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105-588: The network followed the footsteps of older Austronesian jade maritime networks in Southeast Asia, as well as the maritime spice networks between Southeast Asia and South Asia , and the West Asian maritime networks in the Arabian Sea and beyond, coinciding with these ancient maritime trade roads by the current era. The term "Maritime Silk Road" is a modern name, acquired from its similarity to

210-477: A break from this since he demonstrated an openness to their accounts and would not have been able to chart the Bay of Bengal so accurately had it not been for the input of traders. It is perhaps no surprise then that Marinus and Ptolemy relied on the testimony of a Greek sailor named Alexander for how to reach " Cattigara " (most likely Oc Eo , Vietnam , where Antonine -period Roman artefacts have been discovered) in

315-746: A bronze lamp, and Antonine -period medallions in Vietnam, especially at Oc Eo (belonging to the Funan Kingdom ). The 1st-century Periplus notes how a country called This , with a great city called Thinae (comparable to Sinae in Ptolemy's Geography ), produced silk and exported it to Bactria before it traveled overland to Barygaza in India and down the Ganges River . While Marinus of Tyre and Ptolemy provided vague accounts of

420-562: A call for the nomination of the Maritime Silk Road to UNESCO while undermining the independent existence of the Maritime Jade Road and its connection to Taiwan. In 2020, Taiwanese citizens, including scientists and other scholars, were banned from UNESCO activities amidst Chinese (PRC) pressure over UNESCO. The ban was widely criticized. Indo-Roman trade relations Indo-Roman trade relations (see also

525-470: A centre of early Chola trade (now part of Ariyankuppam ), about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the modern Pondicherry . Huntingford further notes that Roman pottery was found at Arikamedu in 1937, and archeological excavations between 1944 and 1949 showed that it was "a trading station to which goods of Roman manufacture were imported during the first half of the 1st century AD". The Rome-subcontinental trade also saw several cultural exchanges which had

630-733: A combination of distinctive features and shipbuilding techniques used (such as lashed-lug and sewn boat traditions). These include the Pontian boat ( c.  260–430 CE ), the Punjulharjo boat ( c.  660-780 CE ), the Butuan ship burials (multiple boats ranging from c.  689 to 988 CE ), the Chau Tan shipwreck ( c.  late 8th to early 9th century CE ), the Intan wreck ( c.  early to mid-10th century CE ),

735-494: A flat-bottomed design (the keel was absent), a central rudder (instead of two side-mounted quarter rudders), and the division of the hull into water-tight compartments. By around the end of the Maritime Silk Road in the 14th and 15th century, ships that combined features of both Chinese and Austronesian boatbuilding traditions also start to appear, even reaching as far as India. Indian ships are similarly absent in

840-697: A lasting effect on both the civilizations and others involved in the trade. The Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum was involved in the Indian Ocean trade network and was influenced by Roman culture and Indian architecture. Traces of Indian influences are visible in Roman works of silver and ivory, or in Egyptian cotton and silk fabrics used for sale in Europe . The Indian presence in Alexandria may have influenced

945-459: A meeting in London to discuss the proposal to nominate "Maritime Silk Route" as a new UNESCO World Heritage Site . The academic research on the ancient Maritime Silk Road has been appropriated and mythologized by modern countries for political reasons. China , in particular, uses a mythologized image of the Maritime Silk Road for its Belt and Road Initiative , first proposed by Xi Jinping during

1050-605: A number of archaeological excavations in the Philippines since the 1930s. The artifacts have been both tools like chisels and ornaments such as lingling-o earrings, bracelets, and beads. The green nephrite has been traced to a deposit near modern Hualien City in eastern Taiwan . The source of the white nephrite is unknown. The jade was worked in the Philippines , especially in Batanes , Luzon , and Palawan . Some

1155-550: A probable identification with Quseir el-Quadim at the end of a fortified road from Koptos on the Nile . The Quseir el-Quadim site has further been associated with Myos Hormos following the excavations at el-Zerqa , halfway along the route, which have revealed ostraca leading to the conclusion that the port at the end of this road may have been Myos Hormos. In Berenike in March 2022 an American-Polish archaeological mission excavating

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1260-572: A slump in trade along the Maritime Silk Road in the 14th century. In the late 14th century, the city-state of Palembang (the former capital of Srivijaya, which has since Islamized ) sent an envoy to the Hongwu Emperor , the first emperor of the Ming dynasty (which overthrew the Yuan), to reestablish trade routes. The ruler of Palembang was hoping to regain the city's former wealth, independent of

1365-411: A visit to Indonesia in 2015. It attempts to reconnect the old trade routes between the port cities of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, and assumes erroneously that Chinese sailors played a major role in developing the route. India has also mythologized the Maritime Silk Road with Project Mausam , launched in 2014, which similarly attempts to reconnect old trade links with surrounding countries in

