Envoy Zhang Qian travelled into Asia’s heartland in the Han Dynasty. This event was conventionally believed to be the beginning of the historical Silk Road. In a recent work published in Scientific Reports, researchers offered a different view about the beginning of Silk Road. A team led by research fellow LV Qinqin from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, categorized natron glass in the Mediterranean into four types, and unveiled the existence of “Proto-Silk Road” between China and the West, long before Zhang Qian’s travel. The study was published in Scientific Reports.
Natron glass, a type of soda-lime glass using natron as the fluxing agent, is widespread in use for nearly two thousand years in Europe and Mediterranean. However, two problems remained: the trace and dissemination path of natron glass before the opening of the historical Silk Road, and the manufacturing technique of early natron glass.
In order to solve these problems, researchers collected the compositional data of natron glass from 8-2 C.BCE globally, selected characteristic elements in distinguishing different natron glass samples by principal component analysis (PCA), and categorized natron glass in this period into Four types.
Comparing the dragonfly eye glass beads unearthed in China with the glass beads reported from western countries, researchers believed that many Type II glass beads had been in China during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, only one century’s time span from the emergence of Type II glass beads in Mediterranean. Based on the research mentioned above and other archaeological evidence, LV thought there possibly exited “proto-Silk Road”, an extensive network of trade or exchange of natron glass beads and other commodities.
Researchers then proposed a three-stage model for the dispersed natron glass including production, distribution and dispersion. The model was in agreement with sites along proto-Silk Road where natron glass had been unearthed. Researchers pointed out that natron glass beads produced in Mediterranean could be brought to East Asia in a relatively short time span mainly because they had been regarded as the symbol of social prestige during the distribution stage. It is high demand of prestige goods that connected members in upper class in different regions and facilitated the formation of trade network.
This work demonstrated an early interactive trade network between the East and the West. Such network may set a basis for the upcoming era which featured intensified communication and trade.
(Written by WANG Jinhua, edited by TONG Xinyang, USTC News Center)
