Changes

Regular caravan connections likely date back to around 100 BCE, during the [[Han Dynasty]], while [[camels]] first came into general use around 300 CE, allowing caravans to cross deserts, incorporating many new lands into the trading networks.<ref>Walter McNeill, "The Changing Shape of World History," in Ross Dunn (ed.), ''The New World History'', Bedford/St. Martin's (2000), 152-153.</ref>

Regular caravan connections likely date back to around 100 BCE, during the [[Han Dynasty]], while [[camels]] first came into general use around 300 CE, allowing caravans to cross deserts, incorporating many new lands into the trading networks.<ref>Walter McNeill, "The Changing Shape of World History," in Ross Dunn (ed.), ''The New World History'', Bedford/St. Martin's (2000), 152-153.</ref>

It was through these connections that much cultural exchange took place, as well as the spread of technologies and plants, as well as diseases. Technologies such as the stirrup, compound bow, cultivation of wheat, and domestication of horses may have developed originally in Central Asia, being introduced to China in a very early period along these routes. Similarly, Chinese developments, such as the production of paper, the compass, water-powered mills, and [[gunpowder]], spread gradually west over the course of the centuries. These exchanges and interactions also allowed for considerable cultural continuities, at least in certain cases. One prime example is the lute, a musical instrument which exists in various different, but related, forms, all across Eurasia. Perhaps originally developed in Persia or the Middle East, it moved both west and east, evolving into a variety of different versions, including the European lute, the Turkish ''ud'', the Chinese ''[[pipa]]'', and the Japanese ''[[biwa]]''.

It was through these connections that much cultural exchange took place, as well as the spread of technologies and plants, as well as diseases. Technologies such as the stirrup,<ref>Brought into wide use in China in the 4th century CE. Gallery labels, Royal Ontario Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/48532406296/in/photostream/]</ref> compound bow, cultivation of wheat, and domestication of horses may have developed originally in Central Asia, being introduced to China in a very early period along these routes. Similarly, Chinese developments, such as the production of paper, the compass, water-powered mills, and [[gunpowder]], spread gradually west over the course of the centuries. These exchanges and interactions also allowed for considerable cultural continuities, at least in certain cases. One prime example is the lute, a musical instrument which exists in various different, but related, forms, all across Eurasia. Perhaps originally developed in Persia or the Middle East, it moved both west and east, evolving into a variety of different versions, including the European lute, the Turkish ''ud'', the Chinese ''[[pipa]]'', and the Japanese ''[[biwa]]''.

Though the total network of trade reached all the way from Rome to China (and beyond China, to Korea and Japan), no individual merchants ever traveled any significant portion of the distance, let alone the entire way. Rather, traders from China, Central Asia, Persia, and the like, each traveled and traded within overlapping local regions, with the goods often making a far longer journey. A Chinese merchant operating in Dunhuang or Kashgar (in northwestern China), for example, might trade silk to a Central Asian merchant, who might take the silk to Tashkent or Samarkand along northern roads, or to Baghdad or Damascus along a southerly route, and trade it to a Persian or Arab merchant there, who might in turn sell it to someone who might take it to Rome. Chinese goods traded along these routes (chiefly to steppe peoples of Central Asia) included silks, lacquerwares, metalwork, jewels, musk, and rhubarb, while the Chinese in exchange imported jades, wool, horses and donkeys, medicines, and indigo.

Though the total network of trade reached all the way from Rome to China (and beyond China, to Korea and Japan), no individual merchants ever traveled any significant portion of the distance, let alone the entire way. Rather, traders from China, Central Asia, Persia, and the like, each traveled and traded within overlapping local regions, with the goods often making a far longer journey. A Chinese merchant operating in Dunhuang or Kashgar (in northwestern China), for example, might trade silk to a Central Asian merchant, who might take the silk to Tashkent or Samarkand along northern roads, or to Baghdad or Damascus along a southerly route, and trade it to a Persian or Arab merchant there, who might in turn sell it to someone who might take it to Rome. Chinese goods traded along these routes (chiefly to steppe peoples of Central Asia) included silks, lacquerwares, metalwork, jewels, musk, and rhubarb, while the Chinese in exchange imported jades, wool, horses and donkeys, medicines, and indigo.