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The 'Myth' of the Silk Road
#6
Getting Lost in the year 2000... and Again on March 12th, 2017

Woah! What am I reading here?
What an informative "Alternative" thread, because I never realized there was no formalized trade route to anywhere at any time, until we reached the Mongolian era. Merchants just kept to themselves, trading with their neighbors. BUT-- there are a great number of Coincidences.

Totally Lost in Central Asia
   
Let's look at a grave in the Rostovka cemetery, c. 1500 BC, as part of the Sima-Turbino Phenomenon. Within Grave 2 (upper left-hand corner), we find beads fashioned from nephrite and lapis lazuli. Nephrite jade is found only in Transbaikalia or the Tarim Basin. Both locations are a long hike from Rostovka. If there was no Trade Route, we have 2 explanations for the nephrite. 1) Some guy from Lake Baikal got lost, stumbled over the Sayan Mountains, wandered through Siberia, and brought a pouch of nephrite to Rostovka. Or, 2) some other guy from the Takla Makan wandered across a sweltering desert, turned north, and followed the River Irtish into Rostovka. That explains the nephrite. The lapis lazuli is easier: another lost character, probably a Bactrian, wandered from the BMAC northward for 1,500 miles to deliver a sack of lapis stones to his wife's cousin's brother-in-law at Rostovka. No Trade Route, No problem.

Finding a Hair-Pin for Shu Qi
   
Actual scenario. The beautifully-famous (and talented) Shu Qi lands a feature role in a Chinese kung-fu movie.  The film is set in ancient times, so the director wants to find a suitable, and cool, hair pin for his actress. After a search, he discovers the perfect item-- a hair pin shaped like a Karasuk knife. It even has an animal-headed pommel just like the Karasuk originals. It doesn't matter that the Karasuk culture lived at the Minusinsk Basin in Siberia, because he knows that literally thousands of these Bronze age Karasuk knives have been found in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hebei Provinces. Even Fu Hao, another kung-fu woman, owned one. How did all these Siberian knives reach downtown Anyang? Simple. A whole bunch of lost guys stumbled South around the year 1,200BC.

Getting Lost with Aristeas
   
Let's zip ahead to 550 BC. Aristeas of Proconnesus decides to wander into the unknown. He ventures beyond the Greek trading stations (which are waiting for someone to build a Trade Route) and heads northeast (for no particular reason). Somehow, with the help of "guides who speak seven languages," he arrives in the land of the Issedones by crossing the Urals, felling trees along the way, to get to the edge of the Altai Mountains. Aristeas tells quite a tale, and an historian-kinda-guy-- Herodotus-- believes him. Then Herodotus charts an entire map and fills it with unknown tribes all the way to edge of China. Wow! How cool can Non-Trade Speculation get?

"Alternative" Camel-Facts from Pliny and Strabo
   
This has been quite the year for "Alternative" facts, but it's an alternative tradition. For instance, Pliny really came up with a whopper, claiming, "The best iron arrives on camels." Or how about Strabo, who claimed this about the Aorsi, "They held more dominion over more land, and... ruled over most of the Caspian coast; and consequently they could import on camels the Indian and Babylonian merchandise..." Now that's a lot of lost camels. And somehow they also brought enough silk into the Roman sphere that Augustus got totally upset (not just partially so), as did Seneca the Younger. Note the painting above: we see Alternative Silk wafting in Pompeii. But-- and this is important-- there was no established trade route to India or China (or anywhere else) during the Late Republican period. And most important-- the best Myths are the Alternative Ones.
Wink
Alan J. Campbell

member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians

Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)

"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
             Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb
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Messages In This Thread
The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-12-2017, 01:17 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Dan Howard - 03-12-2017, 02:08 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-12-2017, 04:41 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-12-2017, 08:52 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Dan Howard - 03-13-2017, 12:03 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-13-2017, 05:00 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-13-2017, 12:28 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-13-2017, 03:16 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-13-2017, 07:26 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-13-2017, 09:00 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-13-2017, 09:32 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-14-2017, 03:59 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-14-2017, 12:21 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-28-2017, 04:07 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-28-2017, 08:14 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-29-2017, 03:47 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Bryan - 03-29-2017, 05:13 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-29-2017, 07:37 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Bryan - 03-30-2017, 02:51 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 03-31-2017, 12:04 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-30-2017, 10:16 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Alanus - 03-30-2017, 10:39 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 03-31-2017, 12:31 AM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 04-04-2017, 04:52 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 04-13-2017, 03:47 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 04-15-2017, 06:38 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 04-16-2017, 01:09 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 06-25-2017, 06:44 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Mikeh55 - 06-28-2017, 05:17 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 06-28-2017, 05:39 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Nathan Ross - 06-28-2017, 11:00 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Michael Kerr - 06-30-2017, 05:45 PM
RE: The 'Myth' of the Silk Road - by Robert - 07-14-2017, 11:09 AM

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