E-Mail
IMAGE: Historical Silk Road trade routes are illustrated in red, and the white star marks the studied cave in Central Asia
view more
Credit: @Science China Press
The Silk Road was the most elaborate network of trade routes in the ancient world, linking ancient populations in East Asia to those in southwest Asia, via Central Asia. These trade routes fostered the spread of ideas, religions, and technologies over the past 2,000 years. Before the establishment of organized exchange, starting around the time of the Chinese Han Dynasty (2,223 years ago), a process of trans-Eurasian exchange was already underway through the river valleys and oases of Central Asia. The establishment of populations in the oases of the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang, China, was a major factor facilitating this trans-Eurasian exchange. However, archaeological evidence for human occupation in these arid regions as well as long-distance diffusion of cultural material is largely lacking prior to the early fourth millennium BP. Paleoecologists have long been aware of the potential for regional climatic fluctuations in Arid Central Asia (ACA), and the shifting oases or river ways of the desert zone can influence cultural diffusion along the pre-Silk Road.