1470-600: Is a profit when exchanged for the money of the country; and ointment, but not very costly and not much. And for the King there are brought into those places very costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. There are exported from these places spikenard , costus , bdellium , ivory , agate and carnelian , lycium , cotton cloth of all kinds, silk cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other things as are brought here from

1575-547: Is a village in plain sight by the sea. Muziris, of the same Kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia, and by the Greeks; it is located on a river, distant from Tyndis by river and sea five hundred stadia, and up the river from the shore twenty stadia" The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a marketplace named Poduke (ch. 60), which G.W.B. Huntingford identified as possibly being Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu ,

1680-502: Is older than the Maritime Silk Road by more than two thousand years. The article also did not refer to the importance of Taiwan on the Maritime Jade Road. The article was on a platform operated and maintained by China (PRC), which has a political and geographical dispute with Taiwan (ROC). Taiwan has repeatedly been blocked by the Chinese government from entering or participating in the activities of UNESCO. In 2017, China initiated

1785-563: Is similar to Phoenician and later Greco-Roman shipbuilding techniques, the ship is also Austronesian, with timber sourced locally from Southeast Asian trees and evidence of lashed-lug techniques on the inner surface. Some authors have pointed to this as evidence that the Phoenician mortise and tenon shipbuilding techniques originally developed outside of the Mediterranean. Only two shipwrecks recovered from Southeast Asia prior to

1890-670: Is uneven, reflecting differences in local demand, buying power, and trade specialization. The largest concentrations of Chinese ceramics are found along the Strait of Melaka and Java , with other significant concentrations in Sulawesi , Borneo , the Riau Archipelago , and the Philippines . Although usually spoken of in modern times in the context of the Eurocentric and Sinocentric demand for luxury goods and exotica by

1995-686: The Magnus Sinus (i.e. Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea ) located east of the Golden Chersonese (i.e. Malay Peninsula ). In the 1st-century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea , its anonymous Greek-speaking author, a merchant of Roman Egypt , provides such vivid accounts of trade cities in Arabia and India, including travel times from rivers and towns , where to drop anchor , the locations of royal courts, lifestyles of

2100-695: The East China Sea and the Yellow Sea to connect China with the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago . The Maritime Silk Road differed significantly in several aspects from the overland Silk Road , from where it acquired its name, and thus should not be viewed as a mere extension of it. Traders traveling through the Maritime Silk Road could span the entire distance of the maritime routes, instead of through regional relays as with

2205-721: The Gulf of Aden (into the Red Sea ). Secondary routes also pass through the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal , the Arabian Sea, and southwards along the coast of East Africa to Zanzibar , the Comoros , Madagascar , and the Seychelles . The Maldives was of particular importance as a major hub for Austronesian sailors venturing through the western routes. The route was influential in the early spread of Hinduism and Buddhism to

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2310-542: The Gulf of Thailand and Southeast Asia , the Alexandrian Greek monk and former merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes , in his Christian Topography (c. 550), spoke clearly about China, how to sail there, and how it was involved in the clove trade stretching to Ceylon . Comparing the small amount of Roman coins found in China as opposed to India, Warwick Ball asserts that most of the Chinese silk purchased by

2415-509: The Indian Ocean were Austronesian sewn-plank and lashed-lug vessels and Arab dhows prior to the 10th century CE. Austronesian vessels dominated the long-distance maritime trade for much of the history of the Maritime Silk Road. Chinese ceramics are also valuable archaeological markers of the Maritime Silk Road due to their relative indestructibility and the fact that they can be precisely dated. They first entered Southeast Asia via

2520-757: The Karawang shipwreck ( c.  10th century CE ), and the Cirebon wreck ( c.  late 10th century CE ), among others. Almost all of the ships recovered from Southeast Asia before the 10th century belong to the Austronesian shipbuilding traditions , displaying variations and combinations of sewn-plank and lashed-lug techniques. Another early partial shipwreck, the Pak Klong Kluay shipwreck ( c.  2nd century CE ), uniquely joined planks using pegged mortise and tenon joints. Though this

2625-644: The Khao Sam Kaeo ( c.  400-100 BCE ) and Ban Don Ta Phet ( c.  24 BCE to 276 CE ) archaeological sites in Thailand , along with trade goods from the Austronesian Sa Huynh-Kalanay Interaction Sphere. Both sites are coastal settlements and part of the jade trade network, indicating that the maritime routes of Austronesians had already reached South Asia by this period. South Asian crops like

2730-816: The Malabar Coast of India , Persia , Mesopotamia , Arabia , Egypt , the Horn of Africa , and the Greco-Roman civilizations in the Mediterranean . These trade routes (initially only near-coastal, short-range, and small-scale) has existed since the Neolithic , from at least the Ubaid period ( c.  5000 BCE ) of Mesopotamia . They became regular trade routes between urban centers in West Asia by

