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Trade Routes between Europe and Asia during Antiquity

New inventions, religious beliefs, artistic styles, languages, and social customs, as well as goods and raw materials, were transmitted by people moving from one place to another to conduct business.

Related

Timelines (10)

• Arabian Peninsula, 1000 B.C. –1 A.D.
• Asia Minor (Anatolia and the Caucasus), 1–500 A.D.
• China, 1–500 A.D.
• Egypt, 1–500 A.D.
• Mesopotamia, 1–500 A.D.
• South Asia, 1–500 A.D.
• Southeast Asia, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.
• Southeast Asia,1–500 A.D.
• The Eastern Mediterranean, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.
• The Eastern Mediterranean, 1–500 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (4)

• Nabataean Kingdom and Petra
• Palmyra
• Trade between Arabia and the Empires of Rome and Asia
• Trade Between the Empires of Asia and Rome

Other Thematic Essays (20)

• Amulets and Talismans from the Islamic World
• Colossal Temples of the Roman Near East
• Eastern Religions in the Roman World
• Etruscan Art
• Etruscan Language and Insciptions
• Han Dynasty (206 b.c.–220 a.d.)
• Jain Manuscript Painting
• James Cox (ca. 1723–1800): Goldsmith and Entrepreneur
• Life of Jesus of Nazareth
• List of Rulers of China
• List of Rulers of the Roman Empire
• Luxury Arts of Rome
• The Materials and Techniques of American Quilts and Coverlets
• The Metropolitan Museum's Excavations at Nishapur
• Roman Glass
• Sardis
• Silks from Ottoman Turkey
• Trade and Commercial Activity in the Byzantine and early Islamic Middle East
• Wang Hui (1632–1717)
• The Year One

Maps (4)

• East Asia, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• South and Southeast Asia, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• West Asia, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• World, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.

Index Terms (12)

Art Movement/Style

• Meroitic Art in Egypt
• Meroitic Period in Central African Art

Geography/Place

• Arabian Peninsula
• Central and North Asia
• China
• Iran
• Rome (Ancient)
• South Asia

Subject Matter/Theme

• Archaeology
• Archaeology from Asia
• Archaeology from Europe
• Trade (1–500 A.D.)

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Long-distance trade played a major role in the cultural, religious, and artistic exchanges that took place between the major centers of civilization in Europe and Asia during antiquity. Some of these trade routes had been in use for centuries, but by the beginning of the first century A.D., merchants, diplomats, and travelers could (in theory) cross the ancient world from Britain and Spain in the west to China and Japan in the east. The trade routes served principally to transfer raw materials, foodstuffs, and luxury goods from areas with surpluses to others where they were in short supply. Some areas had a monopoly on certain materials or goods. China, for example, supplied West Asia and the Mediterranean world with silk, while spices were obtained principally from South Asia. These goods were transported over vast distances— either by pack animals overland or by seagoing ships—along the Silk and Spice Routes, which were the main arteries of contact between the various ancient empires of the Old World. Another important trade route, known as the Incense Route, was controlled by the Arabs, who brought frankincense and myrrh by camel caravan from South Arabia.

Cities along these trade routes grew rich providing services to merchants and acting as international marketplaces. Some, like Palmyra and Petra on the fringes of the Syrian Desert, flourished mainly as centers of trade supplying merchant caravans and policing the trade routes. They also became cultural and artistic centers, where peoples of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds could meet and intermingle.

The trade routes were the communications highways of the ancient world. New inventions, religious beliefs, artistic styles, languages, and social customs, as well as goods and raw materials, were transmitted by people moving from one place to another to conduct business. These connections are reflected, for example, in the sculptural styles of Gandhara (modern-day Pakistan and northern India) and Gaul (modern-day France), both influenced by the Hellenistic styles popularized by the Romans.

Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. "Trade Routes between Europe and Asia during Antiquity". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/trade/hd_trade.htm (October 2000) Further Reading Milleker, Elizabeth J., ed. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Simpson, St. John, ed. Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient Yemen. London: British Museum Press, 2002. Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Whitfield, Susan, with Ursula Sims-Williams, eds. The Silk Route: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. London: British Library, 2004. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions) The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Muscarella, Oscar White. "A Bronze Vase from Iran and its Greek Connections." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 5 (1972). JSTOR | PDF