N.B. You can skip my comments and go straight to the Gallery of images at the end of this review…
‘Silk Roads’ is an epic exhibition with over 300 precious and ancient objects and artefacts on display, in a myriad formats from huge Sogdalian wall friezes to tiny Anglo-Saxon coins, from a not-quite-life sized ceramic camel to fragments of Sassanid glass.
Chinese ceramics in ‘Silk Roads’ at the British Museum (photo by the author)
It contains not just a bewildering number of objects but addresses a huge time period (nominally 500 to 1000 AD, but with spillover at both ends), covers a vast geographical territory (from Korea in the East to Ireland in the West) and, above all, deals with an enormous subject.
As I heard the Director of the National Gallery say at the opening of their awesome Van Gogh exhibition, ‘Every exhibition needs a thesis’ and ‘Silk Roads’ is no exception. First I’ll explain 1) what the curators think they’re doing in this show, then 2) why I think the exhibition as it actually exists goes well beyond their intentions and, indeed, potentially blows the whole subject sky high.
1. The curators’ intentions
Many historical and art exhibitions are based on a simple premise which goes something like this: most people have a received view about X (when X stands for any historical or cultural subject you can think of, the Tudors, the Blitz, the Spanish Inquisition, what you will) but now this exhibition brings together the very latest scholarship about X to reveal that X (the Tudors, the Blitz, whatever) was far more complicated and has far more contemporary echoes than most people think!
‘Silk Roads’ starts with exactly this sort of premise. Most people’s image of the Silk Road is camels traipsing across the desert laden with treasure from the mysterious East. but now this blockbusting exhibition can reveal that the silk road was far, far more complex, more complicated, far-flung and multi-layered, and has far more contemporary resonance, than you ever imagined!
Premise 1: silk roads
To start with a small thing, the curators very deliberately place a plural in the title to make it Silk Roads, indicating that there was always more than one silk road. I read Peter Hopkirk’s trilogy of books about the silk road back in the 1980s and remember that the trading route from China split in two when it got to the great Taklamakan desert, one route going north round it, the other going south round it and then further splitting, one branch heading south into India, others carrying on to Persia, the Middle East and beyond. I thought the multiplicity of roads was well known (for people interesting in the subject).
Here’s a load of maps of the silk roads, from which you can see that the basic fact that it consisted of numerous routes is axiomatic, universal, basic knowledge, hardly a big revelation.
Premise 2: the connected medieval world
The second point the curators want to make is about how interconnected the world of 500 to 1000 AD was, with trade routes being much more complex and far-flung than anyone previously realised, linking up all manner of cultures, countries and peoples who, in the stereotypical old worldview were conceived of as being remote and separate.
They make this point right at the start of the show with one little object which is the sole exhibit in the atrium or introductory space and designed to embody their point. It’s a statue of the Buddha probably made in the Swat Valley, an early Buddhist centre in what is now Pakistan, sometime around 500 AD. But it was discovered some 5,000 kilometres away, on the tiny Swedish island of Helgö.
Buddha from the Swat Valley, Pakistan; found in Helgö, Uppland, Sweden (made late AD 500s to mid-600s) (photo by the author)
Thus this one object symbolises the breath-taking extent of trading networks across early medieval Europe and Asia in what the curators call ‘a deeply connected world’.
However, as with premise 1, this ‘revelation’ actually comes as no great news to anyone who regularly visits history museums or has any kind of interest in medieval history. Quite the contrary, this is a message the BM has been banging home since at least the turn of the century. Its blockbuster exhibitions about the Vikings (2014), Celts (2015), Scythians (2017), Stonehenge (2022) and Roman legions (2024), all of these exhibitions contained sections and panels explaining that the traffic of goods and commodities, metals and coinage, jewellery and spices, has been astonishingly widespread along chains of communication which were mind-bogglingly long, throughout most of the history (the Stonehenge one was the most revelatory in tis respect).
In fact the very farflung nature of trading routes is one of the chief findings of modern archaeology and of evermore sophisticated forensic techniques which allow us to locate with pinpoint precision the origins of specific fabrics, metals and other to mines and factories, craftshops and workings, sometimes thousands of miles distant from where the final object was found. So far from being new, this idea is a cliché or at least a basic axiom of contemporary archaeology.