2835-505: The Maritime Silk Road . It began to wane during its final centuries, from 500 AD until 1000 AD. Jade was discovered by the animist Taiwanese indigenous peoples in Taiwan and mined soon after, in 2000 BCE. During this time, migrations by Austronesians from Taiwan began southward towards the Philippines, which also resulted in some animist indigenous peoples from the Philippines returning to Taiwan. Indigenous Filipinos soon began processing

2940-407: The Maritime Silk Road . Throughout its history, the Maritime Jade Road was fully independent from the Maritime Silk Road. In its productive history of 3,000 years (peaking between 2000 BCE and 500 CE), the animist-led Maritime Jade Road became known as one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world. It is also one of the major achievements of

3045-515: The Middle East . By the 10th to 13th centuries, there was an economic boom in maritime trade, led primarily by the fact that the Song dynasty of China started building its own trading ships ( chuán ) capable of sailing sea routes. The Song court also loosened restrictions on private trade, despite the traditional Chinese Confucian disdain for trade. This was partly due to the loss of access by

3150-555: The Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Kingdom of Aksum ( Ethiopia ), and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to the subcontinent, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies , only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise. By the time of Augustus up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India. So much gold

3255-641: The Pharaonic traders of ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic dynasty before falling into Roman control. The site of Berenice, since its discovery by Belzoni (1818), has been equated with the ruins near Ras Banas in Southern Egypt. However, the precise location of Myos Hormos is disputed with the latitude and longitude given in Ptolemy 's Geography favoring Abu Sha'ar and the accounts given in classical literature and satellite images indicating

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3360-460: The Roman and Chinese empires (hence the fixation on silk in its name), the goods carried by the trading ships varied by which product was in demand by region and port. They included ceramics, glass, beads, gems, ivory, fragrant wood, metals (both raw and finished goods), textiles (including silk), food (including grain, wine, and spices), aromatics, and animals, among others. Ivory , in particular,

3465-738: The Sa Huynh - Kalanay Interaction Sphere). The wide distribution throughout Island Southeast Asia of the ceremonial bronze drums ( c.  600 BCE to 400 CE ) sourced from the Dong Son culture of northern Vietnam is also evidence of the antiquity and density of this prehistoric Southeast Asian maritime network. During the operation of the Maritime Jade Road, the Austronesian spice trade networks were also established by Islander Southeast Asians with Sri Lanka and Southern India by around 1500 to 600 BCE. These early contacts resulted in

3570-874: The Spice Islands of Moluccas ) for the markets in Latin America and Europe. All of which were traded over the Pacific to Acapulco in Mexico and throughout the Spanish Americas; and also later traded via the Flota de Indias ( Spanish treasure fleet ) from Veracruz in Mexico to Seville in Spain and onward throughout Europe. The Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade route was the first permanent trade route across

3675-633: The Sulu Sea and the Java Sea . This led to the establishment of new trading ports in Southeast Asia (like in Java and Sumatra ) that specifically catered to the Chinese demand for goods like "dragon's brain perfume" ( camphor ) and other exotica. Quanzhou also became a major Chinese trading port during this period, joining the older trading port of Guangzhou . Both became tightly linked to their Southeast Asian counterparts, leading historians to characterize

3780-539: The Sulu Sea , reconnecting with the main route through the northern Philippines and Taiwan. The secondary routes also continue onward to the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea for a limited extent. Glass artifacts from India and Egypt that passed through glassworkers in Southeast Asian and South Asian ports have been recovered from graves in the Korean peninsula ( c.  2nd-6th centuries CE ), showing

3885-509: The Villa Romana del Tellaro there is a mosaic with a tiger in the jungle attacking a man with Roman clothes, probably a careless hunter. The animals were transported in cages by ship. The three main Roman ports involved with eastern trade were Arsinoe , Berenice and Myos Hormos. Arsinoe was one of the early trading centers but was soon overshadowed by the more easily accessible Myos Hormos and Berenice. The Ptolemaic dynasty exploited

3990-572: The ancient Tamil country , present day Southern India and Sri Lanka , securing trade with the seafaring Tamil states of the Pandyan , Chola and Chera dynasties and establishing trading settlements which secured trade with the Indian subcontinent by the Greco-Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty a few decades before the start of the Common Era and remained long after

4095-482: The mung bean and horsegram were also present in Khao Sam Kaeo, indicating the exchange was reciprocal. There is also indirect evidence of very early Austronesian contacts with Africa , based on the presence and spread of Austronesian domesticates like bananas, taro , chickens , and purple yam in Africa in the first millennium BCE. The western circuit of the Maritime Silk Road also developed from earlier maritime trade routes in West Asia. These linked Sri Lanka ,

4200-405: The spice trade and incense road ) was trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea . Trade through the overland caravan routes via Asia Minor and the Middle East , though at a relative trickle compared to later times, preceded the southern trade route via the Red Sea which started around the beginning of the Common Era (CE) following

