Sounds of the Silk Road | AMNHWhat music may you have heard from travelers along the Silk Road? Find out!

https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/cultural-selection-exchange-musical-instruments-along-silk-roads

UNESCO Silk Roads Program

Cultural Selection: The Exchange of Musical Instruments along the Silk Roads

The Silk Road and Music: Trade, Connections, and ChangeThe Silk Road was an important means of cultural exchange. This article explores the history of the Silk Road and how trade impacted developments in music between the cultures impacted on the road.

The Silk Road (video) | Khan AcademyAn overview of how the early Silk Road(s) facilitated trade and the spread of ideas, technology, disease and religion across Eurasia in the beginning of the Common Era.

On Foot in the Path of the Silk RoadA walk through the birthplace of globalization

National Geographic Story

Where Worlds and Ideas Connect: The CaravanseraiCaravanserais were roadside inns located along the Silk Road that provided shelter to travelers and served as a marketplace for trading goods.

The Silk RoadFor more than 1,500 years, the network of routes known as the Silk Road contributed to the exchange of goods and ideas among diverse cultures. 

The Silk RoadsThis is an educator idea for teaching the significance of the Silk Roads to cultural development. The idea involves linking a map of the Silk Roads during China's Han Dynasty to Italian explorer Marco Polo’s descriptions of the area and to current-day photographs.

Mostern Teaching Silk Road History with Google Earth.mov

Aug 27, 2010

rmostern

In Spring 2010, the students in Professor Ruth Mostern's Silk Road History class at UC Merced used the Google Earth virtual globe program to create interactive maps depicting the journeys of Silk Road travelers. This video introduces their accomplishments.

(http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/7/2/000116/000116.html a study written by the Prof. about the process of teaching this course.)

For 2,000 years, the Silk Road Has Connected East With WestThroughout its 2,000-year-old history, the Silk Road or path of trading has allowed the transfer of technology between East and West.

https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub90/item1104.html