VIE DELLA SETA TRA IRAN, ASIA CENTRALE E CINA OCCIDENTALE. UNA LETTURA ARCHEOLOGICA PER UNA CATEGORIA STORIOGRAFICA

The term Silk Road conventionally indicates a network of trade routes through regions of Eurasia, originally connecting Chinese and Roman Empires. Several differentiated sources inform us on trade, cultures and people: merchants but also explorers, priests, scientists, and artists. In the previous times merchants regularly covered shorter routes. The most notable one was the so-called Species Road, that was the preferred communication route between India and Europe; across its last stretch incense was carried from South Arabia to Mediterranean. In East, Western China and Afghanistan were strictly linked trading goods as jade and lapislazuli, and Afghan materials arrived to Mesopotamia through Khorasan. Other goods, as salt, amber and perfumes, equally followed specific routes. The Silk Road was formerly established in the first century BC during the Han dynasty of China; it is commonly accepted that new military needs of the Chinese rulers encouraged in increasing trade. It inaugurated a new era in the relations between East and West: silk was highly appreciated in Roman territories, and its great demand helped in increasing the commercial exchanges of the all products carried across the same roads. The wide diffusion of Sasanian-made goods is a relevant example of the contacts between civilizations and expression of new trends in military and chivalry customs. Silk soon became the main traded good, and the Western names of China were clearly referred to its production. Chinese were the first to obtain silk from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori. A cocoon of unclear interpretation was found in a Neolithic tomb, and silk is attested by palaeography under Shang dynasty, nevertheless the most ancient textile fragments were brought to light in Altaj and dated to the fifth century BC. During the Han dynasty high quality silk was greatly diffused; in addition to textiles, it made paper, strings of bows and instruments, fishing tackles, and laces. In Europe, an autochthonous silk production spread only around the beginning of Christian Era.