4305-465: The 10th century CE are not Austronesian and exhibit early Arab dhow shipbuilding techniques: the Phanom-Surin ship ( c.  7th century CE ) and the Belitung shipwreck ( c.  826 CE ), Dhows similarly use sewn-plank techniques, but differ from Austronesian sewn-plank techniques in which the stitches are only visible from the inner surfaces and are discontinuous. They also did not originally use lashed-lug techniques, though later ships like

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4410-409: The 10th to 13th centuries. The surprise naval expeditions in 1025 of Rajendra I of the Tamil Chola Empire against Srivijaya 's ports along the strait, may have been motivated by Srivijaya's attempt to regulate or block Tamil trading guilds. The Chola invasions ended Srivijaya's monopoly on the Strait of Malacca routes for around a century, during which many of the Srivijayan cities were occupied by

4515-477: The 1st century CE to the 6th or 7th centuries CE. It remained a part of the Maritime Silk Road, along with the nearby African, Arab, and Persian trading ports of Kilwa Kisiwani and Zanzibar ( Tanzania ), and other ports along the mainland coasts of modern Somalia , Kenya , and Mozambique . Records from Portuguese explorers in the late 15th and early 16th centuries indicate that direct maritime links between Indonesia and Madagascar persisted up until shortly before

4620-406: The Belitung shipwreck adopted it from contact with Austronesian shipbuilders. Some of the timber used on the major components of the Phanom-Surin ship is also sourced from Southeast Asian trees, despite its West Asian construction. Similarly, some of the later Austronesian ships display elements of West Asian shipbuilding techniques (like cross-armed anchors ) suggesting that the merchants and crew of

4725-430: The Chinese port city of Guangzhou . Books written by Chinese monks like Wan Chen and Hui-Lin contain detailed accounts of the large trading vessels from Southeast Asia dating back to at least the 3rd century CE. Austronesians were already sailing as far as East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula even during the earlier period. Austronesians colonized the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa some time in between

4830-443: The Chola. Srivijaya was left greatly weakened and was eventually subjugated by Singhasari by around 1275, before finally being absorbed by the successor thalassocracy of Majapahit (1293–1527). China was invaded by the Mongol Yuan dynasty in the 13th century. Chinese shipping during this period was monopolized by the state, via foreign Muslim merchants partnered with the Yuan government in ortogh relationships. Though unlike

4935-450: The European market, instead of passing through regional ports. By the 16th century, the Age of Exploration had begun. The Portuguese Empire 's capture of Malacca led to the transfer of the trade centers to the sultanates of Aceh and Johor . The Spanish Empire in the Philippines established the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade , which acquired trade goods like Chinaware and silk from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and spices (mostly from

5040-445: The Gupta's (c.319-560 CE) trade with Europe and Central Asia . Soon after the invasions, the Gupta Empire, already weakened by these invasions and the rise of local rulers, ended as well. Following the invasions, northern India was left in disarray, with numerous smaller Indian powers emerging after the crumbling of the Guptas. The Arabs, led by 'Amr ibn al-'As , crossed into Egypt in late 639 or early 640 CE. This advance marked

5145-412: The Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit. Hayam Wuruk of Majapahit, angry at the actions of the vassal state, sent a punitive naval attack on Palembang in 1377, causing a diaspora of princes and nobles to the Kingdom of Singapura . Singapura, in turn, was attacked and sacked in 1398. Parameswara , originally from Palembang and the last ruler of Singapura, fled to the western coast of the Malay Peninsula and founded

5250-408: The Indian Ocean. India also portrays itself as playing a central role in the Maritime Silk Road, and also often depicts its trade connections and cultural diffusion as "Indian colonizaton" under the vision of a Greater India . Maritime Jade Road Philippine jade culture , or jade artifacts , made from white and green nephrite and dating as far back as 2000–1500 BC, have been discovered at

5355-441: The Indian subcontinent and its trade was preserved in Byzantine books and it is likely that the court of the Emperor still maintained some form of diplomatic relation to the region up until at least the time of Constantine VII , seeking an ally against the rising influence of the Islamic states in the Middle East and Persia, appearing in a work on ceremonies called De Ceremoniis . The Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in

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5460-444: The Muslim Sultanate of Malacca in the early 15th century. During the same period in the early 15th century, the Ming dynasty launched the expeditions of Zheng He , with the goal of forcing the "barbarian kings" of Southeast Asia to resume sending "tribute" (i.e. regular trade routes) to the Ming court. This was typical of the Sinocentric views at the time of viewing " trade as tribute ". Zheng He's expeditions were short-lived, as

5565-439: The Pacific. Similarly, the West Indies Spanish treasure fleet was the first permanent transatlantic trade route in history. Both bypassed the Indian Ocean Maritime Silk Road entirely. The archaeological evidence of the Maritime Silk Road include numerous shipwrecks recovered along the route carrying (or associated with) trade goods sourced from various far-flung ports. The origins of these early ships are readily identifiable by

