The Silk Roads are often thought of as a single trade route linking Europe and Asia, from the 2nd century BC to the 15th century AD. The collective imagination probably conjures up images of camels crossing vast steppes laden with silk and spices.
But camels, silk and spices are only a small part of this vast reality. A major new exhibition at the British Museum aims to debunk these misconceptions and illuminate the stories behind this great trading network.
To illustrate just how interconnected cultures were in the Middle Ages, the first exhibition to welcome visitors features a Viking Buddha statue. This small bronze statue, discovered on the Swedish island of Helgo, west of Stockholm, was probably made in the Swat Valley, now in Pakistan. She must have travelled 5,000 km in the late 5th century AD and may have found refuge with a powerful Viking leader.
The exhibition, entitled “Silk Roads”, emphasises that this was not a single route, but a vast network stretching from Asia to Africa via Europe, from Japan to Ireland, from the Arctic to Madagascar. A broader and more diverse view of this ancient trade route is thus presented, highlighting a network of overlapping routes linking communities across Asia, Africa and Europe in all directions, by land, river and sea.
The exhibition focuses on a period of only 500 years, between 500 AD and 1000 AD. This choice surprisingly excludes Marco Polo who, at least in the West, is associated with the Silk Road travels of the 13th century. The exhibition ends in 1000 AD, because at that time Viking explorers landed on the North American continent, opening up a whole new trade network that stretched across the Atlantic.
This period spans the Tang Dynasty in China, the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate, the Byzantine Empire in modern Turkey and beyond, and the Carolingian Empire in France. The museum tells this story with objects from its own collection as well as loans from 29 international lenders, many of which have never been exhibited in the UK before.
One of the most striking objects is a huge fresco that once adorned the Hall of Ambassadors in Afrasiab, in modern-day Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It was a prized work of art among the Sogdians, a culture that is unfamiliar today but was once one of the greatest traders on the Silk Road. The fresco shows figures from India, Korea and China in a funeral procession for the powerful Sogdian king Varkhuman..
One of the most fascinating aspects of the Silk Roads is the meeting of many of the world’s major religions, including Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Despite religious differences, a common interest in trade strengthened interactions, and the Silk Roads exhibition shows how these cultures shared knowledge and learned new technologies and skills from each other.
The Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo in eastern England is a good example. New analysis of a piece of jewellery from the museum’s permanent collection has revealed the origins of the gemstones embedded in the piece.
In conclusion, the Silk Roads exhibition takes visitors on a fascinating journey through a complex and diverse trading network that has played a key role in human history. These trade routes have enabled cultural, religious and commercial exchanges that have shaped the world we know today. An immersion in this rich and varied past allows us to better understand the foundations of our modern society and the links that unite people across time and space.