1. Silk Road
The Silk Road (from German: Seidenstraße) or Silk Route is a modern
term referring to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the
Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with
the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and
(East Africa. Extending 4,000 miles (6,500 km

3. *Woven silk textiles
from Tomb No. 1 at
Mawangdui, Changsha
, Hunan province,
China, 2nd century BC,
Han Dynasty

4. Chinese jade and *
steatite plaques, in the
Scythian-style animal
art of the steppes. 4th–
. 3rd century BC
British Museum

5. From the 2nd millennium BC 
nephrite jade was being traded from
mines in the region of Yarkand and
Khotan to China. Significantly, these
mines were not very far from the
lapis lazuli and spinel ("Balas Ruby")
mines in Badakhshan and, although
separated by the formidable
Pamir Mountains, routes across them
were, apparently, in use from very
.early times

6. *A Scythian
horseman from the
general area of the
Ili river, Pazyryk, c.
300 BC.

7. The expansion of Scythian cultures stretching 
from the Hungarian plain and the Carpathians to
the Chinese Kansu Corridor and linking Iran, and
the Middle East with Northern India and the
Punjab, undoubtedly played an important role in
the development of the Silk Road. Scythians
accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his
invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive triangular
arrowheads have been found as far south as
Aswan. These nomadic peoples were dependent
upon neighbouring settled populations for a
number of important technologies, and in addition
to raiding vulnerable settlements for these
commodities, also encouraged long distance
merchants as a source of income through the
enforced payment of tariffs. Soghdian Scythian
merchants played a vital role in later periods in
.the development of the Silk Road

8. Probable Greek soldier in*
the Sampul tapestry,
woollen wall hanging,
3rd–2nd century BC,
Sampul, Urumqi Xinjiang
.Museum

9. A Chinese
Western Han Dynasty
(202 BC – 9 AD)
bronze rhinoceros
with gold and silver
inlay

10. A sancai statue of
foreigner with a wineskin,
(Tang Dynasty (618–907
: Further information
Europeans in Medieval China

11. Italian pottery of the mid-
15th century was heavily
influenced by Chinese
ceramics. A Sancai ("Three
colors") plate (left), and a
Ming-type blue-white vase
(right), made in Northern
Italy, mid-15th century.
.Musée du Louvre