What Was the Silk Road?

The "Silk Road" refers to a series of routes that criss-crossed Eurasia from the first millennium B.C.E. through the middle of the second millennium C.E. The best known segment of the Silk Road began in the Chinese capital of Chang'an (Xian), diverged into northern and southern routes that skirted the Central Asian Taklamakan Desert, converged to cross the Iranian plateau, and ended on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean in cities like Antioch and Tyre.

By the 4th century B.C.E. when Alexander the Great crossed the Indus River into Central Asia, Chinese silk had already found its way to the Mediterranean. Important periods for the Silk Road were the Chinese Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-C.E. 220), the Chinese Tang dynasty (C.E. 618-907), and the Mongol Khanate (13th and 14th centuries). The Mongols, who ruled a vast empire, safeguarded a northern Silk Road land route that crossed the Eurasian steppes.

Sea routes, important for trade and for communication, may also be considered part of the Silk Road. During the Han dynasty, Chinese ships traded with Southeast Asian kingdoms. During the 7th and 8th centuries, Chinese, Korean and Japanese ships crossing the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan brought continental goods to Japan. The 8th-century Shôsôin collection of objects, which originally belonged to a Japanese emperor, is the single most important group of Silk Road-related luxury items still in existence. This collection reflects the arts of the Mediterranean world, Persia, India, Central Asia, China, Korea and Japan. Chinese ships also sailed to India and Persia, and even, in the 15th century, to Africa. Indians and Arabs traded along the southern sea routes, and in the 16th century Portuguese and other Europeans sailed to East Asia.

Many important scientific and technological innovations migrated along the Silk Road to the West. Transfer of these innovations, including gunpowder, the magnetic compass, the printing press, silk, mathematics, ceramic and lacquer crafts, was gradual, so that the West had no clear idea as to their origins. Musical forms and instruments traveled the Silk Road. String, wind, and percussion instruments from both East and West influenced each other. A five-stringed lute from India and four-stringed lutes from Persia are found in the Shôsôin collection. The Persian mizmar, a reed instrument, seems to be an ancestor of the European oboe and clarinet. Cymbals were introduced into China from India and Chinese gongs traveled to Europe.
Marco Polo and other adventurers who traveled along the ancient Silk Road were constantly exposed to new ideas, sights, sounds and tastes. Some of these cultural artifacts circulated throughout all the lands from Italy to Japan and continue to influence life in the present day. Traveling along the Silk Road, like exploring the World Wide Web today, meant encountering unexpected surprises, discoveries and new knowledge.

Beginning in about 100 BC, a network of overland trade routes developed to carry goods between Asia and Europe. The earliest, most direct, and most heavily used route came to be known as the Silk Road, for the precious Chinese cloth that was traded abundantly on it. The routes waxed and waned over the centuries with changing political and environmental conditions. After the discovery of a sea route from Europe to Asia in the late 15th century, the land routes were gradually abandoned in favor of ocean-borne trade.