The Silk Road east meets west: how untold wonders, knowledge, and even death traveled the ancient world.

OBJECTIVE

Students should understand

* The Silk Road was a system of crucial trade routes by which goods such as silk, precious stones, and spices were spread, along with knowledge about distant peoples, throughout ancient Asia and Europe.

BACKGROUND

According to one legend, the first Romans to see silk were the general Marcus Crassus and his army in 53 B.C. While fighting the Parthians, they were both terrorized and amazed to see the opposing soldiers carrying banners of a strange material that shimmered in the brilliant sun and heat of the desert. Silk became such an obsession for the Romans that the Emperor Tiberius complained about it in the first century A.D. "In exchange for trifles," said Tiberius, "our money is sent to foreign lands and even to our enemies."

CRITICAL THINKING

COMPREHENSION: On which continent was the western end of the Silk Road? On which continent was the eastern end? (western: Europe; eastern: Asia)

MAKING CONNECTIONS: Why did Wu-ti of China see direct trade with distant peoples as an opportunity to make his empire mightier? (Trading highly desired goods would bring in wealth, which could be used to gain land, power, and more riches. Other answers are acceptable.)

ACTIVITY

SEEKING THE SOURCE: Have students make a survey of the foods and spices they normally eat. This should include such basic items as salt and sugar. Then have them research where those products originally came from. How difficult were those items to get, at first? Can they imagine life without those things?

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Global connections: How desire for goods from faraway lands connected the peoples of ancient Europe and Asia.

* Production, distribution, and consumption: How and why great distances increased the value of goods traded along the Silk Road.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Burgan, Michael, Marco Polo and the Silk Road to China (Compass Point Books, 2002). Grades 5-8.

* Levy, Janey, The Silk Road: Using a Map Scale to Measure Distances (PowerKids Press, 2005). Grades 5-8.

WEB SITES

* Silk Road Encounters askasia.org (Enter "silk road encounters" in search panel.)

* The Silk Road Index silkroadproject.org/silkroad

"The only signs of a road are the skeletons of the dead. Wherever they lie, there, lies the road to India.

So wrote the 4th-century Buddhist monk Fa Xian (shee-ahn). But the words could have been echoed by any number of travelers who braved the dangers of the great ancient route known as the Silk Road.

For about 1,500 years, the Silk Road was the key link between Asia and Europe. This 4,000-mile-long network of trade routes spread goods, cultures, and religions throughout the vast Eurasian landmass.

Untold wonders suddenly appeared in local marketplaces. They might have been cinnamon and pearls from India, wine and olives from the Mediterranean--or that great mystery, silk from China. Long before globalization, the Silk Road bound the known world together.

In Search of Warriors

The Silk Road developed in the second century B.C., starting from Imperial China. At the time, Emperor Wu-ti (woo-DEE) was fighting with the Xiongnu (hung-NOH), a nomadic tribe to the north. The Emperor needed allies. He also needed bigger horses, strong enough to carry men in armor into battle.

In 138 B.C., Wu-ti sent one of his most trusted men, Zhang Qian (chen), on a crucial mission. Zhang's goal was to make an alliance with some enemies of the Xiongnu, in valleys far to the west. Zhang's 13-year trip over the Pamir Mountains into Central Asia was one of the greatest journeys of exploration in history.

The explorer did not return with an alliance. What Zhang did bring back was priceless information about people and trade routes to the west. In places such as Bactria, part of modern-day Afghanistan (see map, p. 15), Zhang was surprised to find Chinese goods for sale. Those items had come long distances, through India.

Wu-ti smelled opportunity. He, too, could establish a more direct trade with distant peoples. This trade, the Emperor reasoned, would make his empire mighty indeed.

Dangerous Roads

It was not long before traders were traveling west from Changan, capital of the Chinese Empire. Passing the westernmost end of the Great Wall, the Silk Road made its way by various paths through Central Asia. Over time, it came to include already-established trade routes to India. Eventually, it reached Mediterranean seaports such as Tyre and Antioch. There, boats took wares to Rome and other Italian cities.

Very few traders went the entire distance. Instead, they traded what items they had for others, then returned home. Goods that made the journey from east to west, or vice versa, changed hands many times--each time becoming more expensive.

