The British Museum’s new exhibition looks at the vast scope and influence of the Silk Roads by re-examining the notion of these routes as simple East-West trade exchange by looking at the interconnection and interlocking networks between different peoples and how these diverse often transitory populations, led their daily lives. As the focus goes beyond the traditional vision of trade, it takes a closer look at the adoption of cultures and beliefs in these multicultural settlements, alongside the new ideas and objects they produced and exported. This complex web of transcontinental relationships and how they were connected is explored by dividing the exhibition into six broad geographical areas: East Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Steppe, Central Asia to Arabia, the Mediterranean, and Northwestern Europe. These trading routes, by land and by sea, have been used since ancient times and bore witness not only to the turbulent histories created by war, geopolitics, and natural disasters, but also to the growth and transformation of these areas brought by merchants, diplomats, pilgrims, and soldiers – of numerous languages and different faiths. The exhibition aims to unearth these human and often surprising links, found on a journey of over five centuries, from AD 500 to 1000.
In the introduction to the catalogue, it explains that there is little evidence to suggest that individuals personally journeyed from one end of the map to the other, and only certain groups appear to have travelled significant distances themselves. However, these people formed links in long chains that could transmit information about distant lands. Recent research into mechanisms of exchange and interconnectivity has characterised travel routes as building blocks within regional networks that intersected with each other at key hubs such as urban centres, ports, and markets. Here, goods could be exchanged by relay, from one network to another, creating a chain of segmented journeys that added up, eventually, to a far-flung passage.
From East to West
The exhibition on the Silk Roads progresses from east to west, and the first section features objects from Xian (Chang’an) the capital of Tang-dynasty China (618-907), Nara (710-914) in Japan, and Geumseong, the capital of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC-AD 935) on the Korean Penisula. Xian was a cosmopolitan city and had important links with Buddhism, which had spread throughout China, but also had links to the important trading ports to the south. This is seen in the cargo of the 9th-century Belitung shipwreck, found off the Indonesian coast of Sumatra, which was carrying Tang-dynasty ceramics and other objects. The trading ship, which sank in the waters then controlled by the thalassocratic Srivijaya Empire (600s-1100s), was believed to have been on its return journey to Arabia or the Persian Gulf, showing the extent of maritime trade across the Indian Ocean.
Buddhism was a major religion that travelled along the Silk Roads, originating in India; the faith was carried along these trade routes first to China and then into the Korean peninsula and beyond to Japan. In the 8th century, Nara’s capital, Heijo-kyo, was an important stop along the Silk Roads, which had modelled itself in the 7th and 8th centuries on the layout of Chang’an. Evidence of this flourishing trade and exchange of ideas can still be seen at the Shoso-in Imperial Treasure House, which holds imported luxury items from as far as the Byzantium and Sasanian Empires, objects from Central Asia, as well as items from Tang China and Silla Korea. Buddhism also brought a flourishing trade in incense to East Asia.
The Buddhist connection between Japan and Korea is evidenced in the earliest religious objects found in Japan, such as the gilt-bronze figure of a seated bodhisattva with one ankle resting on a knee, often referred to as the mediating or pensive bodhisattva, which can be seen in this exhibition. These figures were popular and typically associated with the Maitreya, the future Buddha, in both regions. Some scholars suggest that this example came from the Korean peninsula, based on its style and physical properties.
Southeast Asia to the Tarim Basin
The section devoted to Southeast Asia to the Tarim Basin looks at the importance of the Southeast Asian kingdoms and the rise of the Tibetan Empire. Luk Yu-ping, a co-curator of the exhibition writes in the catalogue, ‘Srivijaya emerged as a polity in the river basin of southern Sumatra by the 670s. Over time, it gained control of the key shipping channel of the Melaka (Malacca) Straits and seems to have extended its authority to the Malay Peninsula, including parts of present-day southern Thailand and Malaysia. They also capitalised on the commerce established though the maritime routes between China and the Indian subcontinent. Additionally, Srivijaya was a major Buddhist centre that attracted practitioners from abroad. The Chinese monk Yijing (635-713) visited the region as part of his journey from China to India and recorded his journey in his accounts. John Guy notes in his essay ‘Introducing Early South East Asia’, in Lost Kingdoms, Hind-Buddhist Sculpture of Southeast Asia (2014), ‘Yijing tells of his departure from Guangzhou on a Persian ship in 671, arriving first at Srivijaya before departing for India on a merchant ship from ‘Kacha’, likely Kedah in Malaysia’.
There was also an intensification of commercial and diplomatic exchanges in the 600s and 700s. Other powerful kingdoms that rose on the maritime trade include the powerful Hindu-Buddhist Mataram Kingdom, adjacent to Srivijaya in Central Java. In the period between the late 8th century and the mid-9th century, the kingdom saw the blossoming of classical Javanese art and architecture reflected in the rapid growth of temple construction with the Buddhist temple of Borobudur being a shining example. One relief found at the temple shows the kingdom’s interconnectedness – a seafaring ship dated to the late 700s or 800s.
