Traveling the Silk Road - The BAS Library

Home > Magazines > Archaeology Odyssey > September/October 2003

In the 1870s, the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen coined the name die Seidenstrasse—the Silk Road—to refer to the 5,000-mile-long trade route that connected China and the Mediterranean in ancient times. Richthofen thus imbued the immense terra incognita of Central Asia with romance. But he also created something of a misnomer: There was not just one route connecting East and West, but several; and silk—craved especially by Roman women—was just one of the treasured commodities transported along these routes. Intrepid caravans carried spices, gems, gold, ivory, works of art, furniture, garments, perfumes, exotic animals and much else across the […]

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Footnotes

Some archaeological evidence indicates that interactions between eastern and western cultures date back well before the Silk Road. For example, mummies found in Lou-lan, on the edge of China’s Taklimakan Desert, have distinctly western features and are wrapped in wool similar to that produced in Europe 4,000 years ago.

Among the numerous Buddhist grottos is the famous cave site at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, where two monumental Buddhas were destroyed by the Taliban a few years ago (see John C. Huntington, “The Buddhas of Bamiyan,” AO 04:04).

See Rekha Morris, “Imagining Buddha,” AO 04:04.