Jewelry Art

The Silk Road
With silk, jade, furs and many other items being carried by merchants of many countries on the Silk Road from present day China to present day Turkey, the interaction of these different cultures created a cultural diffusion that can be seen in the resulting names, tools, jewelry, luxuries and house wares that these different societies adopted.

The Silk Road came into existence at around 300 B.C. This “road” consisted of vast and numerous trade routes that went from between modern day China and modern day Europe, on the way passing through such countries as India, Afghanistan, and Kazakhstan. The road also went through desert oasis’s surrounded by large mountains. On this immense trade route there were many different kinds of trade routes, such as silk routes, spice routes, and Eurasian step routes.

Silk was one of the most important items traded along the Silk Road. This expensive item is made from the silkworm when it spins a cocoon. The Chinese discovered this at around 2600 B.C.E. and kept this secret of producing silk a very well kept one. Once the Silk Road was open techniques of weaving the silken thread did not begin to spread because this material was similar to that used by cloth weavers. But by 300 A.D. silk cloth was being woven in central and western Asia using Chinese thread. The well kept Chinese secret was not kept for long because at the start of the fifth century people in the Khotan (an oasis) on the southern path of the silk rode around the Takla Makan Desert learned the secret of the production and making of silk itself. The story of how this happens goes like this. One of the Khotan kings married a Chinese princess who smuggled out silk worms and mulberry seeds (the silk worm only eats from mulberry trees) out of china in her headdress. (The silk route and spices, Reid, 32-33)

One of the earliest materials to be transported from the Khotan area located on the southern Silk Road was jade. Jade was valuable at the time and was crafted into many things such as ring shaped pendants, and coiled yellow jade dragons placed in graves. Since jade is still transported by road from Khotan to China one might not call this road the Silk Road but rather the Jade Road, if it wasn’t for the fact that silk was traded over a greater distance.

The Chinese and Sogdians were both very active traders on the silk road, trading many things between each other and other civilization. Some of the things the Chinese traded were silk, jade, furs, porcelain and other ceramics, Lauer, and iron. From a Sogdian letter we learn that the Sogdian merchants traded gold, musk, pepper, camphor, flasks, cloth and wheat.

Items weren’t the only things traded on the Silk Road. Knowledge, science, art, technology, language, and religion were traded amongst the people on the Silk Road.

Technology played a very important role in the thriving of the Silk Road. Iron smelting is one example

With all the trading going on, on the Silk Road there was also the mixing of different cultures. Europeans learned to make paper from the Sogdians. Chinese art (especially wall paintings) had a strong effect on Sogdian art. Sogdian sources say that during the fourth century A.D. indicate that there was a triangular trade pattern between India, Sogdiana, and China. By the seventh century many Sogdian merchants had settled in China and took on Chinese names. These merchants became respected members of Chinese society. Sogdians bought silk from the Chinese, as well as copied their copper coins.

Besides cultural diffusion there was also religious diffusion. There is evidence of Zoroastrian (a Sogdian religion) temples in Lanzhog China. Another major religion transmitted across the Silk Road by Sogdians is Malchelism. This is proved by Sogdian letters. The Buddhist religion came to China using the Silk Road at around 100 A.D. The Menikin religion was adopted by the Vighurs for hundreds of years.
it has to be 6 pages and right now its 3 any ideas on how to make it longer or how to make it look longer will be greatly apreciated

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