The Tibetan Empire
The Tibetan Empire, which reached its peak between the 6th and 9th centuries, had a complicated relationship with Tang China, marked by hostilities, as well as peace and diplomatic engagement. The high quality of Tibetan metalware during this period can be seen in the silver vase, dating between 700-900, on show in the exhibition. Luk Yu-ping notes that surviving examples show a blending of artistic styles and metalworking techniques, such as the pairs of phoenixes, a motif found in Chinese art, but also a shape and beaded edge that were inspired by Sasanian models that had spread throughout Central Asia.
The great travellers of the Silk Roads were the Sogdians from Central Asia, now in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, explored in another section of the exhibition. On show for the first time in the UK are monumental wall paintings from ancient Afrasiab, circa 660s, from the ‘Hall of the Ambassadors’, an aristocratic house in the old city of Samarkand, excavated in the 1960s. The paintings show the cosmopolitanism of the Sogdians and their role in establishing the commercial routes – they engaged in trade across thousands of kilometres, from the steppe to India, China and to the Mediterranean, with the peak of activity between the 500s-700s. The western wall painting depicts representatives from foreign lands bearing gifts, including emissaries from Tang China and the Tibetan Empire.
The Sogdians also established diaspora communities particularly in China, which further facilitated the interaction of cultures. Luk Yu-ping writes, ’The size of a Sogdian merchant caravan could range from just a few to several hundred people, and it may have been joined by travellers from other regions. They traded in a great variety of good, from horses to gemstones, furs, textiles and even peaches. Many of the western imports in Chang’an probably arrived there through the Sogdians’. They also excelled at making textiles, their richly patterned clothing, particularly with medallion or roundel designs. An example of this design being widely used along the Silk Roads, from the eastern Mediterranean to Japan, can be seen on a pair of silk-and linen leggings, 600-800s, from the Caucasus region, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collections.
From Central Asia to Arabia
The journey from Central Asia to Arabia looks at the vastly complicated and changing world of the Islamic heartlands. During the 6th and the first half of the 7th century, this area was largely dominated by the Sasanian Empire, based in Persia, and the Byzantine Empire (330-1453), which dominated the Mediterranean world. The Abassid and Umayyad Empires would also wax and wane in the period covered by the exhibition.
Tim Williams and Luk Yu-ping write that the Arab conquest led to the establishment of a vast political and economic area under the banner of Islam, in which interregional and long-distance trade thrived. People were on the move and followed the empire’s expansion, including the traders, artisans, and scholars, whose travels, in turn, facilitated the exchange of goods and ideas. The rulers of this new Islamic empire had to engage with a diverse population of different faiths, cultures, and languages. The movement of luxury goods into Sogdiana apparently continued during the early Islamic period. This is suggested by the significant discovery of a group of seven elephant-ivory chess pieces in Afrasiab, also in the exhibition – they are the earliest known chess pieces to this day. They were excavated at the archaeological site of Afrasiab in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Coin finds from the same excavated layer help date it to the 700s. Probably originating in India around 500, the game of chess spread to the Sasanian Empire, then across the Islamic world and to Europe. Initially played among the nobility as a means of training in military tactics, it spread westwards to the Sasanian Empire and later became popular across the Islamic world, before eventually reaching Europe.
Northern Europe
Northern Europe stands right at the very end of the Silk Roads, and in Britain the discovery of a remarkable horde, from a Viking burial ship dating to the late 500s/early 600s was excavated at Sutton Hoo in the late 1930s. The people buried at Sutton Hoo were not only closely connected to their Scandinavian neighbours but clearly engaged in travel and trade across huge distances. Items from the Byzantine Empire, Egypt, and across Europe were also found. A shoulder clasp with garnet cloisonné metalwork in the exhibition not only shows the remarkable workmanship of the period, but the long-distance links created by the objects themselves, which combine different types of garnet linked to sources in India and Sri Lanka, as well as to Bohemia (in the Czech Republic).
Connections between people and settlements were vital to the success of the Silk Roads; interaction and acceptance of different cultures aided and allowed the diverse cultures to thrive along these complex commercial routes from east to west. The romance of the Silk Roads continue to capture people’s imagination today and leisure travel thrives along these routes, bringing a new type of prosperity to regions that had fallen into decline.
From 26 September to 23 February, 2025, British Museum, britishmuseum.org. A catalogue is available, £30.
On 10 October, there is an online lecture, via British Museum website: Silk Roads by Sue Brunning and Luk Yu-ping, 17.30-18.30. In 2014, sections of the land routes were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, detailed on their website