Each stage of the journey had its own dangers. Blinding sandstorms in the Taklimakan Desert could strike at a moment's notice. In places in the Tien Shan Mountains, caravans passed over narrow rock ledges. Some traders fell to their deaths. Others were buried by avalanches.

Threats from bandits were just as likely. Traders also often had to pay taxes or bribes to local officials to pass through a region. The Parthians, who controlled Persia (modern-day Iran) from about 247 B.c. to 224 A.D., demanded especially high taxes. Rome fought numerous wars with Parthia, partly over control of the Silk Road.

The Romans were crazy for silk. At first, all they knew was that it came from a faraway eastern land they called Serica--"the land of silk." For centuries, the Chinese guarded the secret that silk was made by silkworms. The Romans thought it grew on trees.

Marco Polo

Goods were not the only things traveling the Silk Road. From India, Buddhism spread to China, and became the official religion there in the 6th century A.D. Christianity and Islam also moved along the routes.

The most famous Silk Road traveler was a merchant (trader) named Marco Polo. Leaving the Italian city of Venice in 1271 A.D., when he was 17 years old, Polo traveled for years through the Asian empire of the Mongols. When he finally returned, Venetians found his descriptions of the East and its riches awe-inspiring, or simply unbelievable.

Diseases also traveled along the Silk Road. Like the avian flu today, they sometimes started in the farming areas of China and were carried west. Millions of Romans died from an epidemic of smallpox that began in Asia in 165 A.D. The Black Plague, which killed millions of Europeans in the 1300s, also spread in part through travelers on the Silk Road.

The Silk Road Today

Time and wars eventually took their toll on the Silk Road. By the 15th century, more and more traders were taking to the seas, which proved to be much less dangerous.

But the Silk Road has never completely disappeared. Today, parts of the route are being rediscovered. Last September, China and India agreed to open a section of the road between their countries that had been closed since 1962. Now, trucks carry watches, shoes, canned food, and tea over that road. Elsewhere in Central Asia, oil and gas move over terrain where camels once bore cinnamon and ginger. Many of the products for sale have changed. But the legacy of the Silk Road lives on.

Words to Know

* caravan: a group of people travelling together, often for protection.

* epidemic: outbreak of a rapidly spreading disease.

* imperial: having to do with an empire.

* nomadic: wandering or travelling.

Fun Facts

* UNTIL THE 6TH CENTURY, the Chinese kept silk production a secret. That changed when two Persian monks smuggled silkworms out of China in the hollows of their bamboo canes.

* APPLES originated in Kazakhstan and were carried east by Silk Road traders.

* FOUR OF CHINA'S GREATEST INVENTIONS--paper, printing, gunpowder, and the compass-reached the West through the Silk Road.

* MANY PEOPLE THINK THAT THE SWIMMING POOL game Marco Polo came from an imagined incident in the adventurer's life. Asleep on his camel in the desert, Polo is said to have dreamed that someone was calling his name.

* IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the name Silk Road was given to the trails by a German geographer, Ferdinand von Richtofen.

Your Turn

WORD MATCH

1. merchant

2. nomadic

3. caravan

4. epidemic

5. imperial

A. group of travelers

B. of an empire

C. trader

D. wandering or traveling

E. outbreak of a rapidly spreading disease

ANSWERS

1. C; 2. D; 3. A; 4. E; 5. B

THINK ABOUT IT

1. How was the Silk Road a form of globalization?

2. Name some popular dishes that originated in other countries, Why are so many different types of food available in the U.S. today?

SILK ROAD FESTIVAL silkroadproject.org /smithsonian</p> <pre> QUICK QUIZ * Match each place or person's name in the left column with the correct description in the right column. --11. MarcoPolo

A. an Emperor of Imperial China --12. Serica B. explorer of lands far east of his homeland --13. Tien Shan C. ancient Romans' name

for China --14. Wu-ti D. explorer of lands far west of his homeland --15. ZhangQian E. mountains through which

many Silk Road trader

caravans traveled </pre> <p>ANSWERS

11. B

12. C

13. E

14. A

15. D