5670-614: The Red Sea. This was one of the many efforts the Roman administration had to undertake to divert as much of the trade to the maritime routes as possible. Arsinoe was eventually overshadowed by the rising prominence of Myos Hormos. The navigation to the northern ports, such as Arsinoe-Clysma, became difficult in comparison to Myos Hormos due to the northern winds in the Gulf of Suez . Venturing to these northern ports presented additional difficulties such as shoals , reefs and treacherous currents . Myos Hormos and Berenice appear to have been important ancient trading ports, possibly used by

5775-402: The Roman Empire , but recovered in the 4th century until the early 7th century, when Khosrow II , Shah of the Sasanian Empire , occupied the Roman parts of the Fertile Crescent and Egypt until being defeated by the Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius at the end of 627, after which the lost territories were returned to the Eastern Romans. Cosmas Indicopleustes ('Cosmas who sailed to India')

5880-406: The Romans took over and further developed the already existing trade using these ports. Classical geographers such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder were generally slow to incorporate new information into their works and, from their positions as esteemed scholars , were seemingly prejudiced against lowly merchants and their topographical accounts. Ptolemy 's Geography represents somewhat of

5985-431: The Romans was done so in India, with the land route through ancient Persia playing a secondary role. Christian and Jewish settlers from Rome continued to live in India long after the decline in bilateral trade. Large hoards of Roman coins have been found throughout India, and especially in the busy maritime trading centers of the south. The Tamilakkam kings reissued Roman coinage in their own name after defacing

6090-490: The Song dynasty to the overland Silk Road . Song maritime technology was developed from observing Southeast Asian Austronesian ships . Before this, Chinese ships were essentially fluvial (riverine) in nature and operation and were not seaworthy. The Song started sending trading expeditions to the region they referred to as Nan hai ( Chinese : 南海 ; pinyin : Nánhǎi ; lit. 'South Seas'), mostly still dominated by Srivijaya , venturing as far south as

6195-420: The Song, the Yuan lifted the 9-month limit, allowing Chinese trade to venture as far as South Asia. The Yuan also attempted naval invasions on Japan , Majapahit , and Vietnam (Austronesian Champa , and Kinh Đại Việt ). All of which failed. China itself was later devastated by floods, drought, and famine. Concurrently, the Black Death was sweeping through Europe and Western Asia. All of these factors led to

6300-416: The Sultanate of Malacca had gained effective control of the Strait of Malacca. Further weakening Majapahit's influence greatly, which was already suffering from internal rebellions. Trade from Malacca continued to arrive in Chinese ports in the brief period prior to the fall of Majapahit, the Portuguese invasion of Malacca , and the fall of the Ming dynasty to the Manchu invasions . The Maritime Silk Route

6405-428: The ancient Austronesian maritime networks in the 2nd century BCE but were not initially a major export of China. They became exported by the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE), rapidly increased in volume during the Song (960-1279 CE) and Yuan dynasties (1279-1367 CE), before declining in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1643 CE), and ceasing entirely in the 15th century. Their distribution throughout the Southeast Asian trade network

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6510-431: The animist peoples of the region. Thousands of artifacts made and traded through the Maritime Jade Road have been recovered from multiple archeological sites. The network likely waned due to later aggressions by cultures outside of Southeast Asia, such as India and China. Peace was essential to the continuation of the sea jade network, as seen in the case of the Philippines (the main jade manufacturing area), where

6615-413: The archaeological context in the eastern routes of the Maritime Silk Road prior to the 10th century CE. The Godavaya shipwreck ( c.  2nd century CE ) is the earliest evidence of maritime networking in the Indian Ocean , but it only involved local exchanges in raw materials along the South Indian coast. The archaeological evidence demonstrates that the trading ships in the South China Sea and

6720-445: The beginning of the Islamic conquest of Egypt . The capture of Alexandria and the rest of the country brought an end to 670 years of Roman trade with the subcontinent. Tamil speaking south India turned to Southeast Asia for international trade where Indian culture influenced the native culture to a greater degree than the sketchy impressions made on Rome seen in the adoption of Hinduism and then Buddhism. However, knowledge of

6825-403: The coins in order to signify their sovereignty. Mentions of the traders are recorded in the Tamil Sangam literature of India. One such mention reads: "The beautifully built ships of the Yavanas came with gold and returned with pepper, and Muziris resounded with the noise." (from poem no. 149 of ' Akananuru ' of Sangam Literature)" Trade declined from the mid-3rd century during a crisis in

6930-525: The colonial period. Srivijaya , a Hindu - Buddhist Austronesian polity founded at Palembang in 682 CE, rose to dominate the trade in the region around the straits of Malacca and Sunda and the South China Sea emporium by controlling the trade in luxury aromatics and Buddhist artifacts from West Asia to a thriving Tang market. It emerged through the conquest and subjugation of neighboring thalassocracies. These included Melayu , Kedah , Tarumanagara , and Mataram , among others. These polities controlled

