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. In 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 revealing the extent of a large-scale
operation. This is just one example of the sprawling and extensive networks of contacts and
exchanges across Afro-Eurasia from Japan to Britain in the period 500 to 1000 CE that
demonstrate the movement of peoples objects and ideas which shaped cultures and histories.
This 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 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. Each
section explores notable examples of contacts connections and integrations while emphasising
the environmental and historical conditions that shaped them featuring the latest scientific
research. The dazzling range of objects includes a wooden panel with a painting of the ?silk
princess' who smuggled the eggs of the silk moth from China (illustrated above) a lion
sculpture from Jordan a miniature wooden pagoda from Japan gold coins from Yemen 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.
