Trade routes

Silk. Silk, the only natural fiber that comes in filament form, has been and still is one of the most appreciated and valued textile fibers. Silk filaments are secreted by the larvae of several types of silk moths to make their cocoons. Most silk is derived, however, from the larvae of the Bombyx mori moth, which has been widely cultivated in China for over 5000 years. Fragments of silk fabric dated to the late fourth millennium b.c.e. were found at Qianshanyang, in the province of Zhejiang, in China. There are, however, even earlier indications of the use of silk silk remains were found together with an eleventh-century b.c.e. mummy in Egypt, probably also providing evidence of ancient trading routes between the Far and Middle East. 

Giuliani, G., M. Chaussidon, H. J. Schubnel, D. H. Piat, C. Rollion-Bard, C. France-Lanord, D. Giard, D. de Narvaez, and B. Rondeau (2000), Oxygen isotopes and emerald trade routes since antiquity, Science 287, 631-633. 

Boeda et al. (1996) identified bitumen on a flint scraper and a Levallois flake, discovered in Mousterian levels (about 40 000 BP) at the site of Umm el Tlel in Syria. The occurrence of polyaromatic hydrocarbons such as fluoranthene, pyrene, phenanthrenes and chrysenes suggested that the raw bitumen had been subjected to high temperature. The distribution of the sterane and terpane biomarkers in the bitumen did not correspond to the well-known bitumen occurrences in these areas. In other studies of bitumen associated with a wide variety of artefacts of later date, especially from the 6th Millennium BC onwards, molecular and isotopic methods have proved successful in recognizing different sources of bitumen enabling trade routes to be determined through time (Connan et al., 1992 Connan and Deschesne, 1996 Connan, 1999 Harrell and Lewan, 2002). 

Beck, C.W., Stewart, D.R. and Stout, E.C. (1994). Analysis of naval stores from the Late Roman ship. In Deep Water Archaeology a Late Roman Ship from Carthage and an Ancient Trade Route near Skerki Bank off Northwest Sicily, ed. McCann, A.M. and Freed, J., Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series No. 13, Michigan, Ann Arbor, pp. 109-121. 

Generic Trade Route (s) Duration of Action Daily Dose (mg/day) Common Use(s)... 

The Crusaders, the spice trade and the rise of the Ottoman Empire In 1095, the first Christian crusade against Islam was larmched. There were many motives for participation in the crusades, not all religious. Although Pope Urban preached the radical doctrine of fighting a holy war, some were motivated more by mammon. As the first Crusaders gathered in Byzantium to larmch their assault south, some Venetian merchants were well aware of the fact that their traditional spice trade routes were already under threat from Islamic military and commercial competition, so aiding an army that... 

The British sphere in Malaya, and the French in the Mekong basin, were the outcome of purely economic objectives along real or imagined trade routes to China. The British sought trading bases in the Malacca Straits area for the collection of tropical trade goods for China the French... 

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