The 'Myth' of the Silk Road

[Nathan Ross]

Wow! How cool can Non-Trade Speculation get?

I don't think Ball (or anybody else) is claiming that there was no long-distance trade in central Asia in antiquity. Clearly there was, as examples like the ones you've cited demonstrate.

The claim he's disputing is that there was an established overland trade route between China and the west, rivalling the known sea route via India. While we have evidence for either end of this proposed land route, I still don't think there's evidence for the routes meeting in the middle, or for goods and ideas passing back and forth along it during this period.

Strabo, who claimed this about the Aorsi... "...consequently they could import on camels the Indian and Babylonian merchandise..."

...But-- and this is important-- there was no established trade route to India or China (or anywhere else) during the Late Republican period. 

Sarcasm noted! There obviously was a sea route to India in at least Augustan times, which brought Chinese products west, and nobody's disputing that.

But the Strabo quote is interesting. The merchandise is 'Indian' and 'Babylonian' though, which suggests that this was an overland caravan trail from northern India through the Parthian territories. This still doesn't really suggest a route passing north of the Himalayas, direct from China across central Asia.

Gary Young, in Rome's Eastern Trade (2001 - I don't have this book but from the snippets online it looks intriguing) mentions that the city of Nisibis in Mesopotamia was an entrepot for silk imports into the west. This could have been coming via a sea route up the Persian gulf, or overland through Adiabene and southwest Asia.