Large print guide

The Foundation is delighted to continue its partnership with the British Museum by supporting Silk Roads. Aligned with our commitment to fostering education, enriching communities, and advancing the pursuit of knowledge, we are pleased to enable a show that highlights the rich and diverse history of the Silk Roads. Through showcasing the depth of the Museum's collection and strength of its curatorial team, we are proud to witness a celebration of cultural exchange and discovery.

Silk Roads is the culmination of years of extensive academic and scientific research and a testament to the power of collaboration. This project has brought together 29 national and international partners to gather over 300 artefacts from various regions, cultures, and stories. The Huo Family Foundation is honoured to play a role in supporting this initiative, ensuring that the exhibition fosters a deeper understanding and appreciation of our shared global heritage.

The Huo Family Foundation

Exhibition introduction panel, to left of entrance:
Silk Roads

What do you imagine when you think of the Silk Road?

Spices. Camel caravans crossing desert dunes. A single path linking 'East' and 'West'.

The reality offers so much more…

This is not the story of one road, but of many routes, crossing mountains, skirting deserts, navigating seas and rivers. People, objects and ideas flowed in all directions along these complex networks. Silk was only one of the goods that travelled.

These are the Silk Roads: countless journeys of contact and exchange across continents.

Display case, in front:
Broadening horizons

This serene depiction of the Buddha was probably made in the Swat Valley, an early Buddhist centre in what is now Pakistan. It was unearthed, however, some 5,000 kilometres away, on the tiny Swedish island of Helgö.

Although small in stature, this bronze figurine dramatically broadens the traditional boundaries of the Silk Roads. Its discovery in northern Europe, far from Buddhist lands, evokes the extensive reach of contacts between AD 500 and 1000. Its epic journey was the result of a deeply connected world.

Probably made in the Swat Valley, Pakistan; found in Helgö, Uppland, Sweden
Made late AD 500s – mid-600s; excavated near buildings dating to about AD 800
Historiska Museet, Stockholm

Untitled film:

This film explains where and when the exhibition sits within the wider story of the Silk Roads.

Duration: about 2 mins 
This film has no sound

Section panel, to the right:
East Asia: connections in the east

Your journey begins at the eastern ends of the Silk Roads, spotlighting interactions between the islands of Japan, the Korean peninsula and mainland China, and their connections with the wider world.

Relations between these regions began a new chapter with the reunification and expansion of China under the Sui (AD 581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties. Newly dominant courts in Japan and the Korean peninsula fostered direct contacts with Tang China.

Objects from distant lands reached Tang China's cosmopolitan capital, as well as capital cities further east. Religions and ideas travelled along the Silk Roads just as fluidly as goods, and the spread of Buddhism further strengthened connections.

Theme panel, ahead:
Nara Japan

In the AD 600s, rulers in Japan began sending envoys across perilous seas to Sui-Tang China. Aiming to transform their state into a regional power, they adopted and adapted many aspects of Tang government and culture. In the Nara period (710–84), the new capital Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara) was modelled on the Tang capital Chang'an.

Buddhism, officially introduced from the Korean peninsula in the 500s through India and China, gradually gained the support of Japan's rulers. Objects from the Middle East and beyond reached Japan via China and maritime routes.

Long-distance imports

Glass from the Middle East and the Mediterranean region has been discovered in Japan, coming via China or perhaps through maritime trade networks across the Indian Ocean. Scientific analysis by the British Museum of these blue glass beads suggests a possible combination of materials from Asia and the Sasanian empire (AD 224–651) based in Mesopotamia and Iran.

The Shōsōin Imperial Treasury in Nara, established in the mid-700s, houses an extraordinary collection of luxury regional and long-distance imports that show cultural connections occurring along the Silk Roads. They include a Sasanian glass faceted bowl similar to this replica.

Blue glass beads
Made in Asia and the Sasanian empire; found in Japan AD 500s
British Museum, OA+.2967.1–268
William Gowland collection, given by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Faceted glass bowl, replica of a Sasanian example
Made in Japan by Ishida Tami 2007
British Museum, 2007,6004.1 Given by the artist

Image caption:

The Shōsōin Imperial Treasury is home to some 9,000 objects, including those from Silla Korea, Tang China, Central Asia, the Sasanian empire and beyond.

Photo (cropped) by Azuki Gohan, 2020 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Japanese missions to Tang China

Diplomacy helped propel people, objects and ideas across cultural boundaries along the Silk Roads. From AD 630 to 894, rulers in Japan successfully sent 15 diplomatic missions, known as kentōshi, to Tang China. This bronze epitaph records the life of one of these envoys – Mino no Okamaro (662–728), who embarked on the dangerous sea-crossing in 702. He returned safely to Nara and became a successful government official.

Mino's memorial, written in Chinese, records key moments in his career, and his virtues according to the Confucian treatise on filial duty (Xiaojing). These features recall his links with Tang China.

Excavated from a cremation burial in Aoyamadai, Ikoma-shi, Nara Prefecture, Japan
AD 730
Important Cultural Property, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, J-39204

The dawn of the 'Land of the Rising Sun'

The earliest native histories of Japan were written during the Nara period (AD 710–84), and reflect the adoption and adaptation of Chinese conventions to enhance the status of Japan.

Combining myth and historical narratives, the 'Chronicles of Japan' (Nihon shoki) was written entirely in Chinese. 'Nihon' (also 'Nippon') is often translated as 'Land of the Rising Sun', which remains the Japanese name for the country today.

Imperial edition of the Keichō era, Japan
1599
British Library, London, Or.59.bb.5 
Purchased from Sir Ernest Mason Satow

Buddhism takes root

The Nihon shoki dates the official introduction of Buddhism to Japan to AD 552, via diplomatic gifts from the kingdom of Baekje on the Korean peninsula. Contact with Tang China provided another source of learning. The combination of contemplative pose and gesture seen in this gilded bronze figure became particularly popular in Japan and Korea, and was usually associated with Maitreya, the future Buddha.

Found on Mount Nachi, Wakayama, Japan
AD 600s
Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, E-14846, gift of Mr Kitamata Tomeshirō and others

Spread of Buddhism by the court

Empress Shōtoku (ruled AD 764–70) played a key role in popularising Buddhism during the Nara period. To commemorate and give thanks to Buddhist deities for assisting in her victory over a rival clan, she commissioned one million wooden pagodas like these.

Each one contained a roll of sacred Buddhist mantras (dharani) written in Chinese. 100,000 of the pagodas were distributed among 10 major Buddhist monasteries. The dharani, later mounted as a hanging scroll, is among the oldest surviving examples of printing in Japan.

Miniature wooden pagodas
British Museum, 1909,0519.4 (transferred from the Department of Oriental Manuscripts, British Library); 1930,0424.1 (donated by Hon Mrs Basil Ionides); 1931,0217.1 (donated by Sir Percival David, 2nd Baronet)

'One Million Pagodas' printed dharani (above)
British Library, London, Or.78.a.11
Purchased from Kōbunsō
Nara Prefecture, Japan AD 764–70

Theme panel, ahead:
Silla Korea

In the AD 600s, the kingdom of Silla allied itself with Tang China, conquering its larger neighbours and then consolidating control over much of the Korean peninsula. Like Japan, the rulers of Unified Silla (676–935) adopted and adapted aspects of culture from the Tang dynasty.

Excavations of elite burial mounds at the capital Geumseong (present-day Gyeongju) from before the Unified Silla period have revealed a taste for luxury items imported from faraway lands. Such lavish burials disappeared, however, with the acceptance of Buddhism and changes in tomb designs.

Luxury and power

Spectacular gold objects like this necklace have been excavated from royal burial mounds in Silla dating from the late AD 300s to the first half of the 500s. These artefacts show a close connection between gold and power. The mysterious 'comma-shaped' jade ornament, an ancient form, appears to have been exclusively used by peoples of the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago during this period.

Excavated from Noseo-dong Tomb no. 215, Gyeongju, Korea
Early AD 500s
Treasure. National Museum of Korea, Seoul 국립중앙박물관, Bongwan13613, Sinsu1287

Foreign treasures

Gold, garnets and inlaid glass adorn this lavish sheath for an iron dagger. Given its trapezoid shape in the lower section, which can be traced to northwest China and Central Asia, and its garnet cloisonné decoration technique (which developed in the Black Sea, Caucasus, or Middle Eastern region), the object is likely to have travelled a long way to its findspot in the Korean peninsula.

Analysis of its gold content also suggests that it was not made in Silla. It was discovered in a joint burial mound for two men who were not royalty, but of high status. No other example with this shape has survived fully intact.

Possibly made in the Black Sea region or Central Asia; excavated from Gyerim-ro Tomb no. 14, Gyeongju, Korea
Late AD 400s – early 500s, tomb dated to the early AD 500s
Treasure. Gyeongju National Museum, Gyeongju
국립경주박물관, Gyeongju42429

Imported glass

This glass cup was discovered in the tomb of a royal male, alongside an ornate gold crown and other precious objects. It is of a late Roman type found across the eastern Mediterranean region. Scientific analysis indicates it was probably made in Egypt, which had a major centre of glassmaking in Alexandria.

The presence of Mediterranean glass objects in tombs as far as the Korean peninsula and Japanese archipelago reflects their valued status as luxury items in the ancient world.

Probably made in Egypt; excavated from Cheonmachong Tomb, Gyeongju, Korea
Early AD 500s
Treasure. Gyeongju National Museum, Gyeongju
국립경주박물관, Gyeongju2386

Service in the afterlife

From the AD 500s, a new burial practice emerged in Silla Korea. Ceramic figurines started to be included in tombs to serve the deceased in the afterlife. These figures are wearing Tang-style costumes, identifiable by features like the woman's skirt fastened over her bust.

The man may be holding a tablet typically carried by Chinese officials. The Silla court formally adopted Tang-style dress for men and women following the return of diplomatic missions from Tang China in 649 and 664.

Earthenware figurine of an official
Gyeongju National Museum, Gyeongju 국립경주박물관, Gyeongju7499

Earthenware female figurine
Gyeongju National Museum, Gyeongju 국립경주박물관, Gyeongju7506

AD 700s
Excavated from Yonggang-dong Tomb, Gyeongju, Korea

Adopting Buddhism

Buddhism became the state religion of Silla between AD 527 and 535. Relics representing the cremated remains of the Buddha, and stupa-pagodas (shrines for these remains), were the focus of worship, especially in early Buddhism.

This reliquary was found inside a stone pagoda at the Gameunsa temple, constructed in 682. Its outer container is embossed with images of the Buddhist Four Heavenly Kings, who were considered guardians of the Silla state. It held an inner container, pictured here, within which nestled this crystal bottle.

Reliquary outer container and bottle
Gilded bronze; crystal
From the East Pagoda at Gameunsa temple, Gyeongju, Korea About AD 682
Treasure. National Museum of Korea, Seoul 국립중앙박물관,
Sinsu16424, Sinsu16432

Image caption:

The inner container of the reliquary, found inside the East Pagoda, Gameunsa temple, Gyeongju, Korea.

© National Gyeongju Musuem, Korea 국립경주박물관

Funerary urns from Tang China

As Buddhism's popularity rose, funerary practices in Silla Korea changed, with cremation becoming much more common. The ashes of the dead were placed in urns for burial, and sometimes imported ceramic vessels were repurposed for this use.

This high-quality 'three-coloured' (sancai) ceramic jar from Tang China was found protected inside a stone outer container. Next to it is a jar and covering bowl, also from China. Originally made perhaps to transport and drink tea, they were transformed into a funerary urn and placed inside a locally-made earthenware outer case.

Three-footed earthenware jar with 'three-coloured' (sancai) glaze and silver lid
Made in China; found near the tomb of King Seongdeok, Gyeongju, Korea
AD 700–50
Gyeongju National Museum, Gyeongju 국립경주박물관, Gyeongju1729

Stoneware jar and bowl with celadon glaze, earthenware outer container
Jar made in the Changsha kilns, bowl made in the Yue kilns, China, outer container from Gyeongju; excavated from Samneung tombs, Bae-dong, Gyeongju, Korea
AD 800s
Gyeongju National Museum, Gyeongju 국립경주박물관, Gyeongju494

Theme panel, ahead:
Tang China

The extensive territories of Tang China (AD 618–907) brought it into contact with many peoples and cultures. At its height, Tang military influence stretched west into Central Asia, securing safe overland routes for travellers across long distances.

The cosmopolitan Tang capital, Chang'an, had a population of one million people, and was for a time the largest city in the world. Envoys from as far as the Mediterranean arrived here, as did merchants, monks, entertainers and artisans. Imported fashions, music and other goods were popular, and foreign religions were tolerated.

Silk as currency

Silk farming (sericulture) is believed to have originated in China over 5,000 years ago.

This rare surviving bolt of silk was found at Loulan, a desert oasis city in northwest China.

It was probably brought there as payment for soldiers stationed in garrisons. Plain woven silk played a key part in the Tang dynasty's financial system, alongside other forms of currency. Not only could troops receive their salaries in it, but people paid part of their taxes with it, and bolts were used as payment by traders. Silk was also given as diplomatic gifts.

Excavated from Loulan, northwest China
AD 200s–300s
British Museum, MAS.677.a & b, Stein collection

Image caption:

Number of bolts (rolls) of silk traded for different types of horses.
Derived from official horse prices at Xizhou Market, China, AD 742.

Jonathan Karam Skaff, Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors

Horses – a sought-after commodity

The Tang court coveted fine horses from the Steppe and Central Asia, and usually paid for them with silk. The Ferghana Valley produced the most highly prized steeds, the muscular 'blood-sweating horses'.

Horses were crucial to the Tang military, as well as for transportation, communication, sport and pageantry. The Tang elite's appreciation for horses is shown by the many ceramic model horses found in tombs, often accompanied by figurines of grooms or riders.

Northern China
AD 700–50
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, C.50-1964 
Mrs Robert Solomon Gift

Image caption:

A stone carving of Saluzi, one of Emperor Taizong's favourite battle horses. Here a general pulls an arrow from Saluzi's chest. AD 649, Zhaoling, Shaanxi province, China.

C395, image 194252, courtesy of Penn Museum

Ships of the desert

This lively figurine represents a Bactrian (two-humped) camel, used as a beast of burden in Central Asia and essential to desert journeys. Camels, part of caravans loaded with cargoes, were a common sight at the markets of the Tang capital, Chang'an. This example is laden with goods – coiled silk, folded fabric, a Middle Eastern or Central Asian ewer, and even perhaps a piece of rib meat.

From the tomb of the general Liu Tingxun, Luoyang, China
AD 728
British Museum, 1936,1012.228
Purchased from George Eumorfopoulos

Residents of the capital

Tomb figurines found around Chang'an and Tang China's second capital, Luoyang, reflect the different people who lived and worked in these prosperous urban centres. The larger male figure here represents an official of the civil service. The woman is dressed in a Tang-style costume, comparable to the clothing worn by the tomb figurine from Silla Korea seen earlier. Her hair is piled fashionably high.

Earthenware figurine of a lady
Northern China
AD 700–50

Earthenware figurine of a civil official
From the tomb of the general Liu Tingxun, Luoyang, China
AD 728
British Museum, 1936,1012.135 and 1936,1012.221
Both purchased from George Eumorfopoulos

Foreign populations

These ceramic figurines are stereotypes of foreigners who mingled in the cosmopolitan capital and other major cities in Tang China.

The bearded men represent Central or Western Asians. The posture of the larger example suggests he was once shown leading a horse or camel. The smaller figure is a pedlar, hunched over with goods for sale.

The darker-skinned figure is associated with people referred to as 'Kunlun slaves' in Tang sources. He probably represents a Southeast Asian who was enslaved, traded and brought to Guangzhou in southern China by merchants.

Central or West Asian pedlar
AD 700s

Central or West Asian horse or camel groom
AD 700–50

Probably a Southeast Asian figure
AD 618–750

Northern China
British Museum, 1936,1012.56; 1937,0716.27; 1936,1012.288
All purchased from George Eumorfopoulos

Buddhism: the dominant religion

The spread of Buddhism from India to China and beyond is one of the most significant cultural developments that occurred along the Silk Roads. Transmitted by monks and merchants travelling between regions, it had become the most widespread religion in Chang'an by the Tang dynasty. As well as Buddhist teachings, elements of Buddhist material culture were adopted.

The naturalistic curves and flowing clothing of this bronze statue of the bodhisattva Padmapani ('The Lotus-bearer') evoke traditions from India.

China, AD 700s
British Museum, 1970,1104.2
Purchased from Spink & Sons, funded by the Brooke Sewell Bequest

Daoism: an indigenous belief

Although Buddhism was the dominant religion in Chang'an, it co-existed with others, including Daoism. This indigenous faith held special status during the Tang dynasty. This is because the imperial family claimed to descend from Laozi, popularly considered to be the founder of Daoism who lived during the 500s BC. The animals, birds and human figures on this rare bronze mirror with gold leaf represent a Daoist immortal paradise.

China
AD 650–800
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, M.505-1936
Purchased with Art Fund support, the Vallentin Bequest, Sir Percival David and the Universities China Committee

Map caption:

Map showing the layout of Chang'an and the range of different religious buildings in the city, from Daoism and the Church of the East to Zoroastrianism.

Cartography by Martin Brown

The first Christian missionaries

In AD 635, a priest called Aluoben, from Byzantium or the Sasanian empire, led the first recorded Christian mission to China. A monument, or stele, erected in Chang'an, documents the early history of the Church of the East (commonly called 'Nestorian') in Tang China. Inscriptions in Chinese and Syriac, a form of Aramaic used by Eastern Christian communities, highlight Tang emperors' support for the religion.

Original stele (housed in the Xi'an Beilin Museum, China), AD 781
This rubbing was probably made in the 1980s
British Museum, 1989,1004,0.1–4 
Bequeathed by Basil Gray

Image caption:

The stele at an outdoor location in Xi'an (ancient Chang'an) in 1907. Workers accidentally unearthed the stele in 1625.

Photo by Frits Holm, 1907 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Immigrants and their beliefs

Foreign merchants established diaspora communities in China. This marble panel was part of a Chinese-style funerary bed made for an individual from Sogdiana (in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). Faintly visible in the lower centre is a fire altar, flanked by hybrid bird-priests. Both are motifs that reference the Zoroastrian religion, practised in the Sasanian empire and in a local form in Sogdiana.

There were Zoroastrian temples and other foreign religious establishments in Chang'an, which, until around the mid-AD 800s, was largely tolerant of different faiths.

