Wednesday, November 10 4:18 pm
For centuries, the Silk Road bridged culture and trade between Asia and the Mediterranean. In this episode of Adventures in the Global Kitchen, Persian cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij takes a culinary tour of the ancient trading route.
Recorded at the American Museum of Natural History on May 19, 2010.
Monday, August 09 12:50 pm
Long before airplanes or computers, this network of trails, sea routes, oases, and marketplaces connected East Asia to the Mediterranean. The Silk Road linked empires, giving many people, including Greeks, Indians, Persians, Arabs, and Han Chinese, their first contact with distant civilizations. At inns called caravanserai, travelers mingled and traded all kinds of raw materials and finished products, from furs and feathers to ceramics and gems and, of course, silk.
Much more than tangible goods traveled along the Silk Road. So did technology and culture, both objects and ideas. As trade brought people into contact with one another, they borrowed and adapted each other’s ideas and skills. For example, as goods traveled, so did the ways they were made. Key among these technologies was silk-making, or sericulture, which had already been practiced in China for thousands of years and was a zealously guarded secret. Other technologies included glassmaking, an art developed in the Mediterranean; papermaking, a Chinese invention that spread the written word; and metalworking, which originated in the central Middle East. Many contemporary inventions, like grape winemaking and paper money, are still in use today.
Artifacts found along the Silk Road show that as they did business, travelers also exchanged music, cuisines, and beliefs. Pilgrims and merchants carried their religions (including Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism) to distant lands. Scientific knowledge of subjects such as astronomy and mathematics also made its way along trade routes, as did visual styles and motifs.
These exchanges profoundly affected many of the civilizations that came into contact with each other. Crossing rugged mountains and scorching deserts, braving hunger, sandstorms and robbers, the camel caravans of the Silk Road were the harbingers of globalization. The first international highway, the Silk Road helped lay foundations for the modern world.
A version of this story originally appeared in the summer issue of Rotunda, the magazine for Museum Members.
The penultimate section of Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World highlights a shift to maritime trade routes and features a scale model of an Arab seagoing dhow, a gift from the Government of the Sultanate of Oman through the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. © AMNH/R. Mickens
Thursday, July 15 3:16 pm
Explore an interactive map of the Silk Road. AMNH/D. Finnin
There’s only a month left to hitch a camel ride on the illustrious Silk Road without even leaving New York City. Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World sends visitors on an ancient trade route that stretched from the marketplaces of Asia to the bustling hub of the Middle East. And on Sunday afternoons, visitors can wrap up their journey with live musical performances organized by Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.
A camel caravan greets visitors as they begin the 4,600-mile adventure from Xi’an, the flourishing capital city of China, to Baghdad, the intellectual center of the ancient Islamic world. Such a far-reaching trip required months of trekking across difficult terrain during the route’s golden age, from AD 600 to 1200.
“No single person traveled the entire extent of the Silk Road,” says Curator Mark Norell, who curated the exhibition. “However, trade goods did. And more importantly, ideas associated with those trade goods did. Certainly, we can trace the spread of religion and spread of social trends to the goods…that moved along the Silk Road.” (Take a tour of the exhibition with Norell here).
Visitors can trace the diffusion of goods, culture, and ideas as they travel from east to west through four major commercial cities. Kids can pick up a “passport” to stamp along the way, and a combination of hands-on exhibits—from a massive interactive map to a musical station that lets listeners layer the sounds of traditional instruments—brings the sights, sounds, and stories of these distant civilizations to life.
In Xi’an, the birthplace of silk, travelers can immerse themselves in the folklore and production of this delicate fabric before passing through the aromatic nighttime market of Turfan, discovering the secrets of paper making in Samarkand, and telling time with the stars in ancient Baghdad.
It all makes for a thrilling journey that The Economist’s Alice Gregory calls “the kind of museum experience that is all too rare.”
Traveling the Silk Road runs through August 15, with live musical concerts every Sunday. Check out a recent performance below.
Tuesday, April 13 2:04 pm
This weekend, April 17 and 18, the American Museum of Natural History will present the special program “Bollywood and Anime in America,” part of the Museum’s Global Weekend series.
This program, presented in conjunction with the Museum exhibition Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World, examines how and why these two art forms have been quickly embraced by American pop culture. A contemporary look at the exchange of ideas, arts, and goods that was a hallmark of the ancient Silk Road, “Bollywood and Anime in America” focuses on the spread of India’s Bollywood films and Japanese anime throughout the world, in large part spurred by the internet and social media.
As part of the program, the BAX Dance Company, with artistic director Pooja Narang, will perform a fun and colorful mix of high-energy Bollywood dances and teach visitors some popular choreography. The company, which has worked with Slumdog Millionaire choreographer Longinus Fernandes and performed at the 2009 Latin Grammy Awards, stopped by the Museum earlier this month to demonstrate a few moves.
“Bollywood and Anime in America” takes place at the Museum on Saturday and Sunday, April 17 and 18, and is free with Museum admission.
Wednesday, March 24 2:25 pm
As goods and people traveled along the Silk Road, many passed through the oasis city of Dunhuang, China, home to incredible caves that contain a treasure trove of Buddhist art. Roderick Whitfield, professor of Chinese and East Asian art and head of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art at the University of London, will discuss some of these fascinating cave murals on March 31 at the Museum. He recently answered a few questions on the subject.
Why are the caves near Dunhuang so important today? What can we learn from them?
The seven hundred cave-shrines at Mogao near Dunhuang constitute the most extensive array of Buddhist wall paintings and sculptures at a single site, not only in China but anywhere in the world. The thousands of manuscripts discovered in the Library Cave provide invaluable information on Tang dynasty literature, economic and social history, medicine, music, and more that is not available from any other source. Along with well-preserved paintings on silk, most of them were taken by Western explorers in the early 20th century and are now in museums and libraries around the world.
Geographically, why was Dunhuang an important location along the Silk Road?
Dunhuang’s importance dates back to the second century BC when Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty greatly extended the empire. It was a garrison town at the far western end of the Great Wall, controlling trade and other contacts along the several routes leading to western and south Asia. Caravans travelling along these routes could stop and make provision for their onward journey.
Why were the caves decorated? How did this tradition begin?
The very earliest caves, from mid-fourth century AD, may have been cut as places for quiet meditation. Most of the remainder were intended to secure merits for a better afterlife for the donors and their families. After excavating the gravel conglomerate of the cliff to the required size, the walls and ceiling were coated with clay plaster and painted with countless images of the Buddha, and scenes illustrating the Buddhist scriptures. Sculptures of the Buddha, other enlightened beings, and disciples, were modeled in clay stucco on wooden armatures and painted with the same pigments as those used for the murals. Read more »
