Silk Road
overland trade network · 130 BC–1449 AD
The overland routes linking China with Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean, opened to regular traffic after the Han dynasty's missions to the west in the 2nd century BC. Few traders travelled the whole way: goods passed from market to market, and the routes carried religions, technologies and diseases as well as silk.
At a glance
- Goods
- silk, horses, jade, glass, silver, spices, paper
- Carried by
- land
- Hubs
- Chang'an → Dunhuang → Kashgar → Samarkand → Bukhara → Merv → Ctesiphon → Baghdad → Palmyra → Antioch → Taxila
Recorded boundaries
| Period | Control | Confidence | Evidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 130 BC–272 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Chang'an, Dunhuang, Kashgar, Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Ctesiphon, Palmyra, Antioch and Taxila. |
| 273 AD–499 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Chang'an, Dunhuang, Kashgar, Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Ctesiphon, Antioch and Taxila. |
| 500 AD–636 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Chang'an, Dunhuang, Kashgar, Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Ctesiphon and Antioch. |
| 637 AD–761 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Chang'an, Dunhuang, Kashgar, Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv and Antioch. |
| 762 AD–1257 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Chang'an, Dunhuang, Kashgar, Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Baghdad and Antioch. |
| 1258 AD–1449 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Chang'an, Dunhuang, Kashgar, Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv and Antioch. |
Each row is a snapshot the source recorded, not a continuous history. The period between two observations is an inference this atlas shows rather than hides.
Sources
- Valerie Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History, (2012)