Northern China
AD 550–77
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, A.54-1937
Purchased with Art Fund support, the Vallentin Bequest, Sir Percival David and the Universities China Committee

Image caption:

A reconstruction of an entire Sogdian funerary bed from Anyang, Henan province, China, AD 550–57. '

Anyang funerary bed (reconstitution with gates)' by Patna, 2022 via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-2.0 using images by Daderot, 2013 (Wikimedia Commons, CC-0.0), James Glazier, 2018 (Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-2.0), and Alfred Salmony, 1922 (National Institute of Informatics 'Digital Silk Road Project', Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books, doi:10.20676/00000251)

Horse-riding fashion

Tang China's openness to other cultures can also be seen in fashion. Clothing designed for horse-riding, associated with the pastoral nomads of the Steppe, was popular. This style typically included trousers, boots and a robe with narrow sleeves and round neckline that could be folded back to form wide lapels. This figure, identifiable as female by her hairstyle, is dressed in this manner. Her blue robe is coloured with cobalt, probably imported from a source in present-day Iran.

Northern China
AD 700–50
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, C.815-1936
Purchased with Art Fund support, the Vallentin Bequest, Sir Percival David and the Universities China Committee in 1936

Silver and scents

This delicate vessel is a censer, made to hold incense. Its internal mechanism has been designed to stay upright regardless of swinging movements, so it could have been hung in interior spaces or from a belt, releasing perfume with each step. Aromatics like sandalwood, aloeswood, camphor, frankincense and myrrh travelled along the Silk Roads from Arabia and South and Southeast Asia to the Tang capital.

China
AD 618–907
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, M.98-1938
Purchased with Art Fund support, the Vallentin Bequest, Sir Percival David and the Universities China Committee

Dancing and musical trends

The energetic 'Sogdian whirl' dance, depicted on this flask, was widely enjoyed at the Tang capital, where it was performed by entertainers from Central Asia. It was characterised by spinning and twirling movements, and accompanied by lively music.

The instruments depicted on the flask and held by the figurines here were introduced from the west to China before the Tang dynasty. The Tang court systematically integrated a variety of imported music into its repertoire, including from India, and Samarkand and Bukhara in Central Asia.

Musicians playing a lute (pipa) and a harp (shu konghou)
The pipa was introduced from India and Central Asia, and the
shu konghou probably originated from Mesopotamia China, AD 671–730
The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, EA1991.59 and 58
Bequeathed by J. Gentilli in 1991

Flask with dancer and musicians
China, AD 500s–600s
British Museum, 1936,1012.3
Purchased from George Eumorfopoulos

Vessel shapes from the west

In Tang China, the growing popularity of grape wine imported by Sogdian merchants saw new types of drinking vessels develop. This ceramic cup with an animal head is modelled after a rhyton, or drinking horn, originating from the Iranian world. Its sides are decorated with Central Asian figures and beaded borders. The silver cup with a ringed handle imitates Sogdian metalware, while the shape of the stem cup originated from the Mediterranean region.

Imported shapes were combined with local design features, such as the elaborate chased (hammered on the front) and ring-punched decoration on the stem cup.

White stoneware cup
Bequeathed by Mrs Walter Sedgwick

Silver cup with ringed handle
Purchased from George Eumorfopoulos

Silver stem cup
Bequeathed by Mrs Walter Sedgwick

China, AD 618–907
British Museum, 1968,0422.21; 1938,0524.706; 1968,0422.10

Image caption:

Detail of the stem cup, showing the intricate design achieved through chasing and punching.

Photo by Alessandro Armigliato

Shifting tastes

Changes in eating and drinking habits led to the adoption of new kinds of tableware in Tang China. The traditional practice of ladling out alcohol from a wide jar was eventually replaced by pouring drinks from vessels like this ewer, whose shape comes from Central and West Asia.

Large platters with a flat, shallow surface and feet, rare before the Tang dynasty, became popular. These were perhaps used to serve baked goods that had foreign origins, rather than the grain-based staples in China.

Phoenix-head earthenware ewer

Tripod earthenware dish

Northern China 
AD 618–907
British Museum, 1936,1012.1; 1936,1012.208
Both purchased from George Eumorfopoulos

Image caption:

Wall painting showing a female attendant holding an ewer and a small stem cup from the tomb of Princess Fangling, Shaanxi province, China, AD 673.

Courtesy of the Shaanxi History Museum

Case study panel text, on backdrop:
Seafarers in the Indian Ocean: maritime routes

In the early AD 800s a vessel set sail on its return journey, probably from southern China to the Arabian peninsula or the Persian Gulf. It was loaded with a huge cargo of over 60,000 items. The vast majority were Chinese ceramics, likely intended for a Middle Eastern market. The ship sank near Belitung Island, Indonesia, and lay virtually untouched on the seabed for over one thousand years, until its discovery in 1998.

A remarkable survival, this shipwreck reveals the scale and importance of transoceanic connections between AD 500 to 1000. It also illustrates how maritime, as opposed to overland, routes enabled the movement of large volumes of goods.

Map caption:

Map showing a possible route the ship would have taken (marked in pink), navigating between China, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East,
in about AD 830.

Mass production

The ship's hold was carefully packed with over 57,500 ceramics made in the Changsha kilns in south-central China. Known for their green-tinged glaze and fluid brushstrokes, these mass-produced Changsha wares were likely made specifically for export. They were transported padded in straw and stacked inside large stoneware jars.

The decoration on this bowl is unusual because the curly-haired man depicted represents a non-Chinese person, suggesting a milieu of different cultural encounters.

Changsha kilns, Hunan province, China
(Belitung shipwreck)
AD 830s
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, Tang Shipwreck
Collection, 2005.1.00539

Uncommon subjects

The sheer volume of Changsha bowls found in the shipwreck shows Tang China's capacity for industrial-scale production. Fragments have been found across maritime networks from Japan to East Africa.

This incense burner (another type of Changsha ware found onboard) imitates ancient metalware in its four-legged design. It is topped with a man wrestling a lion, a subject found in Greek and Roman iconography, but rare in Chinese art.

Changsha kilns, Hunan province, China
(Belitung shipwreck)
AD 830s
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, Tang Shipwreck
Collection, 2005.1.00497

'Blue-and-white' ceramics

Some of the rarest items discovered in the wreck are three early examples of Chinese 'blue-and-white' ceramics. This colour palette was not favoured in Tang China, so such wares were probably meant for export. The lozenge motif surrounded by foliage on the dish can be traced to pre-Islamic and Islamic Middle Eastern designs, while the cobalt blue pigment used to paint it was probably imported from present-day Iran.

Gongxian kilns, Henan province, China
(Belitung shipwreck)
AD 830s
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, Tang Shipwreck
Collection, 2005.1.00474

Everyday to luxury wares

This unusually large, green-splashed ewer has a distinctive feline-shaped handle and dragon-head spout. The energetic, freehand decoration probably inspired potters in the Islamic world, judging by visual comparisons with objects found there.

The diverse range of ceramics recovered from the shipwreck include stoneware with grey-green celadon glaze, and high-quality whitewares. These came from kilns across China.

Gongxian kilns, Henan province, China
(Belitung shipwreck)
AD 830s
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, Tang Shipwreck
Collection, 2005.1.00403

Sunken treasures

About 30 remarkable gold and silver items from the ship are the first discoveries of their kind to be found outside China. The shape of this cup, with its ringed handle, is derived from Sogdian (Central Asian) metalware. The figures that adorn each side are identifiable as Central Asian by their costumes and hairstyles. They include musicians and a dancer who raises his arms and one leg to perform the 'Sogdian whirl'. Similar cups have been found in the Tang capital, suggesting this type of vessel was also made for a local elite market.

Probably Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China
(Belitung shipwreck)
AD 830s
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, Tang Shipwreck
Collection, 2005.1.00918

Diplomatic gifts

Gold and silverware were prestigious in Tang China, often associated with imperial patronage and gift giving. The luxury pieces in the shipwreck, together with high-quality ceramics, may have been intended as diplomatic gifts from the Tang court to give in return to envoys from West or Southeast Asia. The depiction of a rhinoceros on the silver bowl may represent animals sent to the Tang court as an act of tribute from those regions. These objects raise questions of whether the ship's venture was purely commercial or not.

Silver bowl with a rhinoceros

Gold bowl with a pair of geese

Probably Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China
(Belitung shipwreck)
AD 830s
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, Tang Shipwreck
Collection, 2005.1.00923 and 2005.1.00888

Life onboard

Some objects from the shipwreck appear to be personal items belonging to its crew and passengers, who likely went down with the ship. They seem to have been a multicultural group, probably embarking from the many ports at which the ship stopped.

A literate Chinese passenger probably owned this inkstone, used for grinding ink and writing. Some objects are from Southeast Asia, like this bronze mirror from Sumatra. A tiny blue-glass bottle, perhaps for medicine or cosmetics, is one of the few items of Middle Eastern origins.

Bronze mirror
Sumatra, Indonesia
(Belitung shipwreck)
Early AD 800s

Inkstone with engraved insect
China
(Belitung shipwreck)
AD 830s

Glass bottle
Middle East
(Belitung shipwreck)
AD 830s

Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, Tang Shipwreck
Collection, 2005.1.00548; 2005.1.00834; 2005.1.00544

Label for the film:
Secrets of the Belitung shipwreck

In 1998, a shipwreck and its cargo were found near Belitung Island in the Java Sea. Seabed Explorations, a German company, conducted the salvage with permission from the Indonesian government. In 2005, Singapore acquired most of the cargo through the generous donation of the Estate of Khoo Teck Puat, in his late honour.

The collection is now under Singapore's National Heritage Board, with a selection on display in the Khoo Teck Puat Gallery of the Asian Civilisations Museum.

Duration: about 1 min 30 secs
This film has no sound

Images courtesy of Dr Michael Flecker

Section panel, to the right:
Routes in Asia: crossing seas, mountains and deserts

The vast and multiple networks of the Silk Roads spanned many landscapes in Asia, from mountains to deserts and oases, and across rivers and oceans.

In the south, maritime routes navigated through the warm waters of coastal kingdoms. To the north, trails crossed the Himalayan mountains via northern India to reach the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau, where the Tibetan empire (about AD 600–866) was based. At its peak, the Tibetan empire (also called Tubo) expanded into the Tarim Basin, taking over kingdoms and oasis settlements that were formerly dominated by Tang China.

Camel caravans skirted around the desert of the Tarim Basin. As well as transporting objects and ideas, religions, primarily Buddhism, flowed with them too.

Theme panel, ahead:
From the coast to the roof of the world

In coastal areas of South and Southeast Asia, bustling centres for regional and long-distance maritime trade thrived. Traders procured goods like spices through the port cities of the Srivijaya empire (about AD 600s–1200s), which emerged from Palembang in present-day Indonesia. Among the spices were cloves, which grew only in the Maluku Islands.

Vibrant foreign communities sprang up, including Buddhist monks who travelled between neighbouring regions, bringing their faith with them. Other religions like Hinduism and Christianity were also practised. Across the Himalayan mountains, the Tibetan empire adopted Buddhism as its official religion in the 700s.

A maritime Buddhist centre

The 'Belitung ship' sank in the waters of the Srivijaya empire (about AD 600s–1200s), which extended to the Thai peninsula and other parts of the region. Srivijaya traded with China and the Indian subcontinent, and was also a seat of Buddhist learning, attracting practitioners and scholars travelling along maritime routes.

This bronze sculpture is of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, a compassionate being who has all but reached enlightenment. Its multiple arms and animal skin hip-wrap indicate links with images from Southern India.

Thailand, AD 600–700s
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.72-1993
Purchased with Art Fund support

Buddhist art of Java

Srivijaya interacted with nearby Javanese kingdoms that also adopted Buddhism. Borobudur, a spectacular terraced pyramid representing a Buddhist view of the cosmos, was built in central Java around AD 800.

This head of the Buddha from Borobudur draws on elements of Indian Gupta art (300s–500s), such as the 'snail-shell' hair curls. However, the rounded face, naturalistic features and its porous volcanic rock are characteristic of Javanese Buddhist sculpture.

Java, Indonesia
Late AD 700s or early 800s
British Museum, 1859,1228.176
Acquired by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles at Borobudur, Indonesia between 1811–16
Donated by Reverend William Charles Raffles Flint

Image caption:

Adorning the Borobudur monument are carved images of ships, which were part of the coastal activities in these waters.

Photo by Anandajoti Bhikkhu, 2015 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Buddhism from India on the move

This stone sculpture of the seated Buddha (centre) comes from Bihar in northeast India. Home to many religious and pilgrimage sites like Bodh Gaya, Bihar was also the seat of the thriving monastic-university Nalanda. The Tang Chinese monks Xuanzang (AD 602–64) and Yijing (635–713), and the monk Hyecho (704–87) from Silla Korea, all visited Nalanda.

As well as their teachings, pilgrims, monks and scholars spread Buddhist objects along their travels, like these small (and therefore portable) bronze sculptures from India, which were found in Java and Tibet.

Seated bronze Buddha figure
Made in West Bengal; found at Prambanan, Java, Indonesia
AD 800s
British Museum, 1859,1228.1
Acquired by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles on Java between 1811–16
Donated by Reverend William Charles Raffles Flint

Seated schist Buddha figure
Bihar, India, late AD 600s
British Museum, 1854,0214.1, purchased from Robert Montgomery Martin

Standing bronze Buddha figure
Probably made in Bihar, India; found in Tibet Autonomous Region, China, AD 601–50
British Museum, 2004,0401.1
Purchased through Eskenazi Ltd with contributions from Heritage Lottery Fund, Art Fund, Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund, Victoria and Albert Museum and Friends of the V&A

Map caption:

Map tracing the journey of the Buddhist monk Hyecho, from the Korean peninsula to possibly as far as Arabia and back to northern China.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Hybrid metalware from the Tibetan empire

Beyond the Himalayas was the Tibetan empire, which at its peak bordered Tang China, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. This silver vase evokes this multiculturalism. It depicts pairs of phoenixes, a motif found in Chinese art, but its shape and beaded edge were inspired by Sasanian styles that had spread east through Central Asia. Rulers from the Tibetan empire presented Tang China with such lavish gold and silver vessels as diplomatic gifts.

Tibet Autonomous Region, China
AD 700–800s
The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, EA1999.98. 
Purchased 1999

Musk – connecting Tibet and the Islamic world

Musk is obtained from the glands of the male musk deer, identifiable in this drawing by its distinctive protruding canine teeth. It could be used in grain form, or more commonly as oil, liquid, incense or powdered compounds. Musk from Tibet was greatly sought-after in the Islamic world, where it was enjoyed as a therapeutic perfume and venerated for its associations with the sacred.

William Home Lizars
1866
Published in Edinburgh, Scotland British Museum, 1983,U.691, donated by Reverend Francis Palgrave

Theme panel, ahead:
The Dunhuang 'Library Cave'

The garrison town of Dunhuang was a key conduit between Chang'an and the Tarim Basin, from where routes extended towards Central and South Asia. Initially under Tang rule, the Tibetan empire later dominated the region until local forces expelled it.

In 1900, a sealed chamber was discovered at the Mogao rock-cut temple complex near Dunhuang, containing some 70,000 manuscripts, paintings, textiles and other objects. A significant number of these were acquired by the Hungarian-British archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943), and are now partly kept in the British Museum. The discoveries from the 'Library Cave' at Dunhuang have transformed understanding of the diverse cultures that once thrived in this part of the Silk Roads.

Image caption:

The Dunhuang Mogao ('Peerless') Caves, a large Buddhist rock-cut temple complex with remarkable sculptures and wall paintings.

Photo by Zhang Zhugang, 2013 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Silk in service of Buddhism

One of the most impressive finds from the Mogao Caves, this massive embroidery depicts the Buddha emerging from a rocky mountain, accompanied by bodhisattvas and disciples. It is sewn with silk threads on a silk ground backed with hemp.

Traces of embroidered text suggest the textile was commissioned by a senior monk at a monastery at the Mogao Caves, which was a major Buddhist complex. The embroidery perhaps hung in a shrine as a focus for worship. Travellers would have prayed for divine protection before braving the Taklamakan Desert.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
About AD 700s
British Museum, MAS,0.1129, Stein collection

A supernatural travelling monk

Many pilgrims and monks visited Dunhuang, including the Tang monk Xuanzang (AD 602–64). He ignored a ban on foreign travel and embarked on an intrepid 16-year-long return journey from Chang'an to India.

This sketch from Dunhuang depicts a monk whose supernatural status is indicated by the cloud he is travelling on, his tiger companion, and the Buddha image. He is portrayed with exaggerated facial features, suggesting that he represents a person of non-Chinese origins.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
About AD 851–900
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.168, Stein collection

Spread of new Buddhist knowledge

A mandala is a symbolic diagram that may be used as a meditation aid, or a layout for a ritual space. This example, known as Vajradhatu ('diamond realm'), is derived from a text that appeared in India in the AD 600s and was translated into Chinese in 753, demonstrating the spread of new Buddhist knowledge that reached Dunhuang.

The cosmic Buddha is depicted in the centre, surrounded by other Buddhas, Heavenly Kings and fierce guardians.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
About AD 851–900
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.173, Stein collection

Jesus as a bodhisattva

Other religions apart from Buddhism are also represented at the Mogao Caves. This figure has some features typical of a bodhisattva, but it may be an image of a Christian saint made for a follower of the Church of the East, since crosses are visible on the figure's headdress, necklace and chest.

Recent analysis suggests that the figure might represent Jesus in the context of Manicheanism, a religion founded in the Sasanian empire.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
AD 800s
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.48, Stein collection

Image caption:

This line drawing is a reconstruction of the painting shown above, to reveal its detail more clearly.

Art historical research: Dr Zsuzsanna Gulacsi (Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff). Imaging work: Ryan Belnap (Weber State University, Ogden, Utah)

Reading Sanskrit in Chinese

The spread of Buddhism necessitated the study and translation of original Sanskrit teachings into other languages. This concertina-shaped book contains the 'Heart of the Perfection Wisdom Sutra' (Prajnaparamita hrdaya sutra), written in Sanskrit, but here accompanied by Chinese transliterations in alternating columns. The Sanskrit, normally read across from left to right, has been rearranged to match the orientation of the Chinese letters, read from top to bottom, right to left.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
AD 900s
British Library, London, Or.8212/195, Stein collection

Chinese-Khotanese interactions

This set of pothi leaves (derived from Indian palm leaf) has text on both sides in Chinese and Khotanese, the language of a Buddhist kingdom in the southwest of the Tarim Basin. The writing identifies the animal-headed female figures as spirits that could harm children unless their parents made sacrifices to them.

The Chinese text is written vertically, while the Khotanese is written horizontally. Documents like these reflect the multicultural and multilingual environment at Dunhuang.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
About AD 800s
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.177.1–3, Stein collection

A 'bilingual' painting

This impressive painting (behind, above) may depict the Paradise of the Medicine Buddha. A faint Chinese-Tibetan inscription at the centre indicates that it was commissioned by a Tibetan monk for his mother.