So I would argue that neither of the curators’ premises of the exhibition (that there were many silk roads and that trade networks were astonishingly far-flung) is particularly new or newsworthy.
Still from the introductory video to ‘Silk Roads’ at the British Museum telling us that it was, er, ‘a deeply connected world’ with big red rings indicating the five main areas of interest and how they overlap to cover all of Eurasia (photo by the author)
On the other hand what does feel new about the exhibition is 1) that the curators have vastly expanded the definition of ‘the silk roads’, extending it so much that I wonder whether it ends up destroying the whole concept altogether.
And what is spectacularly notable about this exhibition is the sheer number of fascinating, beautiful, exquisite and entrancing artefacts the curators have assembled in one place, to convey information about a mind-blowing range of cultures, histories, religions, goods and commodities which this new, expanded concept of ‘silk roads’ allows them to explain and showcase. This is a staggering, dazzling exhibition.
2. The actual exhibition
Surprise 1: the geographic expansion of the concept
So on this point of really expanding the whole concept of the silk road, the first surprise occurs when you walk round the corner from the space devoted to the little Buddha and are confronted not with something about China, silk or the desert but with lengthy wall labels about Korea and Japan. To be precise, informing us about:
- Japan of the Nara period (710 to 784) whose capital was Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara)
- Korea under the Silla dynasty (676 to 935) with its capital Geumseong (present-day Gyeongju)
- China of the Tang dynasty (618 to 907) whose capital was Chang’an
Korea and especially Japan are drastically beyond the boundaries of any previous definition of the silk roads I’ve ever read. They are as far to the East of Asia as you can get.
For this is how the exhibition is laid out, though it took me a while to realise it: the curators intend that we start in Japan (to the far East of Asia) and then shuffled past a host of displays and panels taking us slowly westwards, through Korea, into heartland China, on to the trading centre of Dunhuang (location of the famous ‘library cave’), on through Tibet and into the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan and the like, on to the cities of Samarkand etc. Then into the Middle East – Baghdad, Damascus – onto Constantinople the gateway into Europe, through the Balkans, Italy, France of the time of Charlemagne, and finally on into Anglo-Saxon Britain to see coins from the kingdom of Mercia and treasures from Sutton Hoo in East Anglia, before we end up with some choice artefacts from Scotland and Ireland at the furthest remote periphery of Europe in the West.
Each major ‘stop’ on this journey across Asia and Europe is indicated by a big white sign hanging from the ceiling. Here’s a photo of the start of the exhibition, with areas devoted to the Chinese cities Chang’An and Dunhuang…
Installation view of Silk Roads at the British Museum showing ceiling signs (photo by the author)
And here we are half way through the exhibition, with Constantinople and Ravenna in the foreground, and the final displays about Sutton Hoo and Rhynie in Scotland in the background.
Installation view of Silk Roads at the British Museum showing more ceiling signs (photo by the author)
Thus the visitor starts out by reading about the early medieval kingdoms of Korea, Japan and China and then passes slowly through a series of kingdoms and capitals, right across this huge geographic space.
It was as I grasped the curators’ intention, to describe the classic products of every culture, religion and the trade routes between every major city from coastal Japan to the Highlands of Scotland, that it dawned on me that you could quite happily abandon the notion of ‘silk roads’ altogether and more accurately take this huge exhibition as a kind of encyclopedia of early medieval cultures, kingdoms and religions, which just happens to have an emphasis towards trade goods. In my mind it metamorphosed into an exhibition which ought to have been called ‘The Silk Roads and Beyond‘.
Surprise 2: the inclusion of sea routes
Another point – Japan is not connected to any other country by roads. Japan consists of islands. Japan’s trade takes place by sea. And so, in a drastic departure from normal thinking about the silk roads, the curators have included the oceanic trade routes of the period (500 to 1000 AD), with maps and descriptions and object from sea of routes from Japan or China or Korea, around South-East Asia, around India, the Bay of Bengal, up the Red Sea into Arabia. From other directions we are told about the sea routes around the Mediterranean and on, as mentioned to the remote islands of Britain.