7035-437: The control of the Indo-Scythian Western Satrap Nahapana ("Nambanus"), was especially flourishing: There are imported into this market-town ( Barigaza ), wine, Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a cubit wide; storax, sweetclover , flint glass, realgar , antimony , gold and silver coin, on which there

7140-575: The culture but little is known about the manner of this influence. Clement of Alexandria mentions the Buddha in his writings and other Indian religions find mentions in other texts of the period. Han China was perhaps also involved in the Roman trade , with Roman embassies recorded for the years 166, 226, and 284 that allegedly landed in Rinan ( Jiaozhi ) in northern Vietnam , according to Chinese histories . Roman coins and goods such as glasswares and silverwares have been found in China, as well as Roman coins, bracelets, glass beads,

7245-402: The distinct trading circuit in this region as the "Asian Mediterranean", from its similarity to the Mediterranean Sea Trade . However, the Song enacted a 9-month limit on how long trade ships can stay at sea, limiting the range of Chinese trade ships to Southeast Asia. Arab and Tamil traders also increased their participation with direct trade to Chinese ports through the Strait of Malacca in

7350-400: The drain in imperial funds and the threat of invasion from the north led the Xuande Emperor to cease the expeditions. He enacted the hai jin laws shortly after, and banned outgoing trade altogether. Although ultimately, Zheng He's expeditions were successful in their goal of restoring trade relations with Southeast Asia (in this case, Malacca ) and the Ming dynasty. By the mid-15th century,

7455-581: The earliest spread of Islam into Southeast Asian polities. During this period, the Persian language ( Fārsī ), became the dominant lingua franca of both the Maritime and overland Silk Road . The Butuan boat burials of the Philippines , which feature eleven lashed-lug boat remains of the Austronesian boatbuilding traditions (individually dated from 689 CE to 988 CE), were found in association with large amounts of trade goods from China , Cambodia , Thailand ( Haripunjaya and Satingpra ), Vietnam , and as far as Persia , indicating they traded as far as

7560-548: The ears) with his Indian conductor, and the Indian peafowl , and other exotic birds. There are also numerous animals from Africa . Tigers, leopards and Asian and African lions were used in the arenas and circuses . The European lion was already extinct at that time. Probably the last lived in the Balkan Peninsula and were hunted to stock arenas. The birds and monkeys entertained the guests of many villas. Also in

7665-408: The east. The close links of these religions to trade with South Asia led to the widespread adoption of Sanskrit as the trade lingua franca in the early Maritime Silk Road by the 4th century CE. Han and Tang dynasty Chinese records also indicate that the early Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to South Asia booked passage with the Austronesian ships (which they called the k'un-lun po ) that traded in

7770-683: The fall of the Western Roman Empire . The Seleucid dynasty controlled a developed network of trade with the Indian Subcontinent which had previously existed under the influence of the Achaemenid Empire . The Greek- Ptolemaic dynasty , controlling the western and northern end of other trade routes to Southern Arabia and the Indian Subcontinent, had begun to exploit trading opportunities in

7875-539: The first millennium BCE. By around the 2nd century BCE, the prehistoric Austronesian jade and spice trade networks in Southeast Asia fully connected with the maritime trade routes of South Asia , the Middle East , eastern Africa , and the Mediterranean , becoming what is now known as the Maritime Silk Road. Prior to the 10th century, the eastern part of the route was primarily used by Southeast Asian Austronesian traders using distinctive sewn-plank and lashed-lug ships, although Persian and Tamil traders also sailed

7980-593: The furthest northeastern extent of the Maritime Silk Road. The main route of the western regions of the Maritime Silk Road directly crosses the Indian Ocean from the northern tip of Sumatra (or through the Sunda Strait ) to Sri Lanka , southern India and Bangladesh , and the Maldives . It branches from here into routes through the Arabian Sea entering the Gulf of Oman (into the Persian Gulf ), and

8085-510: The gods or the spirits of the dead? There is evidence of animal trade between Indian Ocean harbours and the Mediterranean . This can be seen in the mosaics and frescoes of the remains of Roman villas in Italy . For example, the Villa del Casale has mosaics depicting the capture of animals in India, Indonesia and Africa. The intercontinental trade of animals was one of the sources of wealth for

8190-487: The introduction of Austronesian crops and material culture to South Asia, including betel nut chewing , coconuts , sandalwood , domesticated bananas , sugarcane , cloves , and nutmeg . It also introduced Austronesian sailing technologies like outrigger boats which are still utilized in Sri Lanka and southern India. Semi-precious stone and glass ornaments showing northern Indian designs have also been recovered from

8295-436: The islands experienced at least 1,500 years of near absolute peace from 500 BCE to 1000 CE, coinciding with the operations of the jade network. The following are the major locations with historical links to the Maritime Jade Road; many other places, aside from the following, traded through the network. UNESCO published an article falsely alleging that the Maritime Jade Road is the Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Jade Road