The two bodhisattvas flanking the Medicine Buddha (upper centre) are depicted with narrow waists, broad shoulders and elliptical haloes, following Himalayan-derived models. These are distinct from the rest of the painting, which features figural types associated with Chinese Buddhist art.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
AD 836
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.32, Stein collection

Envoys and animal tributes

Diplomatic engagement between Dunhuang and neighbouring kingdoms in the Tarim Basin, and with Chinese imperial dynasties, happened frequently in the AD 900s. 

This lively sketch (behind, above) shows two envoys leading animals intended as tribute, identifiable as such because they do not carry loads and their grooms wear the headdresses of government officials. Text on both sides describe the local ruler of Dunhuang, his wife and their Buddhist patronage activities.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
AD 966
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.77, Stein collection

Diplomatic gifts

Envoys and their hosts routinely exchanged gifts. This document lists offerings from the Ganzhou Uyghur kingdom (close to Dunhuang) to the Tang court, and the latter's return gifts corresponding to each item. Details from the Ganzhou Uyghurs included 'Persian' textiles, military equipment, ivory and antelope horn, ammonium salt and horses. The Tang court gave different kinds of silk textiles in return – for example, a piece of ivory was reciprocated with 20 bolts of silk.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
About AD 894–907
British Library, London, Or.8210/S.8444A Recto, Stein collection

Trading an enslaved woman for silk

Manuscripts discovered at Dunhuang indicate that there was an established market for the trade of enslaved people in the region, and that diplomatic envoys also transported enslaved people as gifts.

This contract records the sale of a 28-year-old woman called Xiansheng in exchange for five bolts of silk. It was witnessed by a Buddhist monk and nun. All involved added a mark after their names at the end of the contract.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
AD 991
British Library, London, Or.8210/S.1946, Stein collection

An imported painting?

This colourfully painted banner (behind, above) brings together artistic traditions from Khotan, Tibet, Kashmir and the Himalayas more generally. It was perhaps brought to Dunhuang from elsewhere, or may show how local artists there mastered other styles of painting. The silk surface is more densely woven than other images from Dunhuang. It also has a Tibetan inscription on the reverse side, identifying the figure as the
bodhisattva Vajrapani, 'The Thunderbolt Holder'.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
AD 801–50
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.103, Stein collection

Sasanian elements in Dunhuang

This painted bodhisattva (behind, above) holds an alms bowl. The translucency and greenish tone are clearly meant to represent glass, which, in Buddhism, is a symbol of clarity and purity. The painted bowl is dotted to suggest dimpled sides, evoking a feature of glass vessels associated with the Sasanian empire, examples of which have been found in China. Such precious imports were incorporated into the iconography of Buddhist art at Dunhuang.

Bodhisattva with a glass bowl Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
About AD 851–900
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.139, Stein collection

Facet-cut glass bowl Probably from Amlash, Iran
AD 500s–600s
British Museum, 134373 
Purchased from Saeed Motamed

Rich colours and patterns of the Silk Roads

Two silk fragments (shown above) are patterned with geese and flowers within roundels, a motif that developed from designs spread from Central and West Asia to China. The pattern is created using wooden clamps to cover areas of the fabric, which is then dipped in a dye bath.

Scientific analysis of the dyes in the fragments, carried out by the British Museum, informed the reconstruction of these textiles by experts in China. Although the result is approximate, the reconstruction reveals how vibrant such textiles originally were.

Clamp-resist dyed silk textiles
Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
AD 700s–800s
British Museum, MAS.876 and MAS.877, Stein collection

Reconstruction of clamp-resist dyed textile
Collaboration between the British Museum, the China National Silk Museum and Zhejiang University, China

Textiles from Central Asia

The silk border and tie of this sutra wrapper (a cover for scrolls) are skilfully woven with a pattern of facing lions in a medallion, a design associated with Central Asian imagery.

Recent scientific analysis has revealed that the green colour on the textiles contained yellow larkspur, a plant dye from Delphinium semibarbatum that is rare in northwest China but common in Central Asia. This supports the theory that the textile was imported from Central Asia to Dunhuang.

Sutra wrapper
Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
Late AD 700s–800s
British Museum, MAS.858, Stein collection

Reconstruction of the textile with facing lions based on scientific analysis
Collaboration between the British Museum, the China
National Silk Museum and Zhejiang University, China

Label for the film
Weaving a Central Asian textile

Here the weaver Yu Youde uses traditional techniques and equipment to painstakingly reconstruct a woven silk textile known as samite. The loom he uses is a modification of the vertical zilu loom from Iran. The threads are dyed with natural pigments, identified through scientific analysis to closely approximate the original hues of the textile. Slowly, a repeating pattern of lions confronting each other emerges across the horizontal weft direction, the same as on the border of the ancient sutra wrapper displayed nearby.

Duration: about 1 min 30 secs
This film has no sound

Collaboration between the British Museum, the China National Silk Museum and Zhejiang University, China
The reconstruction in this film and in the display is a work-in-progress

Theme panel, ahead:
Oasis cities along desert routes

Dunhuang was situated near the crossroads of two branches of the Silk Roads. From there, travellers in camel caravans could choose either a northern or southern route to circumvent the formidable Taklamakan and Lop Deserts of the Tarim Basin, before reaching Kashgar. Along these arduous routes were oasis kingdoms and cities, where people could rest, drink and replenish.

At such sites evidence for the fusion of cultures, religious ideologies and technologies can be found. Among the peoples of this multicultural region were the Uyghurs, one of the Turkic people from the Steppe, and the Khotanese.

Chinese presence in Gaochang

Along the northern edge of the Tarim Basin was the oasis city Gaochang, near Turpan. It was conquered by Tang China in AD 640, resulting in further migration of Chinese people to the region. This clay memorial from the Astana Cemetery, which served the settlement of Gaochang, is written in Chinese for a woman called Lady Qu, who came from a major local clan. Her husband, a military general, was granted a Tang official position.

Astana Cemetery, Turpan, China
AD 667
British Museum, 1928,1022.198, Stein collection

Foreign coins and their adaptation

Sasanian silver coins and a few Byzantine gold coins have been found in the Gaochang region, probably brought there by Sogdian merchants. Coins, both genuine and imitation, were also incorporated into burial customs. In one of the tombs at the Astana Cemetery, a man was buried with a gold imitation Byzantine coin in his mouth. He was accompanied by a woman with two Chinese bronze coins placed beside her head. In another tomb, a woman was found with imitation Sasanian silver coins placed over her eyes.

1 to 3: Imitation Byzantine coin; Chinese coin; imitation Sasanian coin
AD 600s; AD 500s; AD 600s
Astana Cemetery, Turpan, China
British Museum, A,XII.c.1–2, IA and XII.a.3, Stein collection

Well-preserved provisions

The remains of food offerings from the Astana Cemetery have survived remarkably well due to dry conditions at the site. In this wooden bowl are dried grapes and a jujube fruit (similar to a date).

It is said that winemaking spread from Gaochang to Tang China, and a grape variety from there known as 'mare's teats' was planted in the palace in Chang'an. There is a grape on the food item that looks like a jam tart. These well-preserved treats may be examples of foreign bread or cakes (hubing) that became popular in Chang'an.

Wooden bowl with dried grapes and a jujube
Astana Cemetery, Turpan, China
About AD 651–750
British Museum, 1928,1022.106.a and b, Stein collection

Food items
Astana Cemetery, Turpan, China
Mid-AD 700s
British Museum, 1928,1022.123, 124, 125, 128, 130 and 132,
Stein collection

Funerary banner of a high-ranking Uyghur

From AD 744 to 840, the nomadic Uyghurs from the Mongolian Plateau established an empire on the Steppe. When it collapsed, parts of the population moved southwest and by 866 gained control of Gaochang after Tang China's withdrawal from the region. They established the Kocho kingdom and adopted Manichaeanism, a religion founded in the Sasanian empire.

This cotton funerary banner depicts a high-ranking Uyghur, perhaps a royal minister, wearing horse-riding attire. An inscription in the Turkic language of Kocho names him as 'Kara Totok' noting that his son commissioned the painting.

Ruin Alpha, Kocho (Gaochang), near Turpan, China
AD 900s–1000s
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, III 4524
First Turfan Expedition (1902–03)

Manichaeanism spreads east

The religion of Manichaeanism, established by the Persian prophet Mani (AD 216–74/77), faced persecution in the Sasanian empire. It was carried eastwards along the Silk Roads, finding refuge in the Tang capital, and subsequently in the Uyghur kingdom of Kocho.

The larger of these wall painting fragments depicts two Manichaean clerics (electi). They wear tall headdresses and white priestly robes that leave only their faces exposed. The other fragment portrays Manichaean deities or perhaps laywomen.

Two Manichaean electi
Ruin Alpha, Kocho (Gaochang), near Turpan, China
AD 800s–900s
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, III 4624.
First Turfan Expedition (1902–03)

Three Manichaean women or deities 
Ruin K, Kocho (Gaochang), near Turpan, China
AD 800s–900s
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, III 6916. 
Second Turfan Expedition (1904–05)

The rise of Buddhism among the Uyghurs

By the early 1000s, most Uyghurs of Kocho had become Buddhists. These wall painting fragments were found low on the back wall of a ruined temple near Karashahr, west of Kocho. They show monks receiving instructions and being in the presence of divine beings. On the far right is a kneeling young man whose attire and hairstyle suggest he might be a Uyghur Buddhist follower.

Ming-oi, near Karashahr, China
About AD 900s (or earlier)
British Museum, 1919,0101,0.279.d, c, b, a, l and m, Stein collection

Jewish traders

This is one of the earliest surviving documents of Judaeo-Persian origin. It was discovered at the ruins of Dandan Uiliq, a Buddhist site and oasis town near the southern edge of the Tarim Basin. It is part of a letter in New Persian written using Hebrew script, mixed with other linguistic elements including Sogdian. The letter concerns sheep trading and may be evidence of Central Asian Jewish traders working in this region.

Dandan Uiliq, Khotan, Chi
About AD 802
British Library, London, Or.8212/166, Stein collection

Hinduism in the Tarim Basin

Many religions expanded by way of the Silk Roads. This wooden votive panel depicts Ganesha, a Hindu deity. He is recognisable by his elephant head, human body and four arms. Ganesha holds an axe, a goad (a spiked stick), a broken tusk and a bowl of sweets in his hands, consistent with his iconography in Indian art. This object illustrates the connections between kingdoms in the Tarim Basin and the Indian subcontinent.

Endere, China
Probably AD 600s–700s
British Museum, 1907,1111.68, Stein collection

Horse and camel-riding deities

This enigmatic image from Dandan Uiliq, part of the Khotan kingdom, highlights the mixed cultural environments that developed along the Silk Roads. The object was probably a votive panel, but the identities of the figures are not certain. The rider of the horse may be linked to the Buddhist Heavenly King Vaishravana. Alternatively, these men could represent Turkic envoys, or they may be local deities.

Dandan Uiliq, Khotan, China
Probably AD 600s–700s
British Museum, 1907,1111.70, Stein collection

Legend of the silk princess

Silk is woven from the protein fibre that comes from the cocoons of domesticated silkworms fed mostly on the leaves of the mulberry tree. This panel tells the story of how the secrets of silk farming – a Chinese monopoly for thousands of years – came to Khotan.

Upon her engagement to the king of Khotan, a princess from the east (the central figure) decided to give her new people the gift of silk. Departing her homeland, she smuggled silkworm eggs and mulberry seeds in her headdress. Khotan went on to develop a flourishing silk industry. To the princess's right, another woman is weaving using a loom and a comb beater, like the example shown here.

'Silk princess' votive panel
Dandan Uiliq, Khotan, China
Probably AD 600s–700s
British Museum, 1907,1111.73, Stein collection

Wooden comb beater Mazar Toghrak, China
Probably AD 700s
British Museum, MAS.472, Stein collection

Silk cocoons
Wuxi, Jiangsu province, China

Everyday life at a guard-station

This modest shoe reminds us of the importance of textiles other than silk, valued for their durability rather than luxury. Found at a guard-station at a desert hill fort, it is made of thick woollen felt with leather patches protecting the sole and heel. Decorated with fan-shaped stitching and secured around the ankle using a drawstring, it evokes everyday life on the Silk Roads.

Mazar Tagh, China
Late AD 700s–800s
British Museum, MAS.495, Stein collection

Case study panel text, on backdrop:
Sogdians of Samarkand: intercultural connectors

Although today their name is perhaps unfamiliar, the Sogdians were once among the great traders of the Silk Roads. Setting forth from Sogdiana, their homeland in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, they engaged in trade across thousands of kilometres, from the Steppe to India, and China to the Mediterranean world. Their success peaked in the AD 500s to 700s, before their assimilation into the Islamic world.

The city-states of Sogdiana were conquered by Türk armies in the early 500s. This led to an alliance that benefitted Sogdiana's trading activities. Archaeological finds in Samarkand, an important Sogdian centre, reveal the existence of a sophisticated court that grew rich from local farming and far-reaching commercial connections.

Map caption:

Map showing some of the main cities and settlements of Sogdiana.

Label for the film:
Reconstructing the murals in the 'Hall of the Ambassadors'

This film shows the complete surviving murals from the 'Hall of the Ambassadors' in a reconstructed space. It offers a glimpse of the Sogdians' widespread political relations and prosperous courtly lifestyles.

Duration: about 2 mins
This film has no sound

Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, Samarkand State Museum-Reserve, Northeast Asian History Foundation

Cosmopolitan court life

A vibrant mural was found in the reception hall ('Hall of the Ambassadors') of an aristocratic house in Samarkand. Its central scene shows a procession honouring the Sogdian ruler Varkhuman (active about AD 660s), with figures hailing from as far as the Korean peninsula.

The section shown here depicts Varkhuman's entourage visiting the shrine of his ancestors to pay their respects. The full mural, which also features scenes about India and Tang China, reflects the Sogdians' understanding of themselves as integral players across regional and far-reaching networks.

Samarkand (Afrasiab), Uzbekistan
About AD 660s
State Museum-Reserve, 'Samarkand', KP-6251

Religious practice and wider connections

Carbonised and so preserved by fire, these charred wooden door panels were found in a throne room of a citadel. At the centre and top of the arch is Nana, the supreme goddess of Sogdiana. One form of the goddess has multiple arms, suggesting connections with Hindu art. Male worshippers surround her, holding vessels and playing music, possibly of the kinds the Sogdians spread to China.

Kafir Kala, near Samarkand (Afrasiab), Uzbekistan
AD 500s
State Museum-Reserve, 'Samarkand', A-666-1 to 6

Image caption:

Reconstruction drawing showing a detail of the carvings on the door panels from Kafir Kala.

Drawing by M. Sultanova

Changing burial practices

Alongside other beliefs, Sogdians practised a local form of Zoroastrianism that was the state religion of the Sasanian empire. They exposed their dead to the open air and birds of prey, then gathered the remaining bones in clay ossuaries (funerary containers) like this. Elite Sogdian immigrants in China laid their dead to rest in Chinese-style tombs, but they continued to use elements of Zoroastrian imagery, such as sacred fire, for burial markers.

Mulla Kurgan, Samarkand region, Uzbekistan
AD 600s–700s
State Museum-Reserve, 'Samarkand', A-436-1; KP-3582

The question of Sogdian textiles

Sogdian artisans excelled at textile weaving. Wall paintings from Samarkand show people dressed in richly patterned clothing, yet few textiles have been found in Sogdiana, making attributions challenging.

This silk textile was discovered in Dunhuang, China. Until recently, its pattern of facing ibexes in a beaded roundel was described as 'Sogdian-style', by comparison with an inscribed textile, today preserved in Belgium. However, the inscription on the latter, once thought to be Sogdian, is actually Arabic, so questions remain.

Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
AD 700s
British Museum, MAS.862.a and b, Stein collection

Manufacture and movement of luxury goods

The Sogdians were renowned for their metalwork, which was extensively traded. The shape and metallic sheen of this clay jug imitates a type of Sogdian metalware that spread to Tang China and inspired makers there.

The silver bowl is an example of the vessels that the Sogdians produced. A Sogdian inscription on the outer rim refers to the 'head of the community', indicating local ownership. It was found with an earlier Sasanian dish and a bowl possibly from Bactria in the south, suggesting that luxury objects flowed into Sogdiana as well as out.

Mica clay jug
Kafir Kala, Samarkand region, Uzbekistan
AD 500s–600s
State Museum-Reserve, 'Samarkand', А-183-814

Silver bowl
Chilek, Samarkand region, Uzbekistan
AD 500s–600s
State Museum-Reserve, 'Samarkand', KP-2934/A; A-390-2; BS-2

Case study panel text, on backdrop:
Buddhist believers of Tokharistan

The fertile lands of Tokharistan (former Bactria) sat at a crossroads of cultures. Straddling present-day Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, and situated south of Sogdiana, the region was a junction for contact and the transmission of ideas, including some from India.

Buddhism was first adopted in Tokharistan during the AD 100s. The religion fell into decline as the region was fought over by the Sasanian empire and the Hephthalites of Central Asia. Buddhism experienced a revival in the 600s, marked by the construction of new religious complexes. This has been attributed to the dominance of the Türk empire and its tolerance of different religions.

Map caption:

Map locating the Buddhist complexes Ajina-Tepa and Kala-i Kafirnigan, and the Vakhsh Valley in Tokharistan (part of present-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan).

Legacy of Gandharan art

The art of Gandhara, based in northern Pakistan and extending to neighbouring regions, is characterised by an interplay between Buddhist art and the traditions of ancient Greece and the Roman empire. It developed after the military campaign of Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great, in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, during the 320s BC.

This bodhisattva from Tokharistan reveals a sensitive rendering of muscles and draped clothing, which resemble Indian Gupta art as well as the blended visual language of Gandharan art.

Corridor 23, Ajina-Tepa, Vakhsh Valley, Tajikistan 
AD 600s–700s
National Museum of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, КV-14096; RTL-9

'Kaftan' fashions across Eurasia

This sculpture from a Buddhist temple complex called Ajina-Tepa is clad in a costume that delicately clings to the male form. The figure probably represents a follower of Buddhism rather than a deity. His robe or 'kaftan', with overlapping front panels folded to form lapels, was popular across Eurasia. Notably, it was also worn by the neighbouring Sogdians as well as the Türks who dominated Tokharistan during its Buddhist revival.

Corridor 28, Ajina-Tepa, Vakhsh Valley, Tajikistan 
AD 600s–700s
National Museum of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, КV-13990; RTL-79

Head of a Buddha

Despite being damaged, the stylistic elements of this clay Buddha head are still clear. The steeply arched eyebrows that meet at the bridge of the nose, and the heavy upper eyelids connect it to Buddhist art from greater Gandhara and the Tarim Basin. It is one of many Buddha images found at Ajina-Tepa, the most impressive being a 12-metre-long reclining sculpture of the 'Sleeping Buddha'.