A prime example is the display case about the wreck of a medieval trading vessel which was discovered in 1998 on the seabed near Belitung Island, Indonesia which had lain untouched on the seabed for over a thousand years. It is thought to have been heading from southern China to the Arabian peninsula or the Persian Gulf and was laden with a huge cargo of over 60,000 items, the vast majority Chinese ceramics.
The curators make the point that:
This shipwreck reveals the scale and importance of transoceanic connections between AD 500 to 1000. It also illustrates how maritime, as opposed to overland, routes enabled the movement of large volumes of goods.
But surely the inclusion of sea routes reinforces the impression from the points I’ve made above, that the exhibition is so wide-ranging, sets its boundaries so far beyond the traditional definitions of what the silk road was, that maybe it’s not about the silk roads at all any more. Maybe the exhibition should more accurately have been titled ‘Trade routes of the early medieval world’.
Surprise 3: the emphasis on the spread of religions
Third point supporting this argument is…I thought an exhibition called ‘Silk Roads’ might go heavy on silk and silk trading. Now it’s true that there’s a smallish section in the middle which has a film of a contemporary weaver weaving with silk, there’s one panel about silk worms and the mulberry tree and half a dozen ancient artefacts made of silk (small rugs, shirts).
But it’s much, much, much more about something closer to sociology, in particular its focus on the movement – of goods, yes, sure – but much more the movement of peoples and, above all, of religions.
There is much, much more about the origins and spread of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam than there is about silk. We are told how Buddhism spread out of north India into Tibet, China (where it encountered native Daoism) and east to Korea and Japan (where it encountered native beliefs in Shinto). There are also sections on Manicheism and Zoroastrianism, both of which came out of Persia.
We are told how Christianity spread along trade routes from Palestine down into Arabia and east through Afghanistan and into India. And then, of course, the advent of Islam which came racing out of Arabia, conquered Egypt and north Africa as far as Spain in one direction, and swept into modern Iraq and on into Persia, before settling down to conduct a long struggle with the Byzantine empire.
All of these religions are given extensive wall labels describing their key tenets, as well as maps showing how they spread along, yes, the major trading routes the exhibition is describing.
So this, if you like, is the third way the curators expand the concept of the silk road: 1) the geographical extension to extend from Japan to Galway, 2) the inclusion of all the known sea routes of the time, 3) the focus less on goods and trade, than the spread of peoples and, in particular, religions.
To some extent anyone with an interest in Dark Age history should know this stuff, especially about the rise of Islam. What feels new is the specific focus on the trade routes which religious beliefs spread along, precisely mapping out how Buddhism came to central China or Christianity penetrated into western India or Islam extended to central France.
And what is wonderful about this exhibition is the way all these ideas are given material embodiment in a huge range of fascinating and sometimes very beautiful, often priceless historical artefacts.
Gallery
All the text in this section consists of direct quotations of the curators’ artefact labels.
Chinese camel
Glazed ceramic figurines made for burials in Tang dynasty China (618 to 907) include lively representations of camels bearing goods that were imported and exported from the realm. This example from Luoyang depicts a dual-humped Bactrian camel laden with coiled silk, folded fabric, a West or Central Asian ewer and possibly a piece of rib meat, next to bags covered with monster masks.
Ceramic figure of a camel © The Trustees of the British Museum
Byzantine ivory
Ivories are strongly associated with Byzantium, but their production depended on long-distance trade routes. After the extinction of the North African elephant (AD 200s), suppliers turned to India and Aksum in northeast Africa to maintain the high demand for tusks. Elephant ivory was used for everyday, mass-produced items like this imitation wax writing tablet that was reused multiple times over centuries, finally for church services. It was also carved into astonishing works of art, such as these exquisitely carved panels depicting events before and after Christ’s resurrection.
Ivory carvings from Constantinople in ‘Silk Roads at the British Museum (photo by the author)
A Muslim map
This map was originally drawn by al-Idrisi (active 1154) for the Christian king of Sicily, Roger II (ruled
1130 to 1154). It follows a tradition in Islamic mapmaking that orientates the world southwards and places the centre of the world in Mecca, the focus of Muslim pilgrimage. It shows Arabia as part of the wider world of Afro-Eurasia, illustrating its connection to the Mediterranean coastline extending to the Iberian Peninsula and eastward across the Indian Ocean, reaching China.