8400-406: The jade from Taiwan for trade as technological advances were met. This initial trade between island communities established the first phase of the Maritime Jade Road. With the advent of further technologies propagated by indigenous Filipinos, more styles were made to process raw jade from Taiwan. These jade crafts became sought-after in many places in Southeast Asia, which led to the expansion of

8505-462: The locals and goods found in their markets, and favorable times of year to sail from Egypt to these places in order to catch the monsoon winds, that it is clear he visited many of these locations. The replacement of Greek kingdoms by the Roman Empire as the administrator of the eastern Mediterranean basin led to the strengthening of direct maritime trade with the east and the elimination of

8610-703: The main early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis uncovered in the forecourt of the temple a marble statue of a Buddha , the Berenike Buddha , suggesting the presence of Buddhist merchants from India in Egypt at that time. The regional ports of Barbaricum (modern Karachi ), Sounagoura (central Bangladesh ), Barygaza (Bharuch in Gujarat ), Muziris (present day Kodungallur ), Korkai , Kaveripattinam and Arikamedu ( Tamil Nadu ) on

8715-567: The main routes of the Austronesian trade ships to Giao Chỉ (in the Tonkin Gulf ) and Guangzhou (southern China ), the endpoints (later also including Quanzhou by the 10th century CE). Chinese records misidentified these kingdoms as being "Indian" due to the Indianization of these regions. Secondary routes also passed through the coastlines of the Gulf of Thailand ; as well as through the Java Sea , Celebes Sea , Banda Sea , and

8820-585: The network to Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Vietnam then learned to process the Taiwanese raw jade and added healthy competition to the trade network. Most of the jade crafts were still manufactured and processed in the Philippines. By 500 CE, the trade network began to weaken, and by 1000 CE, the trade route's jade production had formally stopped, although trade in other goods continued and expanded towards India and China. During this period, Southeast Asia became influenced by

8925-697: The overland Silk Road . The ancient maritime routes through the Indo-West Pacific (Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean) had no particular name for the majority of its very long history. Despite the modern name, the Maritime Silk Road involved exchanges in a wide variety of goods over a very wide region, not just silk or Asian exports. The Maritime Silk Road developed from the earlier Neolithic maritime trade networks established by Austronesians in Southeast Asia . The Maritime Jade Road

9030-419: The overland route. Ships could carry far larger amounts of goods, creating greater economic impact with each exchange. Goods carried by the ships also differed from goods carried by caravans. Traders on the maritime route faced different perils like weather and piracy , but they were not affected by political instability and could simply avoid areas in conflict. In May 2017, experts from various fields have held

9135-549: The owners of the villa. In the Ambulacro della Grande Caccia , the hunting and capture of animals is represented in such detail that it is possible to identify the species. There is a scene that shows a technique to distract a tiger with a shimmering ball of glass or mirror in order to take her cubs. Tiger hunting with red ribbons serving as a distraction is also shown. In the mosaic there are also numerous other animals such as rhinoceros , an Indian elephant (recognized from

9240-407: The region prior to the Roman involvement but, according to the historian Strabo , the volume of commerce between Indians and the Greeks was not comparable to that of later Indo-Roman trade. The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a time when sea trade between Egypt and the subcontinent did not involve direct sailings. The cargo under these situations was shipped to Aden : Aden – Arabia Eudaimon

9345-425: The reign of Augustus and his conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE. The southern route so helped enhance trade between the ancient Roman Empire and the Indian subcontinent, that Roman politicians and historians are on record decrying the loss of silver and gold to buy silk to pamper Roman wives, and the southern route grew to eclipse and then totally supplant the overland trade route. Roman and Greek traders frequented

9450-454: The route. The trade route encompassed numbers of seas and ocean; including South China Sea , Strait of Malacca , Indian Ocean , Gulf of Bengal , Arabian Sea , Persian Gulf and the Red Sea . The maritime route overlaps with historic Southeast Asian maritime trade, spice trade, Indian Ocean trade and after 8th century—the Arabian naval trade network. The network also extend eastward to

9555-409: The sea lanes in Southeast Asia and exploited the spice trade of the Spice Islands , as well as maritime trade-routes between India and China . By the 7th century CE, Arab dhow traders also ventured into the routes earlier pioneered by Persian traders to Sri Lanka , coinciding with the spread of Islam throughout West Asia . They pushed deeper east into Srivijaya and Guangzhou , leading to

9660-831: The ships had multinational origins, regardless of where the ships were originally built. China did not start building sea-going ships that ventured into the Maritime Silk Road until the Song dynasty ( c.  10th century CE ). The earliest known Chinese shipwrecks found along the Maritime Silk Road are the Ming -era Turiang wreck ( c.  1305-1370 CE ) and the Bakau wreck ( c.  early 15th century CE ). Chinese-built ships ( chuán ) are also readily identifiable by being built with iron nails and clamps, in contrast to Austronesian and Western Asian ships which were built entirely with wood joining and fiber lashings. Other distinctive features of Chinese ships which developed from their earlier fluvial (riverine) ship technologies include

