550 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



even predynastic Egypt (i. e., 3000 B. C. and earlier). There can be 

 no doubt that this rare mineral was mined in eastern Afghanistan, and 

 reached Mesopotamia and Egypt, passing, as we may infer, over what 

 was later to be the organized western third of the trade route.* Be- 

 sides this, commonsense indicates that from early times hillmen and 

 dwellers on the plains must have exchanged goods along its course, 

 and pastoral nomads have raided and traded with the sedentaries. 

 But it was not until China's discovery of the West that a highway 

 which was to join Pacific and Atlantic was brought into being and 

 organized to constitute a single whole, as definitely intended for the 

 far movement of goods and men as is its modern successor, the Trans- 

 Siberian Railway. 



It must, however, be remembered that while the silk route across 

 Asia is of special interest on account of the discoveries by Stein and 

 others that have been made along its course, the use of the monsoons 

 from the first century A. D. as a means of direct passage from the Red 

 Sea to India was of even greater economic importance. Rome's trade 

 with India was always greater than with the Far East; part of the silk 

 she received was brought by sea in ships which picked up their wares 

 in ports as far east as Tongking and Burmah, as well as in the nearer 

 ports of western India such as Muziris (the modern Cranganore). It 

 is significant that no hoards of Roman coins have been found in China 

 as they have in India. 6 



The various stages of the highway have been often described, indeed 

 the route was mapped with amazing accuracy — considering the then 

 state of geographical studies — in a work dedicated to Napoleon 6 by 

 the learned Joseph Hager of Pavia University, who pictures the actual 

 arrival of a Greek caravan at Sianfu, while within the last few years 

 G. F. Hudson has given an excellent survey in his important work, 

 Europe and China. In what follows I have drawn largely on his 

 account, but have considered it convenient to divide the highway into 

 three main sections — eastern, middle, and western — rather than to 

 consider it in four sections depending on political factors, as he does. 



The eastern section, which may be regarded as starting either at 

 Ch'ang-an (the Han capital) or at Lan Chow in western Kansu, i. e., 

 the extreme northwest of China, passes south of the westernmost 

 extension of the Great Wall but north of the Nanshan range, westward 



• Gregory, J. W., The story of tbe road, pp. 33-34, 1931; also Lucas, A., Ancient Egyptian materials and 

 Industries, pp. 347, 348, 1934. 



• The Indian trade, and the sea-borne trade from the Far East which traveled up the Red Sea, is discussed 

 at length in an excellent work by E. R. Warmington entitled "The commerce between the Roman Empire 

 and India," (Cambridge, 1928). My statement with regard to Roman coins may not be quite accurate. 

 Professor Yetts draws my attention to a paper by Bushnell (Journ. Peking Oriental Soc, vol. 1, No. 2, 1886) 

 recording the discovery of 16 Roman copper coins dating from Tiberius to Aurelian, made some 50 or 60 

 years earlier in Shansi, about 80 miles from T'ai yuan fu. 



• Description des Medailles Chinoises du Cabines Imperial de France, prficedee d'un essai de Numis- 

 matique Chinoise, avec des eclaircissemens sur le commerce des Qrecs avec la Chine * * * Paris, an 

 xm-1805. 



