An Afternoon at The Digital Museum: SILK ROAD talks

An afternoon of fascinating talks and conversation on the history, culture, material culture and politics of the areas along the Silk Road is being held online on Thursday 30 April 2020.

The name Silk Road was coined by the 19th Century German geographer and historian, Ferdinand von Richtofen, to cover the large network of land routes that connected east and west from the time of the Chinese Han Dynasty in the 2nd Century BC to the 18th Century. However, these strategically positioned trading posts, markets and storage facilities that made up the routes were responsible for far more than the business of silk alone. Building on the earlier, Persian Royal Road Built by Darius the Great in the 5th Century BC to enable rapid communication across the empire, the Silk Road enabled the flow and exchange of goods and ideas between vast geographical distances from China, through Mongolia, South East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and Southern Europe. These included spices, fruit, vegetable, livestock, grain, leather, tools, technologies, metals, precious stones, art, culture, language, religious ideas, philosophy, science, paper and gunpowder. And have played a pivotal and profound lasting role in shaping the world in which we live today.

Guest speakers will be Iftikhar Malik (Professor of History, Bath Spa University) and Tim Williams (Associate Professor, UCL Institute of Archaeology). Host and moderator will be Jibunnessa Abdullah.