Silk Roads Exhibition Invites Viewers on Journeys of People, Objects and Ideas

This evocative soundscape envelops visitors as they enter the Silk Roads exhibition at the British Museum in London. Huge screens along one wall project images of landscapes and oceans, while visitors are invited to experience the scents of balsam, musk and incense contained in boxes around the exhibition.

Bringing together more than 300 objects from 29 institutions, the show moves beyond common stereotypes of the Silk Road, such as camel trains laden with silk from China or spices for sale in bazaars in Samarkand, in modern Uzbekistan. Archeological evidence has revealed a host of raw materials on the move: gemstones and precious metals; minerals including jade and crystal; resins such as amber; animal products like ivory, pearls and fur; and food such as fruits, nuts and honey. Manmade objects changed hands, including coins, clothing, tableware and artwork. Animals were also exchanged, notably horses, elephants, hunting dogs and birds of prey.

The misconception of the Silk Road as a single overland route from east to west overlooks important interactions with the North and the South and omits journeys made by sea and river. Only certain groups of people, such as the merchants of Sogdiana, traveled long distances. Rather, the Silk Roads—plural—consisted of regional networks that intersected at key hubs where goods could be traded, from one network to another, creating a chain of journeys that could add up to a voyage across the known world.

Some of the most significant journeys were intangible, involving the spread of knowledge, ideas and technologies. The exhibition demonstrates how interconnected the world became during the period 500-1000 CE.

AramcoWorld spoke to the British Museum’s Luk Yu-Ping, one of the co-curators of the Silk Roads exhibition.

Q: The first object that the visitor encounters is a tiny, copper-alloy figurine. What is its significance?

We decided to have this as the opening item in the exhibition because it encapsulates the idea of an expanded map of the Silk Roads. The figure was made in what is present-day Pakistan around 600 AD, but it was unearthed nearly 5,000 kilometers [3,100 miles] away on a small island in Sweden during excavations of an archeological site dating to about 800 AD.

We don’t know how it traveled this distance, but the journey was most likely completed in stages, involving more than one group of people. Because the object was found in Scandinavia, the Vikings would have been involved in some way. The exhibition as a whole demonstrates that the Vikings’ sphere of influence extended well beyond what is widely assumed, with their longboats traveling down rivers into Central Europe, where they interacted with traders from further east.

Q: One of the exhibits on loan from Uzbekistan is a group of chess pieces. What do they tell us about the history of the game?

These seven chess pieces were discovered in Samarkand underneath a mosque dating to the 700s, making them the earliest-known group of chess pieces in the world. Many historians believe that chess originated in India as an aristocratic game and that it was initially used to teach military strategy. The carvings on these ivory chess pieces indicate they are divisions of an army. There are two smaller pieces depicting foot soldiers, much like the pawns of modern-day chess, while there are other figures riding elephants or horses, representing different chess pieces. The game of chess spread along the Silk Roads into Central Asia, across the Islamic world, and then into Europe.

Q: One of the technologies that spread along the Silk Roads was papermaking. What impact did this have on the dissemination of ideas?

Papermaking is thought to have been invented in China around the first century AD. There was a battle between Tang Chinese armies and forces of the Abbasid Empire in 751 AD in what is now the border region between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. According to legend, prisoners captured from the Tang Chinese forces helped bring papermaking to Central and West Asia. However, scholars have now established that this technology had reached Central Asia several decades prior to that battle. By 800 AD, a paper mill had been established in the Abbasid capital, Baghdad, which was a major center of intellectual activity.

Papermaking was a much more efficient way of creating a writing surface compared to papyrus or parchment [dried animal skin], which had previously been used in Central and West Asia. Paper was quicker, cheaper and easier to make, while being lighter to transport. Initially, it was used for bureaucratic documents and other forms of secular writing. But by the 10th century, Qur’ans were starting to be written on paper. That had a huge impact on the spread of religious ideas as well as secular knowledge.

In the exhibition, we use a group of Qur’ans to tell this story. Firstly, we have one of the world’s oldest Qur’ans, which is on loan from the British Library. It dates to the 700s, probably originating in Makkah or Madina, and is written on parchment. Then we have another Qur’an dating to the 800s, which shows a change to the Kufic script, a more horizontal, angular kind of script, which is written on vellum, another form of animal skin. Finally, we have a later Qur’an, dating from 1000-1200 AD, which is written on paper, making it smaller and easier to transport.

 Q: Among the many exhibits that illustrate the spread of knowledge, do you have any personal favorites?

There are so many amazing objects. A personal favorite of mine is a wooden panel dating from 600-800, which depicts the story of the Silk Princess, a popular legend of how silk farming spread from China. According to the story, a princess from the East smuggled silkworm eggs and seeds of the mulberry tree in her headdress when she was sent to marry the king of Khotan, thousands of kilometers to the west [in modern China]. I think this is a great story captured in a small object, which reminds us that women—be they elite women or members of their entourage—also contributed to the spread of objects, technology and ideas.

The breeding of silkworms and the creation of silk threads from unbroken cocoons may have begun in China as early as 2700 BC. The technology started to spread around 100 BC, and by 1000 AD there were many centers of silk farming and silk weaving in Eurasia.

Nevertheless, silk from China remained a valuable commodity and was used as a currency along the Silk Roads. Successive Chinese dynasties collected taxes in the form of silk, while large quantities of the material were sent to military headquarters in frontier regions. The silk could then be used to pay soldiers’ salaries and buy food and equipment.

The soundscape shifts as the visitor enters the corridor at the end of the exhibition. The noises of camel trains and sea voyages give way to those of contemporary connections such as transport and telecommunications. This eases visitors from the past back into the present and invites them to reflect on their own place in the world.

While the ways in which people interact have changed, the overarching message of the exhibition is that the cross-cultural connections forged on the silk roads more than 1,000 years ago remain. These interwoven histories between peoples and cultures will continue to shape the present and the future.