As world powers realign their cultural economic and political outlooks there is no better
time to consider how Afro-Eurasia's complex network of ancient trade routes - which spanned the
vastness of the steppe vertiginous mountain ranges fertile river plains and forbidding
deserts across the continents and on to the seas beyond - fostered economic activity and
cultural political and technological communication. From silk to slaves fashion to music
religion to science the movement of interaction of goods people and ideas was crucial to the
flourishing of peoples and their cultures across this vast region.Edited by Susan Whitfield an
established authority on the subject with contributions from over 80 leading scholars from
across the globe Silk Roads situates the ancient routes against the landscapes that defined
them to reveal the raw materials that they produced the means of travel that were employed to
traverse them and the communities that were shaped by them. Organized by terrain from steppe
to desert to ocean each section includes detailed maps a historical overview thematic essays
and features showcasing art buildings and archaeological discoveries. A wealth of photographs
reveals the breathtaking and often forbidding landscapes encountered by travellers and traders
through the millennia.With one section inscribed as a World Heritage Corridor by UNESCO in 2014
and others to follow and China claiming the Silk Roads as the precursor of its Belt Road
Initiative this network of ancient trade routes and the interaction along them has never been
of greater interest or importance than today. This beautiful publication honours the
astonishing diversity in the way cultures advance and flourish not in spite of their
differences but because of them.
