More than six centuries after his 24-year treasure hunt in Asia, Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant by trade, remains one of history’s most popular adventurers. They also had rich musical traditions, and many scholars credit them with crafting the first bowed instrument, a “horse head fiddle,” an ancient relative of the modern-day violin. They encountered many traders along the Silk Road as they moved their livestock from steppe to grassy steppe, buying precious textiles from Iran and lining their fur garments with silk from China. On the contrary, many of these tribes, among them the Samartians and the Mongols, enjoyed the finer things in life. Societies like the Chinese and Europeans referred to these nomadic steppedwellers as barbarians, portraying them as bloodthirsty and primitive. Still, a scattering of nomadic peoples have etched lives into the flat tundra grasslands that surround the base of the Pamirs. A rugged branch of the Silk Road, the Pamirs host notoriously long, cold winters. They meet the Himalayas in Central Asia, and have served as both a geographic and cultural center where East meets West and North meets South.
In this way, the ancient route helped lay the foundation for the internationally connected world we know today.Ĭalled the “Roof the World” by early Persians, the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia are home to some of the world’s highest peaks. They show how goods, technology and culture traveled hundreds of miles to be used, adopted, and altered by other societies for their own purposes. Points along the road highlighted here are but a sample of those students engage with in the class. Students study the lives of explorers and rulers who traversed the unforgiving land of the ancient trade route, from Alexander the Great in the 3rd century BCE to Marco Polo in the 14th century. Italians learned Persian for better bartering, Mongols crowded to hear the bright melodies of Chinese flutes, and travelers who braved the harsh cold of the Pamir Mountains met with awe the nomads who called the unforgiving peaks their home.įor professor Roxann Prazniak and her 200-level history class “Crossing the Pamir Mountains,” the Silk Road is a class syllabus. More than just a highway for world economies, the Silk Road served as a vascular system for culture. Even its historical fame as an elaborate trade system, exchanging rare goods like cloth and spices between the East and West, does not give it justice. No, the Silk Road was not a path made of worm-woven textiles.
Exploring the Rich Cultures from One of History's Largest Trade Networks By Derek Maiolo
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