Room 39, Ajina-Tepa, Vakhsh Valley, Tajikistan 
AD 600s–700s
National Museum of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, KV-13989

Buddhist sites across Tokharistan

The Silk Roads facilitated the spread of Buddhist beliefs, and material traces can be found at different sites within Tokharistan. This clay torso of a kneeling male figure comes from Kala-i Kafirnigan, an ancient town north of Ajina-Tepa, and home to a Buddhist temple decorated with sculptures and murals. It is possibly a Buddhist guardian, or a noble worshipper. The head, probably belonging to the demon Mara who challenged the Buddha, was discovered in the Vakhsh Valley.

Torso of a man
Kala-i Kafirnigan, Tajikistan 
AD 600s–700s

Head of Mara 
Vakhsh Valley, Tajikistan 
AD 600s–700s

National Museum of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, КP-1912, КV-13971

Image caption:

Depiction of Turkic people in kaftans, from the 'Hall of Ambassadors' west wall.

Art and Culture Development Foundation of Uzbekistan, State Museum-Reserve 'Samarkand'

Case study panel text, on backdrop:
Vikings on the 'eastern way'

The overlapping networks of the Silk Roads reached far north, enabling peoples there to participate in long-distance exchange. From the AD 700s Scandinavians, known today as Vikings, increasingly sailed their longships across the Baltic, connecting with rivers in eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine. These snaking routes, called the austrvegr ('eastern way') in Old Norse, were gateways to lucrative markets in the Byzantine empire – centred on Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) – and Islamic lands further south.

Scandinavian, Slav, Baltic Finnic and Turkic peoples forged a network of multiethnic towns along the austrvegr. In time a new hybrid cultural identity known as Rus' emerged from this melting pot. Rus' ideas then flowed back to Scandinavia, evidenced at sites like Birka in Sweden, a major hub with far-flung links.

Map caption:

Map showing major river and sea routes of the austrvegr ('eastern way') between Scandinavia and the Black and Caspian Seas (in pink), with key settlements marked.

Rus' style

From head to toe, Rus' clothing blended Scandinavian and eastern elements. Items found at Birka, Sweden, evoke the spread of such fashions to Scandinavia. This silver mount adorned the tip of a type of silk cap found in Moshchevaya Balka in the northern Caucasus. The tunic fragment is made of valuable Byzantine silk, combined with locally woven bands shot through with metallic thread. The buttons originally fastened a robe or 'kaftan', a popular garment on the Steppe and further east, suggesting cultural exchange.

Silver conical cap mount

Silk tunic fragment with tablet-woven bands

Copper-alloy buttons

Birka, Uppland, Sweden
AD 900s
Historiska Museet, Stockholm

Image caption:

Artist's impression of a man in Rus' dress, including versions of the items displayed here.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Fighting fashions

The Rus' adopted and adapted military technology used by horse-riding archers on the Steppe. These arrow-heads and quiver mount from a grave at Birka belonged with a bow that decayed away in the ground. Combining wood, sinew and horn, such weapons enabled steppe archers to fire faster, further and with deadlier power. The sword-scabbard mount has a falcon motif that became entwined with Rus' identity across the Vikings' sphere of influence, appearing as far west as England. A stylised version still adorns Ukraine's coat of arms.

Iron arrow-heads and copper-alloy and leather quiver mount
Birka, Uppland, Sweden
AD 900s

Copper-alloy sword-scabbard mount with falcon motif
Åstad, Öland, Sweden
AD 800s–900s

Historiska Museet, Stockholm

Torrents of silver

A huge influx of Islamic silver dirham coins, traded in their millions along the 'eastern way', transformed the Baltic economy during the AD 800s and 900s. Some coins were fashioned into pendants, expressing prestigious links with Islamic lands.

Scientific analysis suggests that most were melted down to make ingots (solid metal bars) and jewellery. These items were in turn chopped up into 'hacksilver' and measured out as currency on eastern-style scales against Islamic weights or copies. These objects are from Gotland, a Baltic island which became a crucial intermediary in this network of the Silk Roads.

Dirham fragments and pendant
Minted in Central Asia or the Middle East; found on Gotland, Sweden
AD 800s–900s
British Museum, 1921,1101.350.c–g and 370

Ingot, neck and arm rings, hacksilver
Gotland, Sweden
AD 900s
British Museum, 1921,1101.360, 1921,1101.151, 1921,1101.306, 1921,1101.351–353, 1921,1101.355, 1921,1101.357–359 and 1921,1101.341–350.a

Portable scales and travelling case
Gotland, Sweden
AD 900s–1000s
British Museum, 1921,1101.320–321

All purchased from Dr James Curle with Art Fund support

The human cost

Most dirhams that flowed north on the austrvegr were exchanged for enslaved people, supplying a high demand for labour in Islamic lands. The trade consumed thousands of individuals who were violently taken by Vikings from across the Norse sphere.

This slate from Scotland shows a captive being led towards a longship by an armoured, long-haired figure. It mirrors the nerve-racking story of Findan (died AD 878), an Irish noble who was enslaved by Vikings but escaped on Orkney while being shipped towards Norway.

Inchmarnock, Buteshire, Scotland
AD 800s
On loan courtesy of National Museums Scotland and Bute Museum

Image caption:

The sketched scene on the slate, showing a Viking raider and his captive, outlined to reveal its detail more clearly.

© Headland Archaeology Ltd

Escape from enslavement: the life of St Findan

Findan was a Leinster noble, who grew up in eastern Ireland in the AD 800s. Viking raiders seized his sister, and so Findan's father tasked him with her recovery, but another group of Vikings ambushed him. Findan endured capture and escape three times before he found himself on the Orkney Islands, where he risked crossing open waters to evade his captors. Listen to his story here.

The Life of St Findan, unknown author, about AD 878–81 
Translated from Latin by Matthew C. Delvaux, Barnard College

Push button to start from the beginning
Duration: about 2 mins

Audio transcription:

'They came to some islands near the people of the Picts, which they call the Orkney Islands. Here they disembarked from the ship onto land to refresh their bodies. Findan began to investigate these island places, both for his health and with a mind anxious for escape.

Discovering a large rock in an obscure spot, Findan decided to hide himself beneath it immediately, although the rising tide of the sea would regularly submerge it. But once he had done this, he did not know where to turn. The sea pressed against him on one side. On the other, a fear of his enemies oppressed him greatly. And so, preferring to suffer the madness of the sea than to fall into the hands of men who exceeded the ferocity of all beasts, he scorned the danger of the waves, staying in that place that day and the following night.

On the next day, crawling through overgrown patches for fear of the pagans, he sought to find an escape. Findan had thought he was on the mainland inhabited by men, but seeing the limits of the island, he found it was surrounded on one side by the great belt of the sea, and on the other by no small bay. At dawn on the third day, however, he spied sea monsters and the immense bodies of dolphins playing and rolling by the shore.

Considering these things with a silent heart and with the aid of divine mercy, he poured out prayers with tears on his breast. Armed thus in the constancy of his faith, dressed as he was in all his clothing, he immersed himself in the sea. Wondrous is it to say it: divine pity made his garments immediately rigid, so that by these he was sustained and could not drown, and through swelling waves he was borne uninjured to land.'

Opposite sides of the same trade

Although visually similar, these objects evoke very different lives. The iron neck restraint is a type that may have bound captives sold along the 'eastern way'. In contrast, the fine silver neck ring, probably cast from melted dirhams, reflects the proceeds of this enslavement trade. In the AD 920s, the Arab traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan reported that Rus' traders had a precious neck ring made for their wives whenever they amassed 10,000 dirhams. Viewed together, these items are visceral symbols of the exploitation that is a dark thread in the Silk Roads story.

Iron neck restraint Birka, Uppland, Sweden
Late AD 800s–900s
Historiska Museet, Stockholm

Silver neck ring 
Near Tallinn, Estonia
Late AD 900s
British Museum, 1924,0108.1
Purchased from Louis Jeppe and Roseberry & Co. Ltd

Section panel, to the right:
Central Asia to Arabia: Islamic Interactions

Just as the Silk Roads had provided a network for the transmission of the teachings of Buddhism, it also facilitated the spread of a new religion, Islam.

Islam was established in the early AD 600s among the people of Arabia through the Prophet Muhammad (about 570–632). At this time, the Middle East was dominated by two competing powers, the Sasanians in Mesopotamia and Iran (221–651), and the Byzantines in the Mediterranean (330–1453). Arab forces rapidly conquered much of these territories, and by the early 700s Muslim rule spanned from present-day Pakistan to Spain.

The new rulers had to engage with a diverse population of different faiths. They adapted existing traditions while developing new distinctive identities. Muslim traders, pilgrims, scholars and artisans travelled widely, helping to transmit ideas.

Theme panel, behind:
Central Asia after the Arab conquest

The initial expansion of the Islamic world occurred within a few decades, but changes to daily life in many parts of the new empire were more gradual. The early caliphates (Muslim political-religious states) drew on the legacies of the Sasanian and Byzantine empires, imitating and adapting visual styles and symbols of power. Conversion to Islam occurred slowly, as old religious practices were tolerated under Muslim rule. Arabic was adopted for higher-level administration and Muslim theology, but local languages continued.

Map caption:

Map showing the spread of the Islamic empire during the Umayyad dynasty, AD 632–750.

Cartography by Martin Brown

Islam encounters Buddhism

The Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan remained a major Buddhist site even after the arrival of Islam to the region by the AD 800s–900s. The site was dominated by two colossal rock-cut Buddha sculptures that had overlooked the valley for over 1,500 years. This sculpture, dating from the same period, was found in a cave nearby. In contrast to the tolerance shown by early Muslim caliphates, in 2001 the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group, destroyed the enormous ancient Buddhas.

Cave 5, Bamiyan, Afghanistan
AD 500s
Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, Paris, MG 17943. DAFA excavations, Joseph Hackin Expedition (1929–30)

Image caption:

One of the colossal sandstone Buddhas, which was subsequently destroyed by the Taliban.
Bamiyan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Afghanistan.

© Robert Harding, 2008 via Alamy Stock Photo

Coded beliefs

In AD 709, Arab forces conquered Bukhara, Uzbekistan. This wall painting, made soon after, decorated the reception hall of a local Sogdian ruler appointed by the new Muslim authorities. Its composition, featuring elephant riders battling real and mythical creatures, is unique among surviving Sogdian paintings. Does the scene relate to local beliefs, religious imagery from India, or perhaps a battle against invading forces? It is possible that it was deliberately enigmatic to avoid censure.

Palace of Varakhsha, Bukhara region, Uzbekistan
About AD 730
State Museum of Art, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1618

The 'Game of Kings'

This is the earliest known group of chess pieces in the world. Probably originating in India as an aristocratic game, chess spread along Silk Roads routes and became a popular pastime across the Islamic world and Europe.

These pieces are made of ivory, which probably came from India. They reflect the continued movement of luxury goods and elite customs in the Islamic period.

Excavated in Samarkand (Afrasiab), Uzbekistan
AD 700s
State Museum-Reserve 'Samarkand', A-455-1 to 5, A-455-7 and 8; KP-3786/1

Diffusion of geometric designs

By the AD 800s, abstract geometric designs derived from botanical motifs had become widely recognisable features of Islamic visual culture. This type of composition spread throughout the Muslim world, suggesting the movement of artisans. Over time, local variations emerged, as illustrated by this stucco panel (shown behind), where the motifs are both delicately and elaborately rendered. It was made in Samarkand, part of the Samanid empire (819–999), one of the new regional powers that emerged later in the Islamic world.

Samarkand (Afrasiab), Uzbekistan
AD 800–1000
State Museum-Reserve 'Samarkand', A-94-9

Adoption of Arabic

Along with Islam, the Arabic language travelled along the Silk Roads. In the Samanid empire where this dish was made, most people spoke Iranian languages like Persian, but Arabic became accepted for use in high-level administration and Muslim theology. The Arabic text in striking kufic script on this ceramic dish includes proverbs, blessings and encouragements to tuck into food and drink. This example partly reads: 'Livelihood is distributed by God among the people'.

Nishapur, Iran
AD 900s
British Museum, 1948,1009.1
Purchased from A. Haskell, as agent for Mme Mousa

Emergence of the 'Book of Kings'

During the Samanid dynasty, contact between those who wrote and spoke Persian and Arabic languages led to the emergence of New Persian, written in Arabic. The Shahnama ('Book of Kings'), an epic poem by the poet Firdowsi (died 1025) was written in early New Persian. This renowned tale recounts stories of semi-mythical kings and heroes in ancient Persia. The tale existed long before the arrival of Islam, as attested by this older manuscript fragment (right), written in Sogdian and found at Dunhuang, China. It describes the hero of the Shahnama, Rustam, battling demons.

'Zal makes Rustam a Paladin'
Shiraz, Iran
1330–40
British Museum, 1925,0220,0.1
Purchased from Georges Tabbagh

Fragment of the story of Rustam and the Demons, written in Sogdian
Found in Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China
About AD 800s
British Library, London, Or.8212/81 Recto, Stein collection

Sasanians on the Silk Roads

Prior to its conquest by Arab forces in AD 651, the Sasanian empire played a major role in trans-Eurasian trade, both over land and sea. Its busy capital Ctesiphon, on the banks of the Tigris River, was a major stopping point for trade along the Silk Roads. This plate was possibly acquired in Afghanistan, once on the outer reaches of the empire. It depicts a Sasanian king hunting lions – a metaphor for royal glory and good fortune.

Possibly acquired in India or Afghanistan
AD 400–700
British Museum, 124092
Bequeathed by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Sasanian legacies in the Islamic world

Shapes and designs on objects from the Sasanian empire continued into the Islamic period, such as the form of this ewer, along with its leaf-shaped thumb-rest.

The fantastical beast depicted here is traditionally called a 'senmurv', and combines a dog's head, a lion's legs and possibly a peacock's tail. Common in Sasanian art, the creature appears again on the woven silk textile (shown behind). Following the Arab conquest of Persia, the new rulers took over Sasanian government-controlled weaving workshops. They also continued to enjoy existing designs in textiles made for them.

Brass ewer
Iran
AD 800s
British Museum, 1959,1023.1
Purchased from Mrs Khalil Rabenou via the Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund

Silk textile
Made in Iran or Central Asia; said to be found in the Church of St Leu, Paris
AD 600–900
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 8579-1893 
Purchased from Baron M. Stanislas

Experiments with imagery

Early Islamic coins adapted those in use in the Sasanian and Byzantine empires, modifying their visual identity. On the left is an Arab-Sasanian example that still bears an image of a Sasanian king and Zoroastrian fire altar. Next is a Byzantine gold coin, followed by an imitation from the Umayyad caliphate (AD 661–750), where the crossbar of the Christian cross has been removed from its design. The caliph 'Abd al-Malik (ruled 685–705) experimented with figural representation by inserting his own image onto the fourth coin. He later only issued coins bearing Arabic script that proclaimed the Muslim faith.

1
Silver coin of Governor 'Abdallah ibn Khazim, imitating Sasanian issues of Khusrau II
Probably minted in Khurasan (a region across Afghanistan and Iran), AD 688

2
Gold coin of Heraclius I
Minted in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) AD 610–41

3
Gold Umayyad dinar copying Byzantine coin
Minted in Syria, about AD 690

4
Gold coin of the Umayyad caliph
'Abd al-Malik, showing the 'standing caliph' motif
Probably minted in Damascus, Syria, AD 695

5
Gold dinar of 'Abd al Malik inscribed with the Islamic profession of faith
Minted in Damascus, Syria, AD 696–97

British Museum, 1845,EIC.34 (donated by the East India Company); 1904,0604.336; 1954,1011.1 and 2 (donated by Professor Philip Grierson); 1874,0706.1

Appropriating symbols of power

This lion sculpture was found in the throne room of Mshatta, a winter palace of the Umayyad caliphate (AD 661–750) on the fringes of the desert within the Levant (in present-day Jordan). The impressive depiction draws on associations between lions and rulership as symbols of authority, well-established in Sasanian culture. The elaborate façade of Mshatta further adapted botanical imagery and other motifs from the Sasanian and Byzantine traditions.

Palace of Mshatta, south of Amman, Jordan
AD 743–4
Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
I. 6171

Byzantine connections in a desert palace

Also from Jordan, this section of a vibrant mosaic once decorated the floor of Qusayr Amra, an Umayyad 'desert palace' built for royal entertainment. Mosaics in early Islamic architecture drew from Byzantine traditions, sometimes reusing tesserae (small blocks) taken from churches. Wall paintings at this site also reference Byzantine art in their figurative imagery. Qusayr Amra was one of the desert complexes that the Umayyad caliphs constructed. Many were built along major routes connecting the Silk Roads, and may have provided respite for travellers.

From the main room of Qusayr Amra, Jordan
AD 723–43
Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, I.1265

Image caption:

Wall paintings from the audience hall at Qusayr Amra, a desert palace.
Photo by flowcomm, 2018 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Jerusalem and Islam

The domed building at the centre of this brass tray might be a reference to the Dome of the Rock, one of the earliest surviving buildings in the Islamic world. The shrine was built in Jerusalem after Arab forces seized the city from the Byzantines in AD 637. A monumental landmark, the building proclaimed Jerusalem as a Muslim sacred site, while also incorporating Judaeo-Christian elements to its structure, like its octagonal shape and dome.

Jordan or Iran
AD 600–800
Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, I.5624

Image caption:

Commissioned by the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik and first completed around AD 692, the 'Dome of the Rock' marked Muslim rule over Jerusalem.
Photo by Timothée Flutre, 2007 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Muslim pilgrims to Jerusalem

During the Umayyad period, markets developed to cater for the growing number of Muslim pilgrims to Jerusalem. Small glass flasks previously designed for Christian and Jewish travellers – possibly to carry away earth, oil and sanctified water from holy shrines – were adapted for a new Muslim audience. This example is decorated with the 'standing caliph' image, a motif found on early Islamic coinage. It highlights the interaction of existing faiths and Islam.

Southern Levant
Late AD 600s – early 700s
The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 1949.144.a

In the footsteps of Roman emperors

This marble milestone, from a road running northwest from Jerusalem to the city of Ramla, shows how Jerusalem changed under Islamic rule. The inscription in Arabic and kufic records that the caliph 'Abd al-Malik ordered the construction of the road and the stone, and announced his authority over this sacred land. The use of distance markers and measurements to take ownership of space recalls the imperial actions of Roman emperors in this part of the world.

Jerusalem
About AD 685–705
Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts de l'Islam, Paris, AO 4087

Theme panel, behind:
Transmission of knowledge

Intellectual activity flourished in the Islamic world. Baghdad, the wealthy and cultured capital of the Abbasid caliphate (AD 749–1258), attracted many scholars. The introduction of papermaking technology from Tang China facilitated the transmission of ideas, and works in Greek, Sanskrit and Persian were translated into Arabic. From the 600s, the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, was compiled, standardised and copied. Some Qur'anic verses describe the Hajj – an obligation placed on all Muslims to visit Mecca if they are able to travel. As pilgrims undertook this arduous journey, roads to Mecca from multiple directions developed.

