13Story

27 July 2010

Silk Route I

Routes of Exchange

* The Roots of Silk Road     * The Silk Road and the Nomads     * The Silk Road and China    * Inscriptions    * Diplomatic documents    * Maps    * Dunhuang along the Silk Road     * Early Christian communities in Asia: Nestorianism

 

The Roots of the Silk Road Specialized roads have been in use in Eurasia for thousands of years. For example: the intensely blue semiprecious stone lapis lazuli, valued so highly in Mesopotamia at the end of the 5th millennium BCE, was mined in the mountains of Afghanistan. Via Syria, this stone also entered Egypt, where it was even more costly than silver and gold at the end of the 4th millennium BCE. Jade (nephrite) from the Tibetan highlands reached China round 4000 BCE via the so-called “Jade Road” along the Gansu Corridor. There were also routes along which animal skins from Siberia and gold from the Altai were transported to India and China. The same thing happened with silver, copper, tin, iron and so many other ores, natural products, animals and slaves. A wide variety of Chinese goods – among them silk – made their way into the world via dozens of small networks over dangerous mountain paths, churning rivers and searing deserts, often without the knowledge of the Chinese emperors. Their final destinations were spread across the Eurasian continent. In the last centuries of the first millennium BCE this fragmented network grew into a gigantic system of trades. The northern, nomadic herdsmen of the Steppes, also known as Scythians, played an important role in the process. They engaged in commerce with the Greeks around the Black Sea and took vases, mirrors, weapons and textiles with them along the Don, Volga and Ural rivers to the Altai mountain range and Mongolia. Their relations with the Chinese would eventually be crucial to the development of an organized network of international trades.

  

 

Click on the pictures to enlarge and read the label

 

In Indian texts from the beginning of the Common Era, Southeast Asia is associated with gold: suvarnabhumi (Sanskrit), “land of gold,” or suvarnadvipa, “golden island.” Chinese sources from the 3rd to the 5th century speak of the gold riches and jewels of the kingdom of Funan (South Vietnam). A need to purify gold and incorporate it into standardized alloys and weights quickly came into being, certainly in those countries with a gold-based monetary system. Although the island of Java does not count gold among its natural resources, a great deal of gold was processed there. In the central Javanese village of Wonoboyo, a veritable treasure trove was unearthed in 1990: 6,000 gold coins and 1,000 pieces of gold jewelry and utensils from the 10th century in several vessels buried under lava. The golden ladle in this exhibition is one of these objects and shows a high degree of refinement and craftsmanship. Archeological finds in Oc Eo, in the Mekong Delta, and on the island Palawan in the Philippines, brought to light goldsmiths’ workshops from the 4th century BCE. From their mutual relationships it is evident that there was already a maritime trade network between India, Southeast Asia and the Philippines at that time. Pre-Spanish gold jewelry from the Philippines, with its superior craftsmanship, confirms the existence of a very old tradition

 

 

 

A Passage to Asia

Contents - Introduction - Written sources - Vessels - Cast to Last - Routes of Exchange - Spirits and Ancestors - The Hellenistic Legacy - Religions of the Renewing World - Religions of the Book - Objects of Desire - Recovered from the Depths

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