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Explores how the movement of people, objects, and ideas from 500 to 1000 CE shaped cultures and historiesIn the ninth century CE, an Arabian ship sank off the coast of Indonesia. The objects found in the wreckage, which include Chinese ceramics and precious metals, have provided extraordinary evidence of the nature, scale, and diversity of trade between Tang China and the Islamic Abbasid dynasty. This is just one example of the sprawling and extensive networks of contacts and exchanges spanning Afro-Eurasia. This richly illustrated book challenges the concept of the "Silk Roads" as a simple history of trade between East and West. Focusing on a series of overlapping geographic zones and interspersed with case studies of particular peoples who were active along these networks—seafarers in the Indian Ocean, Sogdians, Vikings, Aksumites, and the peoples of al-Andalus—it reveals remarkable human stories, innovations, and the transfer of knowledge that emerged from these connections. The volume explores notable examples of contacts, connections, and integrations, while emphasizing the environmental and historical conditions that shaped them, featuring the latest scientific research. The dazzling range of objects includes a wooden panel with the story of the "silk princess" who smuggled the eggs of the silk moth from China; a lion sculpture from Jordan; a miniature wooden pagoda from Japan; wall paintings from the Hall of Ambassadors in Uzbekistan; a kaftan from the Caucasus region; an ivory cross from Spain; and a gold and garnet scabbard slide from the Sutton Hoo burial in Britain.

‘Filled with insights, the very latest research and plenty of surprises: a superlative catalogue of one the most ambitious and spectacular exhibitions ever staged at the British Museum.’ – Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World ‘A sumptuous book…a book of the exotic and the wonderful, a trip to ancient and far-away lands, a book full of artistic and cultural treasures, a book to savour and enjoy.’ – Sacred Hoop magazine A richly illustrated publication that explores the networks of contacts and exchanges spanning Afro-Eurasia from 500 to 1000 ce, highlighting how the movement of people, objects and ideas shaped cultures and histories. The term ‘Silk Road’ conjures a range of romantic images. Camel caravans crossing desert dunes. Merchants trading silk and spices. Far-flung commerce between ‘East’ and ‘West’. The reality was far richer. Focusing on a defining period between 500 and 1000 CE, this beautifully illustrated book reimagines the Silk Roads as a web of interlocking networks linking Asia, Africa and Europe, from Japan to Ireland, from the Arctic to Madagascar. It tells a remarkable story of people, objects and ideas flowing in all directions, through the traces these journeys left behind – including ceramics from Tang China recovered from a shipwreck in the Java Sea, sword-fittings set with Indian garnets buried in England, and a selection of letters and legal texts from a synagogue in Cairo revealing a Jewish community’s links from India to al-Andalus. Woven throughout, encounters with various peoples active on the Silk Roads, from seafarers to Sogdians, Aksumites and Vikings, reveal the human stories, innovations and transfers of knowledge that emerged, shaping cultures and histories across continents centuries before the formation of today’s globalised world.