A Central Asian scholar in Baghdad

The Muslim mathematician al-Khwarizmi (about AD 780–850), credited as the 'father of algebra', was from Khwarazm (part of present-day Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). He became an astronomer and head of the library of the renowned House of Wisdom in Baghdad, a place of scholarship that reached a high point under caliph al-Ma'mun (ruled 754–75). These pages from a later copy of his Book of Algebra show geometrical solutions to two quadratic equations.

Central or West Asia
Original by al-Khwarizmi, about AD 820; this version 1342
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Huntington 214, folios 4b–5a

Building on ancient Greek astronomy

The Book of the Fixed Stars was compiled by the Persian astronomer al-Sufi (AD 903–86), who worked at the court at Isfahan. A Persian writing in Arabic, he translated and built on ancient Greek and Roman astronomical studies.

The book describes 48 constellations, including their longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates, enabling greater precision in navigating the stars. Al-Sufi's son, Ibn al-Sufi, continued his father's legacy by writing poems about the stars.

Possibly Maragheh, Iran
Original by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, AD 964; this version 1260–80
British Library, London, Or.5323, folios 45v–46r 
Purchased from Gulbenkian and Co.

Mapping the stars

The Book of the Fixed Stars contains detailed star charts describing northern and southern constellations, and constellations of the zodiac. Its author, al-Sufi, produced dual illustrations of constellations – the upper image as portrayed on a celestial globe, and the lower as viewed directly in the night sky. Here, in this extract, al-Sufi explains why he provided these two different star maps and how they should be used.

The Book of the Fixed Stars, original by 'Abd al Rahman al-Sufi, AD 964
Translated from Arabic by Dr Ihsan Hafez, in Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi and his Book of the Fixed Stars: a journey of re-discovery

Press button to start from the beginning
Duration: about 1 min

Audio transcript:

'For every constellation we have drawn two pictures: one as it is projected on the globe and the other as it is seen in the heavens. Hence we have covered both of the different cases, so there is no confusion for anyone who sees that what is viewed on the globe is different from what is in the heavens.

When we want to see the constellation as it really is, we lift the book over our heads, and we look at the second picture in the book. From beneath the book, we are viewing the constellation as it is seen in the heavens.'

A Christian physician

This manuscript, the Book of the Characteristics of Animals, includes a treatise about animals and the medical properties of their body parts. It contains text attributed to Ibn Bakhtishu' (died 1058), a physician from a distinguished Syrian-Persian medical family. These pages quote his introduction to the book, with an illustration that perhaps shows him in discussion with a pupil.

Ibn Bakhtishu' and his predecessors served successive Abbasid caliphs, as well as the powerful Barmakid family from Balkh, Afghanistan in the AD 700s, reflecting multicultural dimensions at the court in Baghdad.

Probably Baghdad, about 1224–5
British Library, London, Or.2784, folios 102r–102v

Mecca at the centre of the world

Scholars in the Islamic world contributed to geographical knowledge. This map was originally drawn by al-Idrisi (about 1100–66) for the Christian king of Sicily, Roger II (ruled 1130–54). It follows a tradition in Islamic mapmaking to have 'south' at the top, and Mecca, the focus of Muslim pilgrimage, placed at the centre of the world. It illustrates Arabia's connection to the Mediterranean coastline, extending to the Iberian peninsula and eastward across the Indian Ocean, reaching China.

Cairo, Egypt
Original by al-Idrisi, about 1154; this version 1533
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS.Pococke 375, folios 3b-4a

Hajj: religious pilgrimage

This is one of the oldest existing copies of the Qur'an. The pages shown here are about Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca which is one of the pillars of the Islamic faith. People from across the expanding Islamic world undertook this religious duty beginning in the AD 600s. Caliphs saw it as their responsibility to organise and care for pilgrims, including providing water and improving roads leading to Mecca.

Qur'an written in al-ma'il script
Probably Mecca or Medina
AD 700s
British Library, London, Or.2165, folios 58v–59r
Purchased from the Reverend Greville John Chester

Papermaking reaches the Qur'an

Early Qur'ans were mainly written on parchment (dried animal skin), which was laborious and expensive to make. By the late AD 700s, the technology of papermaking had spread from China to the Islamic world, revolutionising the transmission of the Qur'an, as well as secular knowledge. A new type of paper Qur'an, lighter and smaller in size, emerged by the late 900s. More flowing cursive scripts from secular documents were also accepted for writing the Qur'an. These changes made the holy book accessible to a wider Muslim audience.

Parts of the Qur'an written in kufic script
Possibly Egypt
AD 800s
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Marsh 178, folios 22b–23a

Qur'an written in naskh script, copied by Abu I-Qasim Sa'id ibn Ibrahim ibn 'Ali
Probably Iraq or Iran
1036
British Library, London, Add. Ms 7214, folios 51v–52r

Translating the Qur'an

There was debate about whether the Qur'an, as a revelation from God, could and should be translated from Arabic into other languages. Commentaries provided a practical solution. This opening shows passages of the Qur'an with Persian commentary underneath, to cater to Persian followers. The practice probably began during the later AD 900s, under the Samanid dynasty.

Qur'an written in kufic script with Persian commentary in naskh script
Iran or Iraq
1000s–1100s (commentary possibly later)
British Library, London, Or.6573

Theme panel, ahead:
Imports and innovations

Excavations at Samarra, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate from AD 836 to 892, offer clues about the long-distance movement of objects and ideas occurring at this time. Finished wares and raw materials were imported to Samarra (in present-day Iraq) in vast quantities via the Persian Gulf, the River Tigris and overland routes. Objects from the Middle East were also exported, with examples found as far away as Japan and Britain. Trade connections led to innovations in production, such as the inspiration Islamic potters took from Chinese ceramics.

Imported wood for palaces

In AD 892, the Abbasid caliphate transferred the capital back to Baghdad, causing the decline and eventual abandonment of Samarra. Much of its architecture was never built over, offering people today a glimpse of its former glories.

The buildings of Samarra were richly decorated, sometimes with wooden pieces like this panel carved with stylised palm leaves. Scientific analysis of similar pieces from Samarra has identified them as teak, imported from South or Southeast Asia.

Wood from South or Southeast Asia; found at Samarra, Iraq, AD 800s
British Museum, 1944,0513.3
Purchased from Sir Sydney Burney with Art Fund support

Image caption:

The spiral minaret of the Abu Dulaf Mosque in Samarra, built in AD 859. Archaeological remains like this are traces of the Abbasid Caliphate at its height.

Photo by Omarfox ali, 2019 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ceramics from Tang China

Tang Chinese ceramics, imported via maritime routes, have been found in the main palace at Samarra.

This white stoneware fragment is from a relatively fine Chinese bowl. Similar items were made for local markets in China as well as for export. The green-splashed ceramic fragment, made by Islamic potters, is formed from coarser clay. However, its colouration imitates decoration found on Chinese wares. Expensive ceramics imported from Tang China co-existed with cheaper local imitations in the cosmopolitan city of Samarra.

Stoneware fragment
Made in Gongxian kilns, Henan province, China; excavated in Dar al-Khilafa, Samarra, Iraq
AD 618–907
British Museum, OA+.900.1

Fragment imitating Tang Chinese green-splashed ceramics
Excavated in Dar al-Khilafa, Samarra, Iraq
AD 800s
British Museum, OA+.2154

Professor Ernst Herzfeld collection
Given by H.M. Government

Import and export of glass

These glass tesserae were perhaps used to make mosaics at palaces or religious buildings in Samarra. Scientific analysis shows that, except for those with gold leaf, their chemical composition is consistent with Roman or Levantine techniques, suggesting they may have been imported.

Trace elements in the blue glass flask fragments suggests production in the eastern Mediterranean. Samarra also had its own glass industry, making vessels like these perfume bottles for export across the Islamic world.

Tesserae
Excavated in Samarra, Iraq
AD 900s
British Museum, OA+.12180.1–175 and OA+.12455.1–549
Professor Ernst Herzfeld collection

Flask fragments
Probably made in the eastern Mediterranean; excavated in Dar al-Khilafa, Samarra, Iraq
AD 800s–900s
British Museum, OA+.13590.1–80 
Professor Ernest Herzfeld collection

Given by H.M. Government

Bottles
Samarra, Iraq
AD 749–1258
British Museum, OA+.13758, OA+.13746 and OA+.13744

Egyptian textiles in Samarra

This linen fragment is a rare survival from Samarra. It was made in Egypt, a major production centre for flax and linen, embroidered with imported silk presumably also in Egypt, and then transported to the caliph's palace. Luxurious furnishings and materials from different sources were customary in his dwelling. The band of embroidered inscription names al-Mu'tamid (ruled AD 870–92), a caliph who was once imprisoned by his brother in Samarra.

Made in Egypt; found in the Jawsaq al-Khaqani in Samarra, Iraq
AD 870–92
Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, I.8275

Two-way exchange between Chinese and Islamic ceramics

As more Chinese ceramics reached the Islamic world, local potters started to imitate the elegant shapes and glazed white surface of imported wares (front). They masked their own coarser earthenware with an opaque white coating and sometimes decorated it with designs in cobalt blue pigment, probably sourced from Iran (behind). Around the same time, potters in China began to experiment with cobalt on wares made for export, suggesting a two-way exchange in ceramic production.

Front: 'Samarra type' bowl
Probably Xing kilns, Hebei province, China
AD 618–907
British Museum, 1956,1210.22
Donated by D.R. Hay-Neave

Behind: bowl with palmette design
Probably Basra, Iraq
AD 800–900
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, CIRC.122-1929 
Purchased from M.A. Garabed

Imitation or coincidence?

Islamic ceramics with drizzled splashes of amber, brown and green, bear striking resemblance to 'three-coloured' (sancai) wares from Tang China. However, while there is evidence of imported Tang ceramics with green-dotted decoration, sancai wares have not been found to date in the Islamic world. The question remains as to whether this type of splashed decoration was inspired by Chinese models, or is simply coincidental.

Nishapur, Iran 
AD 900s
British Museum, 1951,1009.2 
Purchased from Louise Rabenou

Innovation in ceramic production

The creation of an opaque white tin-glaze was an innovation in Islamic ceramics inspired by Chinese imports. In the AD 800s, potters in Iraq adapted a glass-painting technique onto this opaque surface to create a new form of ceramic decoration. By applying silver or copper oxide pigments mixed with a little vinegar to tin-glazed earthenware, they could create a luxurious metallic sheen. Known as lustreware, it became highly sought-after.

Basra, Iraq 
AD 800s
British Museum, 1968,1015.1
Purchased from Edward Safani via the Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund

Case study panel text, on backdrop:
Aksumites of northeast Africa and their Red Sea port

Like today, the Red Sea was a strategic waterway linking the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean worlds, and an important region connecting Africa and Arabia. Wealth and international prestige belonged to those who controlled access to it, and in the AD 500s this was the kingdom of Aksum, centred in the highlands of present-day Ethiopia. The Aksumites' Red Sea port city, Adulis (in present-day Eritrea), was a hub for overseas trade. Here luxury exports, especially elephant ivory, were exchanged for Mediterranean products like wine and olive oil, as well as Indian Ocean spices and gemstones.

The international outlook of the kings of Aksum is clear from their use of Greek alongside their own language, Ge'ez, on inscriptions and coins. In the mid-300s they also adopted Christianity, the religion they shared with their Byzantine allies.

Map caption:

Map showing the Aksumite Red Sea port of Adulis.

International conflict and diplomacy

In about AD 524, an Alexandrian trader later known as Cosmas Indicopleustes, ('he who sailed to India'), visited Adulis. There to buy African elephant ivory, he was invited to copy Greek inscriptions for Kaleb, the king of Aksum (ruled about 510–40).

Kaleb, a fellow Christian, was preparing to invade the Jewish Himyarite kingdom of South Arabia, following its attacks on Christian communities there. The year after Cosmas visited, Kaleb sailed with his army from Adulis. Coin hoards found in South Arabia may date to this tumultuous period.

Illustrated Geʿez codex showing King Kaleb and his army in a ship crossing the Red Sea
Ethiopia
1700–50
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
MS Aeth. d. 23, folio 28r

Left to right: Gold Aksumite coin, Aksumite imitation of a Byzantine coin and a Late Roman/Byzantine coin

Minted in Aksum, Ethiopia, about AD 450–500; minted in Aksum, Ethiopia, mid-AD 300–400s; minted in Arles, France (part of Late Roman/Byzantine empire) 
AD 324–61; all found in South Arabia British Museum, 1904,0404.1–3
Donated by Ali Farah

Image caption:

This Greek codex shows Adulis with the stele and votive throne with Greek inscriptions. The figures are travellers on the road between Aksum (top left) and Adulis.

© Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ms. Plut. 9.28, f. 38r
Su concessione del MiC, E' vietata ogni ulteriore riproduzione con qualsiasi mezzo

An early Christian state

Aksumite rulers adopted Christianity in the mid-AD 300s, making the kingdom one of the earliest officially Christian states. Early in his reign, King Ezanas (ruled 320s–60s) describes himself in Geʿez inscriptions as 'son of Mahrem', an Aksumite god, and in Greek as 'son of Ares', Mahrem's Mediterranean equivalent. However, he later calls himself 'servant of Christ'. On coinage, Ezanas also replaced the traditional crescent and disc shown above the king's head with a cross.

Gold coin showing a king of Aksum with a pre-Christian crescent and disc above
Minted in Aksum, Ethiopia
AD 270–300
British Museum, 1969,0624.1, purchased from A.H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd

Gold coin showing a king of Aksum with a Christian cross above
Minted in Aksum, Ethiopia
AD 340–60s
British Museum, 1921,0316.1, purchased from S. Terezopoulos

Churches of Adulis

When Cosmas visited Aksum, he found 'countless churches'. At least three have been excavated at Adulis, the largest of which was probably the city's cathedral. It was built using Aksumite construction techniques, but its interior chancel screen was made from marble imported all the way from the capital of Byzantium, Constantinople. In contrast to the 'church kits' that Byzantium sent by ship to Mediterranean cities in the AD 500s, the marble chancel screen elements at Adulis are lighter, befitting its much longer journey.

Fragments of Proconnesian marble chancel column and screen panels
Quarried near Constantinople (present-day Istanbul); found at Adulis, Eritrea
AD 500s
British Museum, 1868,1005.15, 1868,1005.10 and OA.11008
Donated by Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh

Imports from near and far

At the same Adulis church where the Proconnesian marble fragments were found, recent Italian excavations have unearthed coloured marbles quarried in the French Pyrenees and Greek Peloponnese. They too were transported along Mediterranean and Red Sea routes to furnish the church interior. Arabian calcite-alabaster, from across the Red Sea, was a more common building material at the church. A join to this fragment excavated in 1868 was made in 2018 (outline shown here).

Quarried in South Arabia; found at Adulis, Eritrea
AD 500s
British Museum, 1868,1005.16
Donated by Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh

Image caption:

View of the excavated church at Adulis by Richard Rivington Holmes, the British Museum representative sent to join the 1868 British Expedition to Abyssinia.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Section panel, to the right:
Mediterranean worlds: connecting continents

Reached by the Silk Roads' many overland, river and maritime routes, the Mediterranean Sea united Eurasia and Africa. In the AD 500s the region
was controlled by the Byzantine empire, ruling from Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), its strategically located capital. The successor to the Roman empire, Byzantium was a Greek-speaking, Christian empire that had absorbed westwardly-migrating people for centuries.

Byzantium's hold on its eastern territories was regularly challenged by its greatest rival, the Sasanian empire. Ultimately, it gave way to Arab caliphates. By 1000, the Islamic Fatimid empire controlled much of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, and various Christian and Muslim states vied for power over the west, while Byzantium maintained its heartland in the northeast.

Theme panel, ahead:
Justinian's Mediterranean

Under the emperor Justinian (ruled AD 527–65) Byzantium reached its greatest territorial extent, controlling most of the Mediterranean coast and its islands. A peace treaty brokered with the Sasanian empire in 532 allowed Justinian to focus on reclaiming the Roman empire's former North African provinces. Soon after, he set his sights on Italy, ruled by his former allies, the Ostrogoths. However, in 540, his rival, the Sasanian king Khusraw (ruled 531–79), marched on Byzantium's eastern territories, quickly reaching the Mediterranean. Byzantium now had to fight on two fronts. Then a new threat struck: plague.

Map caption:

Map showing the territorial extent of the Byzantine empire, about AD 555.

Cartography by Martin Brown

Byzantine splendour

Imported materials arrived to the Mediterranean basin via land and sea routes. Jewellery, heavy with pearls from Arabia and gemstones from India, is referenced in contemporary images of imperial women, such as the depiction of Justinian's wife, empress Theodora (died AD 548), in a mosaic at the Church of San Vitale, Ravenna. The combination of pearls and emeralds was restricted by Byzantine law codified under Justinian, suggesting this exquisitely worked set was an imperial commission.

Gold necklace and earrings with sapphires, emeralds and pearls
Found at or near Asyut, Egypt
About AD 500–600
British Museum, 1916,0704.2–4
Donated by Mrs Burns

Image caption:

Detail of a mosaic showing the empress Theodora (made about AD 547) at the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.

Photo by Petar Milošević, 2015 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Byzantium and the Sasanian empire

Byzantine clothing typically comprised tunics shaped to the body with belts and cloaks fastened with brooches. By contrast, riding costumes originating on the Steppe and worn in the Sasanian empire were tailored, like this cross-over coat worn with linen and silk leggings (gaiters).

Woven from the finest blend of sheep's wool and cashmere and trimmed with silk, the coat may be an import, or a local imitation of eastern fashions in Antinoopolis, in Byzantine Egypt. For centuries Byzantium disparaged Persian fashion for its luxury, but from the AD 500s elements were adopted for imperial costume.

Riding coat and gaiters
Sheikh Ibada, Egypt
Coat: cashmere and sheep's wool fabric with silk trim (now lost), AD 450–550 (radiocarbon-dated)
Gaiters: linen and silk, AD 400–700
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Image caption:

Image showing the different ways of wearing the over-long sleeves of a riding coat.

Illustration © The Trustees of the British Museum. Image credit Kathrin Mälck.

Byzantine appetite for silk

Produced as a single piece of fabric woven to shape, or from three pieces stitched together, Mediterranean-style tunics were made from linen or wool and, very rarely, silk. Highly prized, silk was imported into Byzantium as both raw material and finished fabric. Under Justinian, Byzantium challenged the Sasanian empire's control of silk trade routes until, in the AD 500s, sericulture itself reached Byzantium – allegedly smuggled in by Syrian monks carrying silk moth eggs from the east.

