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The 'Myth' of the Silk Road
#3
I am not familiar with Ball’s book and his general statement that there was no direct trade between China and Rome is basically true, there were only a handful of trade missions sent between the two empires but to me Ball is missing the point when he said that no such route existed before the Mongols. The term "Silk Road"was not coined till 1877 by Richthofen and there was a lot more being shipped than silk, not only goods but ideas and religious beliefs like Buddhism, Manichaeism, Christianity and Islam.

 There was never one “Silk Road” but a series of routes that criss-crossed the various mountain ranges and deserts that have probably been around 5000 years. Michael Frachetti, associate professor of anthropology at Washington University wrote that nomads carved the foundations for these trans-Asian interaction networks with their seasonal migrations to summer pastures and these old grazing routes correspond significantly with the evolving geography of the various silk routes across these high mountain ranges. 

 Most of the trade pre-Han would have been cattle, sheep, horses, weapons, armour, foodstuffs, fruits, metals and textiles. Bactrian camels could carry about 1000 lbs much more than double the weight that could be carried by Arabian camels.

 Any trade with China, whether by sea or land was conducted by middlemen, Kushans, Indians, Tamils, Sarmatians and Persians as the Chinese usually offloaded their goods at Tashkurgan where Indians, Tamils and Kushans moved the merchandise south to ship their goods by sea while others continued west and met up with Syrians and Greeks who shipped on to Rome. I think the Aorsi had caravans of Bactrian camels transporting goods to Black Sea City-states.

 The discovery of the use of the Monsoon winds by Greek sailors around 118 BC (although Indian sailors were probably aware long before) meant that they could sail directly from Egypt to India and not hug the coast thereby avoiding local port duties and taxes made shipping goods more profitable. Indian sailors found a direct route to China around the middle of the 1st Century AD. From my understanding sea trade declined in the 3rd century.

 Around 100 AD a Syrian/Roman entrepreneur  who Ptolemy described as a Macedonian, Maes Titianus arranged for a group of commercial agents to travel along the Parthian caravan routes to the Kushan empire and then on to the Tarim basin. This was a brief window of opportunity as Han general Ban Chao had restored Chinese authority over the various Tarim city-states and had secured Kashgar around 84 AD opening up the traded routes and providing security for merchants and travellers. Maes wrote an itinerary (now lost) for his mercantile backers of stops, distances, travelling times etc which were copied by a Tyrian mathematician named Marinus and then used by geographer Claudius Ptolemy to construct maps for his Geography. Smile 
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
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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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