Map of the world from al-Idrisi’s Nuzhat almushtaq fi ikh0raq al-afaq (Pleasure of He who Longs to Cross the Horizons), 1533 manuscript of a 1154 original © The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Samarkand chess pieces
This set of seven ivory chess pieces is the oldest set known to this day. It was excavated at the archaeological site of Afrasiab in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Coin finds from the same excavated layer help date it to AD 700s. Probably originating in India around AD 500, the game of chess spread to the Sasanian empire, then across the Islamic world and to Europe.
Ivory chess pieces © ACDF of Uzbekistan, Samarkand State Museum Reserve. Photo By Andrey Arakelyan
Sogdian wall painting 1
This wall painting comes from a reception hall belonging to a Sogdian aristocrat in Afrasiab (Samarkand). Sogdians from Central Asia were once great traders of the Silk Roads. The reception hall includes depictions of figures from neighbouring and distant lands as far as the Korean Peninsula. This section of the wall painting shows a ceremonial procession on its way to pay tribute to the ancestors of the ruler of Samarkand. It highlights the prosperity and cosmopolitanism of the Sogdians in their homeland.
Wall painting from the south wall of the ‘Hall of the Ambassadors’ (Panoramic) © ACDF of Uzbekistan, Samarkand State Museum Reserve. Photo by Andrey Arakelyan
Sogdian wall painting 2
Detail showing the two camel riders in the procession.
Wall painting from the south wall of the ‘Hall of the Ambassadors’ (close up) © ACDF of Uzbekistan, Samarkand State Museum Reserve. Photo by Andrey Arakelyan
Frankish casket
This beautiful casket made from whalebone in the northeast of England was carved with intricate scenes from the Bible i.e. stories from Palestine 4,000 miles away and centuries earlier, as well as scenes from northern-European mythology and Jewish and Roman history. It is captioned in Latin and runic Old English, all evoking the designer’s worldly knowledge. The inscription on the front panel commemorates the whale from whose bones it was carved. For the curators it ‘really encapsulates the transcontinental breadth of connectivity between AD 500 and 1000’.
‘The Franks Casket’ © The Trustees of the British Museum
Anglo-Saxon clasp
The famous ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk contained the finest known examples of garnet cloisonné metalwork. Scientific analysis undertaken for this exhibition has traced the gems on this shoulder clasp to distant sources. In the curved part of the clasp, the bodies of two boars are formed by purple-red Indian garnets. Their bristly backs are tiny orange-red Bohemian (Czech) and Sri Lankan gems.
Gold Shoulder Clasp © The Trustees of the British Museum
Lombard drinking horn
The Lombards, who had migrated to Italy from Pannonia (Central Europe) in AD 568, assumed and adapted many aspects of Byzantine life, from political infrastructure to fashions and tableware. This elegant drinking-horn, found at Sutri in Italy, is a characteristically northern European form but crafted in cobalt-blue Mediterranean glass.
Glass drinking horn, Italy, AD 550 to 600 © The Trustees of the British Museum
Lothar
Charlemagne’s dynasty adapted Roman and Byzantine symbolism to craft an imperial identity for Francia. This splendid manuscript, written in Roman-style gold script, portrays his grandson and successor, Lothar I (ruled AD 817 to 855), in the garb of a Roman emperor against an imperial purple backdrop. His gem-encrusted cloak combines imported sapphires, emeralds and pearls, popular in late Roman and Byzantine culture, with traditionally Frankish red garnets. The finger ring is decorated with Carolingian-style beasts that clasp a Roman engraved gem between their paws.
The ‘Lothar Psalter’ from Aachen, Germany (AD 840 to 855) British Library (photo by the author)
Related links
- Silk Roads continues at the British Museum until 23 February 2025
- Large print guide
- Beyond sand and spices: introduction to ‘Silk Roads’
- UNESCO interactive map of the silk roads
Books & Boots 