Silk sleeve panel
Akhmim, Egypt
AD 600–800
British Museum, 1904,0706.41
Purchased from Henry Wallis

Fragment of silk tunic
Egypt
About AD 775–900
British Museum, 1886,0723.3
Donated by Reverend William MacGregor

Image caption:

Image showing a complete tunic with similar decoration.

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Dressing east and west

Persian costume had long been used in Mediterranean visual culture to signal people from the east. This Christian wall painting depicts the biblical story of three youths threatened with being burned alive for refusing to worship an image set up by the king of Babylon. Their Parthian dress would have been out-dated in Persia when the painting was made in Egypt.

Framing this scene, painted in a different style, are the physician saints Cosmas and Damian in Byzantine attire. Pictured with their medical bags, these famous healers became popular during the Justinianic plague, which hit the Mediterranean from AD 541.

Excavated near Asyut, Egypt
AD 500–700
British Museum, EA 73139
Donated by Byzantine Research Fund

Label for the film: 
Remaking martyrs – laser-cleaning a wall painting

This timelapse film shows conservators at work at the British Museum, using the latest laser technology and historical research to improve the appearance of the wall painting. It was previously coated in shellac, a 20th-century protective restoration technique, which over time led to discolouration and a glossy appearance. Laser radiation was used to remove the coating and overpaint.

Duration: about 1 min 30 secs
This film has no sound

© The Trustees of the British Museum

With thanks to the British Museum Stone, Wall Paintings and Mosaics Conservation team

Byzantium and Ostrogothic Italy

Described by Byzantines as 'barbarians', Goths and other migrating peoples settled on imperial lands, where they forged sometimes complicated relationships with Byzantium. This was the case with the Ostrogoths. Raised as a child-hostage in Constantinople, Theodoric (AD 454–526) governed Italy on behalf of the Byzantine emperor, but ruled it as king of the Ostrogoths.

On this medallion, he wears Byzantine imperial dress but with a Gothic moustache and hairstyle. The tension between the two powers is shown in this image of the Byzantine consul Orestes, flanked by personifications of Rome and Constantinople, with portraits of Ostrogothic rulers above.

Gold medallion (electrotype copy)
Minted in Rome; found in Senigallia, Italy
Original made AD 493–526; copy made before 1911
British Museum, B.11479
Ivory diptych
Probably Rome or Ravenna, Italy
AD 530
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 139-1866

Eastern style, western production

This set of cloisonné garnet ornaments shows the adaptation of eastern techniques in Italy. Made by the same workshop and possibly the same maker, probably at Ravenna, the style of the assemblage belongs to peoples further east in the Danube region in central Europe. Their high quality suggests a royal client. The combination of eastern regional style and western production would have suited female family members of the Gothic kings in Ravenna.

Gold mount with garnet and shell; gold and garnet pin
Lagucci Farm, San Marino
About AD 450–550
British Museum, 1933,0405.1; 1933,0405.10
Purchased from Magyar Nemzeti Museum through G. Sambon with Art Fund support

Image caption:

Most of these ornaments (from the so-called Domagnano treasure near Ravenna) could have been worn by a woman dressed in eastern styles associated with Germanic-speaking peoples from the Danube region.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Byzantium and Lombard Italy

The Lombards migrated from Pannonia in central Europe to Italy in AD 568. They gradually eroded Byzantine control, finally taking Ravenna in 751.

This cobalt blue drinking horn with white trail decoration was buried with a woman. Northern European in form but made in Mediterranean glass, it combines Lombard and Byzantine traditions in a single object. The drinking horn evokes the adoption and adaptation of elements from one culture by another.

Via dei Condotti, Sutri, Lazio, Italy
AD 550–600
British Museum, 1887,0108.2
Purchased through Rollin & Feuardent

Byzantium's iconic ivories

Ivories are strongly associated with Byzantium, but their production depended on long-distance trade routes. After the extinction of the North African elephant (AD 200s), suppliers turned to India and Aksum in northeast Africa to maintain the high demand for tusks.

Elephant ivory was used for everyday, mass-produced items like this imitation wax writing tablet that was reused multiple times over centuries, finally for church services. It was also carved into astonishing works of art, such as these exquisitely carved panels depicting events before and after Christ's resurrection.

Reused ivory diptych with Latin and Greek texts
Used in North Africa and later in Egypt; acquired at Luxor, Egypt
About AD 430 (reused until about AD 662)
British Museum, 1920,1214.1
Purchased from Durlacher Bros

Ivory casket panels
Rome, Italy
About AD 420–30
British Museum, 1856,0623.4–7
Purchased from Reverend William Maskell

The makers' art

Makers chose their materials carefully. African elephants are larger than Indian elephants, with tusks up to 3.5m long. At over 40cm in height, the size of this diptych leaf carved with an archangel suggests an African elephant tusk as the source.

When making cylindrical containers, carvers used the natural shape of the tusk to their advantage, with the stories unfolding as they were turned. The scenes here show the martyrdom of St Menas, a Christian soldier in Egypt (above), and Daniel in the lions' den (below).

Diptych panel
Constantinople (present-day Istanbul)
About AD 525–50
British Museum, OA.9999

Container
Possibly made in Alexandria, Egypt; found at San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome, Italy
AD 500–600
British Museum, 1879,1220.1
Purchased from Alexander Nesbitt

Container
Syria or possibly Egypt
AD 400–525
British Museum, 1877,0706.3
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Image caption:

Detail of the Incredulity of Thomas from one of the ivory casket panels, about AD 420–30

Digital microscope image by A.S. Simpson
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Christianity: Byzantium's greatest export

The Byzantine imperial household adopted Christianity in the AD 300s. Following this, large numbers of Christian pilgrims began to travel longer distances to experience places described in the Bible, saints' shrines and, in time, monasteries.

They sometimes returned with relics, and, more often, with containers holding handfuls of earth, oil and other liquids from pilgrimage sites. Ceramic flasks like these, from the enormous pilgrimage complex of St Menas near Alexandria in Egypt, are found from Britain all the way to Uzbekistan.

Left: Ceramic pilgrim flask
Made in Abu Mina, Egypt; found in Kent, England
About AD 480–650
British Museum, 1929,0108.1
Donated by Thomas G. Barnett

Right: Ceramic pilgrim flask
Made in Abu Mina; found in Alexandria, Egypt
About AD 480–650
British Museum, 1889,1014.216
Purchased from Reverend Greville John Chester

A Christian Life of the Buddha in Greek

Christians translated many stories originating in the east into Greek, Latin and local languages such as Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian and Georgian. The Life of the Buddha was told in Persian and Arabic before Christians recast Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha, as an Indian prince called Joasaph. The scholar monk Euthymios Hagioreites (died 1028) translated the Georgian version into Greek. Later translated into Latin, The Life of Barlaam and Joasaph became very popular in the medieval west.

Probably made in Cyprus
1050–1150 (copy of a work from about 1000–28)
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, MS Add. 4491r

Theme panel, behind:
The arrival of Islam

Islam arrived in Africa following the rapid success of Muslim armies in the eastern Mediterranean. In AD 639, the Arab general ʿA Amr ibn al-ʿAs advanced on Egypt. He soon established a new capital at Fustat, at the apex of the Nile Delta.

In the following centuries, several Muslim states emerged across North Africa, some with Persian or Turkic origins. Then, in 909, the Fatimids made a bold declaration of an independent Shiʿi caliphate. By 1000 their empire spanned North Africa, the Levant and Hijaz, controlling even the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Fatimid splendour

In AD 969, the Fatimids founded a new capital just north of Fustat called al-Qahira (present-day Cairo), which grew to become the largest, wealthiest city in the Mediterranean. It was also a centre of pottery production. Under the Fatimids, the lustreware technique developed in Iraq was perfected. One of the finest complete examples juxtaposes this Islamic world achievement with a Christian subject, a priest holding a lamp or censer.

Probably made in Cairo; said to have been found near Luxor, Egypt
1050–1100
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, C.49-1952.
Purchased with Art Fund support and the Bryan Bequest

Fatimid networks

Under the Fatimids, Cairo became a great centre for learning and trade. This map showing the Indian Ocean is one of several from an extraordinary work compiling Greek, Coptic, Persian and Indian scholarship combined with direct knowledge of Fatimid naval records and Shiʿi missionary networks.

Fatimid control of the Red Sea allowed Indian Ocean trade to flourish. Among the materials arriving in Cairo from the Indian Ocean world was rock-crystal sourced in Madagascar. It was carved by artists who reached remarkable levels of precision and detail.

Kitab ghara'ib al-funun wa-mulah al-'uyun ('The Book of Strange Arts and Visual Delights' or 'Book of Curiosities')
Egypt
About 1190–1210 (copy of a work from about 1020–50)
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arab.c. 90 folios 23b-24a

Rock crystal bottle, reused as a Christian reliquary; rock crystal bottle shaped like a lion
Egypt
AD 900–1000
British Museum, AF.3129; British Museum, FBIs.12
Bequeathed by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Map caption:

Map showing the territories of the Fatimid empire, about AD 1000.

Cartography by Martin Brown

Small beads, big stories

Egypt had long been a vibrant trading crossroads. Even those living far from busy ports had access to imports. Beads circulated for centuries, retaining their value as imports and becoming family heirlooms, passed down especially to brides.

From the north, Baltic amber was prized for its rich colour and smooth feel. From the east, etched carnelian beads came from Iran, green glass beads, strung with tiny shells, arrived from South India or Sri Lanka, and the string of cloves originated in the Maluku Islands (present-day Indonesia).

All were found in the same Byzantine-period cemeteries at Antaeopolis.

Necklace of Baltic amber beads
Tomb 332, Qaw el-Kebir, Egypt, AD 400–500
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London LDUCE-UC26357

Heirloom beads and pendants
Cemetery 600, Qaw el-Kebir, Egypt, assemblage
AD 500–700, with heirloom pendant (before AD 300)
British Museum, 1923,1103.23
Donated by British School of Archaeology, Egypt

Etched carnelian beads from Iran
Cemetery 600, Qaw el-Kebir, Egypt, AD 500–700
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London LDUCE-UC73993

Indo-Pacific beads and shells
Cemetery 600, Qaw el-Kebir, Egypt, AD 300–600
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London LDUCE-UC74134

String of cloves from Indonesia Qaw el-Kebir, Egypt, AD 400–600
British Museum, OA.882

Trans-Saharan exchange networks

The widespread adoption of the one-humped dromedary camel (above) for transportation revolutionised travel across the Sahara desert in the first millennium AD. Traders used them to supply high-quality Saharan rock salt to West Africa.

Once established, these routes were extended further north to feed the Mediterranean hunger for gold from the kingdoms of Ghana and Gao. Beginning from around AD 800, increasingly flourishing camel caravan routes also carried Islamic teachings to West Africa.

Found at Akhmim, Egypt, AD 500–700
British Museum, 1890,0530.28
Purchased from Reverend Greville John Chester

West African connections

Inter-regional trade within West Africa flourished before, and independently from, trans-Saharan routes. Archaeological finds from Igbo Ukwu (present-day Nigeria) show a thriving community with long-distance connections.

Copper alloy vessels and regalia made from local ore illustrate the rich casting techniques and artistic traditions of this region. Among the 150,000 beads also excavated at Igbo Ukwu are currently the earliest examples of glass production in West Africa. They were discovered alongside other items of Mediterranean, Levantine, Arabian and Indian origins.

Igbo Ukwu, Nigeria
AD 800–1000
British Museum, Af1956,15.3 and 4
Donated by Frank W. Carpenter

Kingdom of Ghana, land of gold

By the end of the AD 800s, Muslim historians and geographers were describing the Kingdom of Ghana (in present-day southeast Mauritania and western Mali) as the 'land of gold'. Controlling the gold fields of the Senegal and Niger rivers, Ghana flourished until around 1050, experiencing astonishing wealth.

A cheque for 42,000 gold dinars was reportedly written in Awdaghost (in present-day Mauritania) for a merchant in Sijilmasa (present-day Morocco).

Original map by Al-Idrisi (1100–66), copied 1300–1500
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS Greaves 42, folio 9b–10a

Map caption:

Map showing major trans-Saharan routes linking West African kingdoms, including Ghana and Gao, to the Mediterranean coast.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Route to the Kingdom of Gao

Ibadi Muslim traders were especially active along a separate trans-Saharan network to the West African kingdom of Gao via the market town of Essouk-Tadmekka (present-day Mali). Founded by a Persian imam (leader) in AD 777, the Ibadi Rustamid state flourished as Berber communities converted to Islam.

Defeated by the Fatimids in AD 909, they established a new capital at Sedrata (in present-day Algeria), where this elaborate plaster decoration was made. It shares the architectural vocabulary of the contemporary Muslim world, from Samarkand to al-Andalus.

Sedrata, Algeria, 1100–1200
Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts de l'Islam don, Gouvernement général de l'Algérie, Paris, MAO 346

Facing the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara desert

The state which held access to the trans-Saharan networks was able to maintain a stable and reliable gold coinage, which in turn supported internal and Mediterranean trade. After defeating their rivals in the region, the Fatimids swiftly minted their own gold coins, first at Kairouan and later at Sijilmasa, where the percentage of gold in the coinage is exceptionally high. This internal connectivity strengthened the ability of traders to reach beyond the Fatimid empire's borders.

Gold coins
Minted in Kairouan, Tunisia
AD 912
British Museum, 1849,0717.451
Purchased from John Doubleday

Minted in Sijilmasa, Morocco
AD 967
British Museum, 1884,0703.61
Purchased from Rollin & Feuardent

Minted in Sicily, Italy
1005
British Museum, 1887,0103.3

Fustat finds

Fustat was a trans-shipment point for materials, products and consumables from afar. Evidence of hundreds of thousands of Chinese ceramic fragments shows a flourishing import market across the Indian Ocean, which in turn inspired imitation at home. Indian resist-dyed textiles demonstrate links to the subcontinent's west coast. This cotton fragment was block printed with elephants and horses, and dyed twice – first light-blue, then dark blue.

Made in South Arabia, this soapstone lid fragment carved with flowers also reflects the scale and diversity of goods moving through Fustat.

Ceramic fragments
Made in China; found in Fustat, Egypt
AD 960–1279, British Museum, 1927,0420.2 and 12, donated by Sir John Home
AD 700–800, British Museum, 1932,0613.1, donated by Islamic Museum, Cairo
AD 960–1279, British Museum, 1923,1112.1, donated by Sir John Home
AD 960–1279, British Museum, OA+903, donated by George Davis Hornblower

Cotton resist-dyed textiles
Made in Gujarat, India; found in Egypt (probably Fustat)
AD 950–1000
The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, EA1990.250
Presented by Professor Percy Newberry, 1941

Soapstone dish lid (above)
Made in Yemen; found in Fustat, Egypt
AD 900–1100
The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, EA1974.60
Presented by the American Research Center in Egypt, 1974

Enslaved individuals

Enslaved people were transported from all points of the compass along the Silk Roads' land and sea routes. Egypt's dry climate uniquely preserved hundreds of legal documents that provide details of the buyers, sellers, the enslaved people purchased, and how much they were worth.

This Arabic deed records the sale of a Nubian woman named Shuʿla. It declares her fit and describes some physical characteristics, including scars. Such documents give at least some sense of each person's individual identity and plight.

Probably Fustat, Egypt About
AD 850–930
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, P.Cam. inv. Mich.Pap.Q.6

Christian wealth under Muslim rule

Like many other Muslim territories, Egypt's population remained largely Christian for centuries with a Jewish minority. Though sometimes persecuted, both populations periodically flourished.

This rare silk tunic (behind, above) shows the continued use of much older traditional Mediterranean iconography on garments and other textiles found in Christian burials long after the arrival of Islam. The decorative bands and panels show Tychai (goddesses personifying cities), nereids (originally daughters of the sea god Nereus), and hunting youths.

Akhmim, Egypt
Radiocarbon-dated AD 770–940
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Syriac Christians east and west

Syriac-speaking Christians established communities from China to Egypt, with individuals travelling to Rome and beyond. Egypt's dry climate has preserved Syriac manuscripts that do not survive where the communities originated, or other places they settled. This repurposed wooden panel from the city of Apollonopolis Magna bears an extract of the Gospel of St John in Syriac.

The Tyche of Constantinople (a female personification of the city) is painted over the text.

Edfu, Egypt, AD 600–50
Musée du Louvre, Département des arts de Byzance et des chrétientés en Orient, Paris, AF10878, AF10879

Monasteries and knowledge transmission

Christian monasteries became important places for copying texts, and repositories for knowledge of all kinds. When the abbot of a Syrian monastery in Egypt travelled to Baghdad in AD 927 for an audience with the caliph, he acquired some 250 books and brought them home. Among books in the monastery were works of theology but also science and medicine, such as this Syriac translation of Galen of Pergamon's On the Powers and Mixtures of Simple Drugs.

Greek original by Galen (died AD 216); Syriac translation by Sergius of Reshaina (died AD 536), AD 550–650
Monastery of the Syrians, Wadi Natrun, Egypt
British Library, London, Add. MS 14661, 31v–32r

Theme panel, ahead:
A Mediterranean society in the synagogue

For hundreds of years, one of the Jewish communities of Fustat (Cairo's earlier twin city) placed their worn-out books in a sacred storeroom, or geniza, within their synagogue. Not wishing to dispose of any text that might contain the name of God, the community kept all kinds of manuscripts. These include thousands of Bibles (at least one copied as far away as Iran), and everything from private letters and marriage contracts to tax receipts. Today this extraordinary group of over 400,000 texts offers a rich perspective on a society with international links, from the Iberian peninsula to India.

Languages within the Ben Ezra Synagogue

The daily lives of Jewish communities under Islamic rule, and more generally of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Egypt and beyond, are vividly illustrated in geniza documents. They are written in many languages and scripts – Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic and, in lesser quantities, Greek, Coptic, Syriac and Persian. Unofficial documents like letters are usually in Judaeo-Arabic, the Arabic language spoken in everyday life, but they are written in the Hebrew script, which children learned as part of their religious education. This Hebrew inscription, carved in imported walnut wood, was once placed above a door in the synagogue.

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
1000–1100s
British Library, London, Or.6302

Image caption:

Dr Solomon Schechter (1847–1915) returned from Cairo to Cambridge in 1897, bringing some 200,000 fragmentary texts with him, which he is seen studying here.

Imaging Laboratory / Cambridge University Library

The Fatimid state in the synagogue

Remarkably, the synagogue's geniza contains content relating to Fatimid court business. Official documents from the caliphs' chancery (record office) found their way there indirectly because of the reused paper trade. Fatimid state decrees written in large Arabic script on impractically large vertical rolls of 0.5m wide by 8m or longer, were cut into sheets and repurposed. This cut sheet was reused for a letter in Judaeo-Arabic.