9765-639: The southern tip of present-day India were the main centers of this trade, along with Kodumanal , an inland city. The Periplus Maris Erythraei describes Greco-Roman merchants selling in Barbaricum "thin clothing, figured linens, topaz , coral , storax , frankincense , vessels of glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine" in exchange for " costus , bdellium , lycium , nard , turquoise , lapis lazuli , Seric skins , cotton cloth, silk yarn, and indigo ". In Barygaza, they would buy wheat, rice, sesame oil, cotton and cloth. Trade with Barigaza, under

9870-535: The strategic position of Alexandria to secure trade with the subcontinent. The course of trade with the east then seems to have been first through the harbor of Arsinoe, the present day Suez . The goods from the East African trade were landed at one of the three main Roman ports, Arsinoe, Berenice or Myos Hormos. The Romans repaired and cleared out the silted up canal from the Nile to harbor center of Arsinoe on

9975-410: The taxes extracted previously by the middlemen of various land based trading routes. Strabo's mention of the vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt indicates that monsoon was known from his time. The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing according to Strabo (II.5.12.): At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended

10080-524: The town of Pattanam (near Cranganore) have elicited recent archeological interest in finding a probable location of this port city. According to the Periplus , numerous Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris: Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica (Limyrike), and then Muziris and Nelcynda, which are now of leading importance. Tyndis is of the Kingdom of Cerobothra ; it

10185-518: The various market-towns. Those bound for this market-town from Egypt make the voyage favorably about the month of July, that is Epiphi. Muziris is a lost port city on the south-western coast of India which was a major center of trade in the ancient Tamil land between the Chera kingdom and the Roman Empire. Its location is generally identified with modern-day Cranganore (central Kerala). Large hoards of coins and innumerable shards of amphorae found at

10290-543: The western parts of the routes. It allowed the exchange of goods from East and Southeast Asia on one end, all the way to Europe and eastern Africa on the other. Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of trade in the eastern regions of the Maritime Silk Road, especially the polities around the straits of Malacca and Bangka , the Malay Peninsula , and the Mekong Delta ; through which passed

10395-468: Was a Greek-Egyptian trader, and later monk, who wrote about his trade trips to India and Sri Lanka in the 6th century. The Gupta Empire had greatly benefited from Indo-Roman trade through the export of numerous luxury products such as silk , leather goods, fur, iron products, ivory , pearl or pepper from the ports of Bharutkutccha , Kalyan , Sind and the city of Ujjaini . The Alchon Huns ' invasions (496–534 CE) are said to have seriously damaged

10500-743: Was a maritime trade network in Southeast Asia that existed long before the Maritime Silk Road. It lasted for around 3,000 years, partially overlapping with the Maritime Silk Road, from 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. It was initially established by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and the Philippines . Raw jade was sourced from deposits in Taiwan and worked into ornaments in the Philippines (the most notable and most numerous of which are double-headed pendants known as lingling-o ). This network later included parts of Vietnam , Malaysia , Indonesia , Thailand , and other areas in Southeast Asia where these jade ornaments, along with other trade goods, were exchanged (also known as

10605-534: Was a significant export of east Africa (originating from overland trade routes through the African interior), leading Chirikure (2022) to label the western leg of the trade route as the " Maritime Ivory Route ". It was also not small-scale trade or high value-low volume trade as some earlier historians had assumed. The goods carried by recovered shipwrecks show that they engaged in merchant capitalism . A very large number of goods, often mass-produced, were traded along

10710-518: Was also processed in Vietnam , while the peoples of Malaysia , Brunei , Singapore , Thailand , Indonesia , and Cambodia also participated in one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world. It was in existence for at least 3,000 years, where its peak production was from 2000 BC to 500 AD, older than the Silk Road in mainland Eurasia or

10815-473: Was called the fortunate, being once a city, when, because ships neither came from India to Egypt nor did those from Egypt dare to go further but only came as far as this place, it received the cargoes from both, just as Alexandria receives goods brought from outside and from Egypt. The Ptolemaic dynasty had developed trade with Indian kingdoms using the Red Sea ports. With the establishment of Roman Egypt ,

10920-542: Was disrupted by the colonial era in the 15th century, essentially being replaced with European trade routes. Shipbuilding of the formerly dominant Southeast Asian trading ships ( jong , the source of the English term "junk") declined until it ceased entirely by the 17th century. Although Chinese-built chuán survived until modern times. There was new demand for spices from Southeast Asia and textiles from India and China, but these were now linked with direct trade routes to

11025-542: Was used for this trade, and apparently recycled by the Kushan Empire (Kushans) for their own coinage, that Pliny the Elder (NH VI.101) complained about the drain of specie to India: India, China and the Arabian peninsula take one hundred million sesterces from our empire per annum at a conservative estimate: that is what our luxuries and women cost us. For what fraction of these imports is intended for sacrifices to

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