Ancient Trade Routes Today we will work on our understanding of trade during Time Period I and II. We will look at routes, goods, and primary sources in this presentation. On your blank map, carefully draw the major routes presented, some of the empires involved, major goods traded, major inventions’ original locations, and the path of the spread of ideas, as we discuss Label each of the 3 routes in a different color.

4 Main Trade Routes Silk Roads – land route across Eurasia Indian Ocean Maritime System – water round around the Indian Ocean Trans-Saharan Route – land route connecting Sub-Saharan Africa to the other 2 Eurasian Trade Systems American Trading Systems – traded luxury goods but more limited in scope

Who Traded? Silk Roads – East Asians = producers; Everyone else = buyers; pastoralists = facilitators IOMS – South East Asians, Chinese, East Africans, Indians & Arabs = traders; route connected eventually with the Mediterranean Sea Trans-Saharan – Berbers = North African pastoralists and trade facilitators; West Africans = producers of gold, animals skins, ivory; East African = producers of animal skins, ivory Europe – at this time was a crappy peninsula hanging off the edge of Asia. NOT VERY INVOLVED

Silk Roads

Technology and Inventions

Camel saddle – invented in the Mid East and spread through sub-Saharan Africa. Distributed the load of goods the camel carried.

Caravan crossing Pamir Mountains The Silk Road was a trade route linking the lands of the Mediterranean with China by way of Mesopotamia, Iran, and Central Asia. Silk Road caravans often traveled during the winter to avoid torrid temperatures that added to the hardship of humans and animals. These two-humped camels, in a caravan crossing the Pamir Mountains, have heavy coats of wool that they shed in the spring. The ratio of one camel-puller for every two or three camels indicates how much human labor, exclusive of merchants, pilgrims, and other passengers, was involved in Silk Road trading. (R. Michaud/Woodfin Camp & Associates) Caravan crossing Pamir Mountains Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

There were differences in the styles of ships used in different areas of the Indian Ocean basin. The dhow was used by Arab traders in the Western portion of the trade network.

Chinese Trading Vessel: The JUNK

Cultural Developments

Relief, Sailing Vessel, Indian Ocean, from Borobudur Ships like this Indian Ocean sailing vessel, in a rock carving in the Buddhist temple of Borobodur in Java (built between 770 and 825), probably carried colonists from Indonesia to Madagascar. (Ancient Art & Architecture Collection) Relief, Sailing Vessel, Indian Ocean, from Borobudur Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Syncretism The blending of different cultural elements that results in a new hybrid of both. Cultural Diffusion The movement of ideas, people, religions, languages, diseases, goods, etc. around the globe

Of what is this building an example?

Bodhisattva at Bamian, lst B.C. Carved into the side of a cliff at Bamiam, this was one of two monumental Buddhist sculptures near the top of a high mountain pass connecting Kabul, Afghanistan, with the northern parts of the country. Carved in the sixth or seventh century, the sculptures were surrounded by cave dwellings of monks and rock sanctuaries, some dating to the first century B.C.E. (Ian Griffiths/Robert Harding Picture Library) Bodhisattva at Bamian, lst B.C. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Interior Dunhuang Cave The cave temples of Dunhuang, a county located at the west end of Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province, are among the richest depositories of Buddhist art. These three clay statues, which attend the main Buddha in Cave 45, represent the Buddha's disciple Ananda, a bodhisattva, and a heavenly king. ((c) Cultural Relics Data Center of China) Interior Dunhuang Cave Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Musicians playing Iranian instruments As trade became a more important part of Central Asian life, the Iranian- speaking peoples settled increasingly in trading cities and surrounding farm villages. This three- color glazed pottery figurine is one of hundreds of artifacts of Silk Road camels and horses found in northern Chinese tombs from the sixth to ninth centuries. The musicians playing Iranian instruments testify to the migration of Iranian culture across the Silk Road. At the same time, dishes decorated by the Chinese three-color glaze technique were in vogue in northern Iran. (The National Museum of Chinese History) Musicians playing Iranian instruments Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

In Eurasia, trade intensified as cities grew.