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
Arabic decree 1131–40; Judaeo-Arabic letter 1140
Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, T-S 20.80

Indian fables retold in Arabic

Texts from outside Jewish traditions were also found within the geniza. This page is from an Indian fable, the Kalila wa Dimna, retold in Arabic. Similar to Aesop's Fables, the work teaches moral lessons through interactions between animals.

The Kalila wa Dimna was read in royal courts and school rooms, and the survival of multiple copies in the geniza shows its popularity among Fustat's Jewish community.

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
1000–1200
Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, T-S Ar.40.9 CUL

Making a good match

Diplomatic marriages between families strengthened international ties within and across the global Jewish community. Marriage contracts provide a wealth of information, including the contents of a bride's dowry.

This Hebrew contract on parchment records a marriage in Jerusalem and lists the following imports or imitations: clothes from Sicily and Byzantium, a bucket from Baghdad, a pot from Damascus, and couches from the Caspian Sea region.

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
1028
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, Add.3430

Request for charity from Jews in Kyiv

The Jewish community in Fustat was regarded as wealthy. Distant, less fortunate individuals and communities often sought its assistance. A Jewish community apparently in Kyiv, present-day Ukraine, made this Hebrew petition on parchment for a man named Jacob who was obligated to repay his brother's non-Jewish creditors after he was robbed and murdered. They had raised enough money to release him from prison, but this letter asks for help with the remainder.

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
About AD 950
Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, T-S 12.122

Pirates and ransoming captives

Networks of Jewish traders extended west to Sicily, the Sahara and al-Andalus (in present-day Spain), and east to ports on the Arabian peninsula, India and beyond. Travel could be dangerous, and traders themselves were targeted as commodities for sale. This plea in Hebrew is addressed to Nahray ben Nissim, a well-respected member of Fustat's Jewish community. It requests payment to ensure the release of three Jewish traders held captive by pirates before being ransomed by Italian merchants.

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt, 1050
Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, T-S 12.338

The Cairo Geniza: a glimpse through history

Here, in this extract from a letter found in the geniza, Yešu'a ben Joseph, an official in Alexandria, writes to Nahray ben Nissim, asking for help raising money to free three Jewish travellers held by Italian merchants. The men had originally been captured by Byzantine soldiers, who had intended to sell them as slaves, but the Italian merchants saw an opportunity to turn a greater profit by holding them at ransom.

Translated from Hebrew by Benjamin M. Outhwaite
Push button to start from the beginning Duration: about 2 mins

Audio transcription:

'I am compelled at this time to inform you that a year of poverty and pathetic subsistence, of limited livelihood, and the violence against us of robbers and of the rulers of this city, has been brought to a close with the arrival of three captives with cruel masters who are traders from Amalfi. We inform you of our discovery that these three people were taken from a ship and were robbed by Byzantine soldiers of everything. They stripped them bare of their merchandise and they enslaved them. They told us: “We have brought them for you to buy them and to do them a favour as we ourselves did with them when we took them from the soldiers”.

So, despite the fact that time betrays us, and our houses are empty of all goods, we have taken upon our necks the heavy yoke of their upkeep for about a month, and we have struggled hard to find the price of even one of the captives, managing to secure just ten dinars in donations. We would like fifty dinars to cover their needs.

This leaves forty dinars to come from the communities of Egypt – their Rock keep them. Altogether, this will give fifty dinars. And so, we are still striving until the Holy One, blessed be He, appoints their redemption. And all those who tremble at the words of our God should gather together and speak with them, telling them to gird up the loins and brace up the belly because it is for their sake that the word of the Lord has come upon us.

To the honourable, great and holy, our master and teacher Nahray the wise, a pearl of learning, son of the scholar Nissim, from me, the least of the people of the covenant, Yešuʿa ha-Kohen, the Ḥaver, Son of the scholar Joseph, Beṯ Din, who loves him like his soul. A covenant of peace, and may your wellbeing increase forever and for eternity.'

Shipwrecks and pepper

The Fatimid-period (AD 969–1171) documents from the geniza show Jewish traders' commercial activities in the Indian Ocean. This Judaeo-Arabic document is one among several detailing a legal dispute between two Jewish traders, the travelling merchant Joseph al-Lebdi and his colleague, a Cairo businessman. The merchant lost all but one bale of their pepper shipment in a shipwreck off the coast of Yemen. Pepper was a prized trading item between India and the Mediterranean world at this time.

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
About 1098
Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, T-S 28.22

Bill of sale for a woman named Naʿim

Enslaved people were traded by men and women, Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. This Aramaic bill of sale is for a Nubian woman called Naʿim,
sold by one Jewish woman to another for 20 dinars. Seven years later, Naʿim was sold again for the same amount, to a Christian man. Such documents offer a rare glimpse into the mechanics of what was otherwise a vast trade of nameless individuals across the Silk Roads.

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
Aramaic bill of sale 1108; Arabic bill of sale 1115
Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection
The Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, S 18J1.17r

Case study panel text, on backdrop:
Peoples of al-Andalus: continuity and innovation

Islam's journey along the North African coast reached its western-most point in AD 711, when Muslim forces sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar to Iberia (present-day Spain and Portugal). Within seven short years they brought the ruling Christian Visigoths there under Islamic control. The region, re-named al-Andalus, was first governed as a province of the Umayyad dynasty, whose capital was in Damascus, Syria. By 929 it was a prosperous caliphate in its own right, rivalling the Abbasids and Fatimids.

From their vibrant capital Córdoba, al-Andalus's rulers nurtured a cosmopolitan court culture. Arts and learning flourished, stimulated by the region's unique fusion of cultures, faiths and peoples. In time, a new blended Andalusi identity emerged.

Map caption:

Map of the Iberian peninsula showing al-Andalus at its height during the AD 900s, under the reign of Umayyad caliphs (northern border marked in white).

Language on the move

Gold coins minted by the early governors of al-Andalus evoke linguistic changes that occurred as new and existing communities began living together.

The coin on the left is inscribed in Latin which, with Visigothic, was used by Iberia's inhabitants. The two coins in the centre are bilingual. One side bears Latin and the other Arabic, the new rulers' language. The coin on the right uses Arabic alone which, by the late AD 800s, became the predominant tongue in al-Andalus.

Minted in al-Andalus
Left: AD 711–12; centre: AD 716–17; right: AD 724–5
Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid

Becoming bilingual

Language learners have always used tools to master new tongues. This cow's shoulder blade, carved with letters from the Arabic alphabet, is one of many similar animal bones excavated in al-Andalus. Their smooth surfaces were ideal for writing. They were probably used as practice pieces, memory aids, or models for copying. Such humble objects offer insights into the practical results of cross-cultural exchange.

Madrid, Spain
Late AD 900s
Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid

Christian cross, Islamic style?

This spectacular elephant ivory cross from a monastery in northern Iberia speaks to al-Andalus's political, familial and cultural relations with neighbouring Christian kingdoms. Its carvings of plants and animals parallel both Christian manuscripts and Islamic court ivories made in Córdoba, suggesting some interplay between Christian and Islamic artistic traditions.

Recent research speculates that the caliph Abd al-Rahman III (ruled AD 929–61) had the cross made in Córdoba for his Christian aunt, Queen Toda of Pamplona (died 959), or that she commissioned it from his workshop for the monastery's consecration. The cross arms, preserved in different museums, are reunited for this exhibition.

Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, La Rioja, Spain
Late AD 900s
Musée du Louvre, Département des Objects d'Arts, Paris (upper and lower arms) and Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid

Córdoba's Jewish community

Archaeological evidence of al-Andalus's Jewish population is rare. The Hebrew inscription on this marble gravestone commemorates a Jewish man called Yehudah bar Akon, who died in Córdoba.

Jewish communities lived in most towns and some rural areas, where they contributed significantly to politics, trade and learning. Al-Andalus's general atmosphere of religious tolerance offered them a calmer life after suffering persecution under the Christian Visigothic regime.

Córdoba, Spain
Mid-AD 800s
Museo Arqueológico y Etnográfico de Córdoba / Ministerio de Cultura / Junta de Andalucía

A cosmopolitan capital

Andalusi art is characterised by stylistic blending. This marble capital, which crowned an architectural column, combines the ornate Roman 'Corinthian' form with deeply carved Islamic-style abstract foliage. Roman 'bead-and-reel' motifs nestle within the leaves, while an Arabic inscription around the upper edge links the capital to construction projects for al-Hakam II (ruled AD 961–76), al-Andalus's second caliph. The stone mason, Safar, carved his name on its flat top.

Córdoba, Spain
AD 964–5
Museo Arqueológico y Etnográfico de Córdoba / Ministerio de Cultura / Junta de Andalucía

Verdant vistas

Andalusi palaces and rural estates often had gardens that adapted Roman and eastern Islamic gardening traditions. These multisensory spaces combined water, plants, shade, animals and fruit trees such as date palm and pomegranate, imported from afar.

The palm leaf carving, probably from the palace complex at Madinat al-Zahra near Córdoba, mirrored the lush gardens outside. The fountain basin, from a caliphal estate nearby, writhes with foliage, felines and gazelles. In Islamic thought, such gardens symbolised the caliph's generosity, which made the natural world flourish.

Limestone wall carving
Probably Madinat al-Zahra, Spain
Mid-AD 900s
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, A.106-1919.
Given by Dr W. L. Hildburgh F.S.A.

Marble fountain basin (above)
Al-Rummaniyya, Spain
Mid-AD 900s
Museo Arqueológico y Etnográfico de Córdoba / Ministerio de Cultura / Junta de Andalucía

Image caption:

Aerial view of the gardens at Madinat al-Zahra, near Córdoba.

© stu.dio, 2021 via Alamy Stock Photo

Water for life

Hydraulic technologies adapted from Roman and eastern Islamic techniques were used to water Andalusi gardens. These included irrigation, underground channels, refurbished Roman aqueducts and Syrian-style waterwheels, fitted with ceramic buckets like this one. As the wheel turned, the buckets were submerged in a well and then raised water to the surface. Practical methods like these also supported the cultivation of crops, plants and trees beyond the garden wall.

Spain
AD 900s or later
Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid

Adapting to demand

A taste for eastern Islamic glazed ceramics among the elite of al-Andalus encouraged innovation. Scientific analysis has shown that, rather than copying glazing technology developed by Abbasid or Mesopotamian potters further east, Andalusi artisans devised a new method. They crushed local lead glass, applied it to ceramics and fired them to make the glaze. Their products, like this bowl, were fine enough to compete with the imports that inspired them.

Madinat al-Zahra, Spain
AD 900s
Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid

Knowledge goes north

Al-Andalus developed a rich scientific culture that drew from, and developed beyond, eastern Islamic learning. In turn, ideas spread north into Europe, including knowledge of the astrolabe. These instruments were handheld models of the universe and could calculate the time.

This is the oldest known Andalusi example, made by Muhammad ibn al-Saffar in the early 1000s. His brother Ahmad's treatise on astrolabes circulated in Europe for centuries afterwards.

Córdoba, Spain
1026–7
On loan courtesy of National Museums Scotland

Image caption:

Drawing of an Andalusi astrolabe in a Latin manuscript, showing the sky map with star names converted from Arabic into Latin letters.

© Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 7412, folio 19v,
AD 900s–1000s

Section panel: to the right:
Northwest Europe: expanding horizons

Despite its location on the fringes of the Silk Roads, northwest Europe was nonetheless connected to their networks. Its links to the wider world via land, sea and river survived the collapse of the western Roman empire in the AD 400s, intensifying over the centuries that followed.

While most exchange in northwest Europe happened locally, long-distance contacts were also significant. Imported silks and gems adorned the region's elite in life and death. Far-flung imports from Africa and Asia entered treasuries, workshops and kitchens, and artisans adapted foreign ideas with innovative results. The region's arteries were busy with many types of people, from scholars to mercenaries, on the move in all directions.

Theme panel, ahead:
Charlemagne, Francia and the wider world

Charlemagne (ruled AD 768–814), Francia's most celebrated ruler, played a key role in expanding his realm. Part of the Carolingian dynasty, he forged an empire that stretched from the North Sea into present-day Hungary and Italy. In 800 he was crowned by the Pope as the first emperor in western Europe since the Romans, with his capital Aachen (in northern Germany) styled as a new Rome.

Charlemagne's imperial activities, including diplomatic advances and military expansion, shaped Francia's links to the wider world and helped to stimulate a cultural renaissance that blended Carolingian, Roman and eastern Mediterranean ideas.

Map caption:

Map showing the territories under Charlemagne's control, about AD 814.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Rome and Byzantium through Carolingian eyes

Charlemagne's dynasty adapted Roman and Byzantine symbolism to craft an imperial identity for Francia. This splendid manuscript, written in Roman-style gold script, portrays his grandson and successor, Lothar I (ruled AD 817–55), in the garb of a Roman emperor against an imperial purple backdrop. His gem-encrusted cloak combines imported sapphires, emeralds and pearls, popular in late Roman and Byzantine culture, with traditionally Frankish red garnets. The finger ring is decorated with Carolingian-style beasts that clasp a Roman engraved gem between their paws.

The 'Lothar Psalter'
Possibly Aachen, Germany
AD 840–55
British Library, London, folios 3v–4r
Bequeathed by Sir Thomas Brooke (1908)

Finger ring with Roman intaglio depicting a bull
Findspot unrecorded
AD 800s
British Museum, AF.495
Bequeathed by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

The Avars: from Asia to Europe

Modelled on an Indo-Pacific nautilus shell, this gleaming vessel comes from a vast gold treasure associated with the Avars. A formerly nomadic people, they migrated west from the northeast Asian Steppe and, by the late AD 500s, established a powerful, multiethnic realm east of Francia, in present-day central Europe.

In the late 700s, Charlemagne waged war against the Avars. This treasure escaped his clutches, but spoils like it helped to bankroll Charlemagne's imperial ambitions, perhaps even supplying the gold ink used in some luxury Carolingian manuscripts.

Sânnicolau Mare (formerly Nagyszentmiklós), Romania
Probably AD 750–800
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities

Avar connections

The decoration on this bowl, from the same treasure, evokes Avar connections. On the underside, a dramatic scene of a griffin mauling a goat may have adapted motifs from Byzantine, Sasanian and Islamic silks. Inside, a Byzantine-style openwork roundel is circled by a Turkic inscription written in Greek letters. Its central cross hints that Avar elites knew about Christianity, perhaps via their interactions with the Byzantine empire.

Sânnicolau Mare (formerly Nagyszentmiklós), Romania
Probably AD 750–800
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities

Image caption:

Image showing the interior of the bowl. The Turkic inscription, engraved in Greek letters, encircles a central disc filled with intricate tendril motifs.

KHM-Museumsverband

The smuggling escapade of Willibald

Willibald, a monk from Wessex in England, made several pilgrimages to Jerusalem. On his fourth trip, he figured out a way to smuggle the balsam he had bought past the customs officials at Tyre, the punishment for which was death. Several decades later, Willibald recounted the story to Huneburc, a nun at Heidenheim in Germany, while she wrote his biography. Listen to his daring story here.

Huneberc of Heidenheim: The Hodoeporican of St. Willibald, composed between about AD 778 and 786

Translated from Latin by Charles H. Talbot, 1954

Push button to start from the beginning
Duration: about 1 min

Audio transcription:

'When Bishop Willibald was in Jerusalem, he bought himself some balsam and filled a calabash (a hollow gourd) with it; then he took a hollow reed which had a bottom to it and filled it with petroleum and put it inside the calabash. Afterwards he cut the reed equal in length to the calabash so that the surfaces of both were even and then closed the mouth of the [gourd].

When they reached the city of Tyre, the citizens arrested them, put them in chains and examined all their baggage to find out if they had hidden any contraband. If they had found anything they would certainly have punished them and put them to death.

But when they had thoroughly scrutinised everything and could find nothing but one calabash which Willibald had, they opened it and sniffed at it to
find out what was inside. And when they smelt petroleum, which was inside the reed at the top, they did not find the balsam which was inside the calabash underneath the petroleum, and so let them go.'

Creative ways with contraband

This gilded container probably held chrism, a blended oil used in Christian rituals like baptism. Chrism was often scented with balsam, a valuable plant resin from the eastern Mediterranean or Arabia. In the AD 720s, tight export controls inspired an English missionary and bishop called Willibald to smuggle it past Umayyad customs officials at Tyre (in present-day Lebanon). Ingeniously, he concealed the balsam in a hollowed-out gourd beneath a layer of mineral oil, masking its distinctive fragrance.

England or northern France
AD 700s
Wyvern Collection, UK

Shrinking the world

Charlemagne's expansion into Italy brought major international ports like Venice under his control, improving links with Byzantine and Islamic lands. From here, many wares were imported to Francia via the Alps.

The upper left page of this manuscript shows a recipe for incense using only foreign ingredients, like Indonesian cloves and Himalayan musk. The silk fragments, used to wrap saintly relics, were also imported. The spotted fragment was resist-dyed and possibly made in China. The pinkish fabric sports a Central Asian bird-in-roundel motif. The other pieces are probably Mediterranean work.

Manuscript
Saint-Vaast, France
Late AD 800s (with additions AD 800s–900s)
Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, pages 2–3
Given by Daniel Rogers

Silk relic wrappings 
Basel Cathedral, Switzerland 
AD 500s–1100s
British Museum, 1850,1127.1.a, c, f and g
Purchased from William Forrest

A gift between faiths?

New research tentatively links this brooch to diplomatic relations between Charlemagne in Francia and the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad between AD 797 and 809. Despite being Carolingian and Christian in style, its centrepiece is an Islamic glass seal inscribed with the phrase 'We have repented to God' in Arabic. Possibly, a Muslim envoy gave it to his Christian counterpart, who set it into a brooch. The inscription's vertical mounting was apparently deliberate. Perhaps the wearer knew that Arabic was written in the opposite direction to their own language.

Ballycotton Bog, County Cork, Republic of Ireland
Late AD 700s
British Museum, 1875,1211.1
Donated by Philip T. Gardner

Charlemagne's celebrity elephant

Of the many diplomatic gifts that Harun al-Rashid sent to Charlemagne, the most extraordinary was an elephant named Abu al-Abbas. The creature crossed continents on its long journey to Francia, where it astonished onlookers. This cylindrical ivory container, made around the time of Abu's death, could be a memento. Since fresh ivory was rare in Francia, it is tempting to wonder whether Abu al-Abbas's own tusks supplied the material.

Probably Aachen, Germany
Early AD 800s
British Museum, 1903,0514.1
Purchased from George R. Harding

Image caption:

Decorated initial showing an elephant's head, from a manuscript made during Abu al-Abbas's lifetime.

© Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 2915, folio 9v, early AD 800s

Theme panel, behind:
Britain and Ireland after Rome

Britain and Ireland lie at the farthest reach of northwest Europe, beyond the continent's coast. The realms that developed here after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the early AD 400s were once seen as remote and isolated from the wider world. However, research has recast them as outward-looking communities whose emerging social, cultural, religious and political identities blended local and imported ideas. The seas surrounding Britain and Ireland in fact connected to the many networks of the Silk Roads.

Made in Syria, buried in Essex

In England, excavations of lavish burials from around the early AD 600s have yielded unusual objects with distant connections. New research speculates that these items were brought home by mercenaries, recruited from across the Alps to join a Byzantine war against the Sasanian empire.

This elegant flagon is probably from Syria, where much fighting took place. A bracelet wrapped around its neck shows the soldier-saint Sergius, whose desert shrine at Sergiopolis in Syria perhaps attracted pilgrim mercenaries.

Prittlewell, Essex, England
Late AD 500s – early 600s
Central Museum, Southend
Transferred to Southend Museums, Southend City Council, after excavation

Eastern-style coats in wool and iron

Items from other high-status burials hint that eastern fashions also reached England. These gold clasps apparently fastened a red woollen wrap-over garment similar to steppe-style riding coats.

Such attire also appears in art from northwest Europe, implying that rulers there favoured the look. This coat of mail-armour from Sutton Hoo is unique in England but was familiar kit in the Byzantine army. Its copper-riveted iron rings echo an older mail fragment from Dura-Europos, Syria.

Gold clasps
Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England
Late AD 500s – early 600s
British Museum, 1883,1214.2–3
Donated by Reverend Charles T.E. Whateley

Mail-armour
Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England
Late AD 500s – early 600s
British Museum, 1939,1010.92
Donated by Mrs Edith M. Pretty

Image caption:

'Dancing warriors' wearing wrap-over eastern-style coats, from the decoration on the helmet from Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk.

© Adapted from an illustration by Goran tek-en via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Foreign technique, imported gems

These jewels, found at Sutton Hoo, are the finest known examples of garnet cloisonné metalwork. Originating in the Black Sea, Caucasus or Middle East region, this intricate technique was gradually adopted across Europe, becoming emblematic of elite identity.

Scientific analysis undertaken for this exhibition has traced the gems on these pieces to distant sources. On the shoulder-clasp, purple-red Indian garnets form two boars, whose spines bristle with tiny orange-red Bohemian (Czech) and Sri Lankan gems. These lustrous stones reached England in stages via land, sea and river routes.

Shoulder-clasp and sword-scabbard button
Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England
Late AD 500s – early 600s
British Museum, 1939,1010.5–5.a and 27
Donated by Mrs Edith M. Pretty

Riches from Rajasthan

Analysis has traced the garnets on this sword-scabbard buckle to Rajasthan in India, a source of fine, purple-red stones. By cutting them extremely thinly, the tiny gems along the buckle's edges were made paler orange. The quality of the garnets, their flawless setting and polishing show that no effort was spared when making this piece. Its wearer was evidently of the highest status, and very well-connected.

Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England
Late AD 500s – early 600s
British Museum, 1939,1010.10
Donated by Mrs Edith M. Pretty

Cosmopolitan lifestyles

Although ordinary in appearance, these ceramic fragments tell a rich story. They come from amphorae that carried wine, oil and other provisions from the eastern Mediterranean to southwest England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Found mostly at high-status settlements, they hint that Mediterranean ideas were intrinsic to northern elite lifestyles at this time. These fragments, from Cornwall and Scotland at opposite ends of Britain, show just how far such notions travelled.

Tintagel, Cornwall, England (left) and Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (right)
AD 400s–600s
British Museum, 1949,0501.1–3, 18–19, 24 and 27, donated by the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments University of Aberdeen.
Excavated by the University of Aberdeen

Mediterranean currents in the Church

Roman Christianity reached lowland Britain just before AD 600, with missionaries sent by the Pope in Rome. Their efforts to spread the faith joined those of Irish missionaries, resulting in a Church culture that blended Mediterranean, Irish and other elements.

These architectural fragments are from a smart Mediterranean-style guest house at the monastery of Jarrow, in northern England. Its founder Benedict Biscop, inspired by trips to Rome, imported artisans to construct buildings at Jarrow, and its twin foundation Monkwearmouth, in a style not seen in Britain since Roman rule.

Stone window-head, window glass, painted plaster and opus signinum (crushed concrete) floor fragments
Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, England
AD 700s
Jarrow Hall – Anglo-Saxon Farm, Village and Bede Museum

Poetic inspirations

This manuscript contains riddles written in Old English by the scholar Aldhelm (about AD 637– 709). The colourful prologue invokes Symphosius, a North African poet. Aldhelm probably encountered his works at a school in Canterbury, founded around 669 by renowned scholars Hadrian, from North Africa, and Theodore, from Tarsus (in present-day Türkiye). The school's curriculum drew from their pan-Mediterranean training, covering Greek, Latin, law, astronomy, medicine and music.

Made at Christ Church, Canterbury, Kent, England
Late AD 900s – early 1000s
British Library, London, folios 79v–80r

The Lichfield Angel

Imported ideas helped to shape Christian art in early medieval England. This sculpture, once vibrantly painted, is the finest of several foreign-influenced religious carvings made in the kingdom of Mercia (central England) under King Offa (AD 757–96). Its maker adapted eastern Mediterranean features like draped clothing, delicately feathered wings and finely modelled hair. The angel's eyes, drilled for glass settings, may emulate a technique used on Byzantine ivories.

Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire, England
About AD 800
Lichfield Cathedral

Cups and connectivity

These silver vessels, found in Britain, convey intriguing links with Central Asia. Recent analysis has traced the lidded cup's black inlay to a silver mine in present-day Iran, and its flaming pillar motifs resemble Zoroastrian fire altars in Sasanian art.

Textile wrappings preserved on its surfaces and within include the earliest known silk found in Scotland. The bulbous shape of the second cup, along with its roundels filled with animals, echoes Sasanian-style metalwork, perhaps inspired by imports like the lidded cup.

Gilded silver cup from the Galloway Hoard
Balmaghie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Probably AD 650–800
National Museums Scotland
On loan courtesy of National Museums Scotland supported by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), The Scottish Government, National Museums Scotland Charitable Trust and 1,500 people and organisations who made possible the acquisition, conservation and research

Gilded silver cup from the Vale of York Hoard
Near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
Mid-AD 800s
British Museum, 2009,8023.1
Jointly acquired with York Museums Trust (Yorkshire Museum) through the Treasure Act, with contributions from Art Fund, National Heritage Memorial Fund, British Museum Friends, York Museums Trust and the Wolfson Foundation

Offa's dinar

This tiny coin evokes a vast, connected world. Minted by Offa, ruler of the Mercian kingdom in central England (AD 757–96), it copies a dinar of his contemporary, the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur, but with an intriguing amendment. On this face, the maker inserted the Latin phrase OFFA REX ('King Offa') between an Arabic inscription which begins 'There is no God but Allah'. Islamic gold dinars were high quality and prized across international markets. In minting this copy, Offa may have sought to emulate Abbasid power and wealth.

Minted in Mercia (central England)
Late AD 700s
British Museum, 1913,1213.1

Label for the film:
Understanding Offa's dinar

This animation decodes the inscriptions on Offa's dinar.

Duration: about 2 mins This film has no sound

Images © The Trustees of the British Museum

With thanks to Fatima al Moufridji (University of Nottingham), Associate Professor Thijs Porck (Leiden University), and Christopher Dickinson / Guthlac on YouTube

The whale's road

This extraordinary object, made in a monastery in northern England, offers a parting image of a deeply connected world. The lively scenes, drawn from Christian tradition, northern European mythology, and Jewish and Roman history, are captioned in Latin and runic Old English, revealing the designer's worldly knowledge.

Aptly, the inscription on the front of the casket commemorates the whale from whose bones it was carved: a creature that, before beaching on Britain's shores, once swam in the seas that linked these islands to the Silk Roads.

Front panel: Scenes from the northern European story of Weland the Smith (left), and the Adoration of the Magi from the Christian New Testament (right).
Old English inscription in runes.
Probably made in Northumbria, England; found in Auzon, France
Early AD 700s
British Museum, 1867,0120.1
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Side panel: Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome, suckle a she-wolf (centre).
Old English inscription in runes.
Probably made in Northumbria, England; found in Auzon, France
Early AD 700s
British Museum, 1867,0120.1
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Side panel: A scene, probably from northern European tradition, showing cloaked figures (right) and an animal-human hybrid (left).
Old English inscription in runes.
Replica: the original panel is in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy

Rear panel: The Roman army attacks Jerusalem in AD 70, led by the future emperor Titus.
Old English (in runes) and Latin inscriptions.
Probably made in Northumbria, England; found in Auzon, France
Early AD 700s
British Museum, 1867,0120.1
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Lid panel: Egil, a famous archer in northern European tradition, defends a fortification from attack.
Old English inscription in runes.
Replica: the original panel is in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy

Exhibition conclusion panel, on side wall:
Beyond

The networks of the Silk Roads forged cross-cultural connections.

The ways people interact have changed, but these connections remain. They will continue to shape the present and future.

Sounds of communication in today's world

Exhibition exit corridor, on side wall:

Events

Learn more about life on the Silk Roads through a programme of events including talks, performances and activities. To find out more, visit britishmuseum.org/silkroads

Related galleries

Japan (Rooms 92–94), The Mitsubishi Corporation Galleries
Korea (Room 67), The Korea Foundation Gallery
China and South Asia (Room 33), The Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery
The Islamic world (Rooms 42–43), The Albukhary Foundation Gallery
Sutton Hoo and Europe AD 300–1100 (Room 41), The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery

Shop

Discover a range of products inspired by Silk Roads in the exhibition shop, as well as the online shop.

Join in online

Share your experience on social media.

Hear from exhibition curators and discover more about the intricately connected world of the Silk Roads on the British Museum blog – visit britishmuseum.org/blog

Become a Member

If you enjoyed Silk Roads, become a Member and visit again for free.

Membership gives you 12 months of unlimited entry to all exhibitions, including Hew Locke: what have we here? (17 October 2024 – 9 February 2025) and Picasso: printmaker (7 November 2024 – 30 March 2025).

Join today to redeem the price of your exhibition ticket and enjoy a special discount of 20% on the purchases you make today in the Museum shops. Individual Membership starts at £74 a year, with additional cards and guest facilities also available.*

Member benefits include:

• Free unlimited entry to exhibitions
• Exclusive online and on-site events
• Access to the Members' Room
• The British Museum Magazine
• Special offers and discounts

Ask at the Membership Desk in the Great Court, or scan the QR code below.

*20% discount valid on day of joining and available on-site only, 10% discount applies thereafter. Price based on an annually recurring payment by Direct Debit. Please be aware that we cannot refund any donation made when you purchased your ticket, and with tickets that include a donation neither the ticket nor the donation can be refunded.

We want to hear from you

Scan the QR code or follow the link to find a short survey about the exhibition that you can complete now or later.

To thank you for your help you will have the chance to enter a draw with a £50 prize.

If you wish to share any comments about the exhibition, please go to britishmuseum.org/contact-us

Acknowledgements

Supported by

The Huo Family Foundation

Additional supporters

James Bartos
The Ruddock Foundation for the Arts Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation

With further support from

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea
Unicorn Publishing Group
International Foundation for Arts and Culture Japan National Museum of Tajikistan
Rodolphe Olard and Susan Sinclair
The Huang Yao Foundation

The Trustees of the British Museum also wish to thank the following for their support and assistance in the creation of the exhibition

Lenders

Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford The British Library, London
Bute Museum
Gyeongju National Museum, Korea 국립경주박물관
Historiska Museet, Stockholm Jarrow Hall, Tyne and Wear
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities
Lichfield Cathedral Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, Paris Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid
Museo Arqueológico de Córdoba, Ministerio de Cultura / Junta de Andalucía
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
National Museum of Tajikistan National Museums Scotland
Parker Library, Corpus Christi College Library, University of Cambridge
Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, University College London
Samarkand State Museum-Reserve, Uzbekistan Southend Museums
State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, Tashkent The Syndics of Cambridge University Library Tokyo National Museum, Japan
University of Aberdeen, Scotland Victoria and Albert Museum, London Wyvern Collection

All exhibition services unless otherwise credited
British Museum

Exhibition and graphic design
Opera Amsterdam

Lighting design
Beam Lighting Design

Digital media and soundscape design
Shosho and Stijn Hosman

Digital media hardware design
Blue Elephant

Screens and audio points
Screen Size Films

Audio points voice actors
Clare Corbett and David Holt

Audio points producer
Pippa Vaughan

Construction
Sam Forster Associates

Graphic production
Omni Colour

Cost management and CDM advice
PT Projects, MDA Consulting

Fine art transport
Momart

Book cradles
Jonathan Hoskins

Scent boxes
AromaPrime

The Trustees would like to extend their thanks to the British Museum staff involved in the making of the exhibition

Environmental graphics

Lenticular:
image of cargo ship © moofushi / Adobe Stock

Case study backdrop image credits: image of the Jewel of Muscat, Foreign Ministry, Sultanate of Oman; reconstruction of the 'Hall of the Ambassadors' by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, Samarkand State Museum-Reserve, Northeast Asian History Foundation; image of reclining Buddha statue replica, State Institution 'National Museum of the Executive office of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan'; image of Viking ship in a riverine landscape, © Moesgaard Museum, DK. Credit: Claus Sandgaard, DK; image of Aksumite church architecture Temple B, Adulis, Eritrea by Daniel Habtemichael; composite image of Madinat al-Zahra and falcons, Madrugada Verde / Alamy Stock Photo, Hemis / Alamy Stock Photo and Simon Laprida/ Shutterstock.com

Maps:
Maps based on cartography by Martin Brown

In-case graphics:
Chancel screen reconstruction design and fragment join after M. Pola et al., 'The liturgical furnishings of Adulitan churches (Adulis-Eritrea). New data from the recent excavations of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology at the church "of the British Museum"', in 'Hortus Artium Medievalium', 27 (2021) pp. 60-79, figs. 14 and 9b

Digital media

Assets for landscape projections:
© sakura / Adobe Stock; © Eric Akashi / Adobe Stock; © TAKUYA ARAKI / Adobe Stock; © Sanga / Adobe Stock; © papii / Adobe Stock; © Naya Na / Adobe Stock; Photo by Liuxingy, 2021 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; Photo by Cānghai yè fēng, 2018 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; Photo by Danielinblue, 2013 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; Imaginechina Limited / Alamy Stock Photo; Wolfgang Kaehler / Alamy Stock Photo; © Links Productions / Adobe Stock; © uskarp2 / Adobe Stock; © uskarp2 / Adobe Stock; © explorewithinfo / Adobe Stock; © v_apl / Adobe Stock; © xiaoliangge / Adobe Stock; Chewy Bacca/Shutterstock.com; LuxScripta / Alamy Stock Photo; Dani Salvá / VWPics / Alamy Stock Photo; dave stamboulis / Alamy Stock Photo; Oybek Ostanov/Shutterstock.com; Cyrille REDOR / Alamy Stock Photo; Souri Stills/Shutterstock.com; AsiaDreamPhoto / Alamy Stock Photo; Matyas Rehak / Alamy Stock Photo; © Mohsen / Adobe Stock; © Mohammed / Adobe Stock; Lubo Ivanko/Shutterstock.com; © Sainuddeen / Adobe Stock; Eugene Sergeev / Alamy Stock Photo; © aubi1309 / Adobe Stock; © Simon van Hemert / Adobe Stock; 79Photography / Alamy Stock Photo; Giorgio Morara / Alamy Stock Photo; Zoonar GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo; © e55evu / Adobe Stock; David Buch Photography / Alamy Stock Photo; Karl W. Wegmann / Alamy Stock Photo; © Sam Nixon; Photo by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, 2011 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; © Richard Semik / Adobe Stock; Alfredo Maiquez/Shutterstock.com; Hilke Maunder / Alamy Stock Photo; © skovalsky / Adobe Stock; © Christian Schwier / Adobe Stock; © Mathieu / Adobe Stock; Ron Evans / Alamy Stock Photo; Dominic Jones / Alamy Stock Photo; 4H4 / Alamy Stock Photo; allan wright / Alamy Stock Photo; Jim Laws / Alamy Stock Photo; © drhfoto / Adobe Stock; Tania Kindiakova /Shutterstock.com; © David Head / Dreamstime.com

Screen credits: 
Photography of the 'Belitung Ship' cargo by Dr Michael Flecker; China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, China; reconstruction of the 'Hall of the Ambassadors' by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, Samarkand State Museum-Reserve, Northeast Asian History Foundation; animation of Offa's dinar with thanks to Fatima al Moufridji (University of Nottingham); Associate Professor Thijs Porck (Leiden University); and Christopher Dickinson / Guthlac on YouTube

Audio point translations: 
Extract from 'The Life of St Findan' by Matthew C. Delvaux, Barnard College; extract from 'The Book of the Fixed Stars' by Dr Ihsan Hafez; extract from the 'Cairo geniza' letter by Benjamin M. Outhwaite; extract from the 'Hodoepericon of St. Willibald' by C.H. Talbot

The British Museum thanks the many individuals and organisations who contributed to this exhibition:

Advisor to the President of Uzbekistan, Saida Mirziyoyeva, and Chairperson of Art and Culture Development Foundation of Uzbekistan, Gayane Umerova.

Glaire D. Anderson, Li Baoping, Alessandro Bausi, Leslie Brubaker, Gabriele Castiglia, Helen Gittos, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Liz James, Hugh Kennedy, B.M. Outhwaite, Arietta Papaconstantinou, Neil Price, Mariam Rosser-Owen, Joanna Story, Susan Whitfield, Chris Wickham, Tim Williams.

Financial support for the scientific analysis of garnets from the Sutton Hoo ship burial was provided by IPERION-HS, a project funded by the European Union, H2020-INFRAIA-2019-1, under GA 871034.

With thanks to the China National Silk Museum and Zhejiang University, China for their collaboration on the Dunhuang textile reconstruction project.

Association pour la Sauvegarde de la Peinture d'Afrasiab.

Thanks go to the many other people not listed here who have helped with this exhibition and research project.

This exhibition has been made possible as a result of the Government Indemnity Scheme. The British Museum would like to thank HM Government for providing Government Indemnity and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity.

As part of the Museum's efforts to lessen its environmental impact, materials, fittings and equipment are reused where possible. The Museum aims to make its exhibitions as sustainable as possible, sharing best practice, resources and the latest innovations with other museums and galleries.

The Museum has endeavoured to obtain consent from the rights holders of all content used in the exhibition. If you have concerns that any content has been used in the exhibition without the rights holder's permission, please contact the Exhibitions Department at [email protected]