02-07-2017, 03:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-08-2017, 04:39 AM by Michael Kerr.)
Hi, just wanted to add that it should be noted that the terms “Silk Roads” or “Silk Routes” were coined in 1877 by German traveller, geographer and scientist Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, uncle of World War 1 flying ace the “Red Baron” Manfred von Richthofen. Before that who knows what these routes were called but it carried many more textiles and goods than silk. Roman glass, spices, gems, metals, weapons, horses, jade, wool, hemp, jute, cotton,linen and other textiles. Eastern Roman cities like Tyre and Sidon as well as Palmyra used Chinese silk to make heavier types of brocades and tapestries. More northerly routes probably had a prosperous trade in furs and skins as well. Even the wealthier locals of Xinjiang used silks with propitious motifs and auspicious creatures among clouds but whether for everyday use and good fortune in life or for burials and death I am not sure. This Caucasian male was found in Tomb 8 at Niya and is probably dated from about the time of the Eastern Han but not precisely dated. Pic copyrighted to Zhao Feng.
One of the reasons Chinese silk was superior, although not the only reason, to the wild silks found around the Mediterranean as well as India was the fact that the Chinese sericulturists killed the silk moth before it could hatch through the cocoon where it breaks the silk threads that it has spun around itself. Therefore the thread can be unravelled as a single fine thread that can, it has been said reach up to 2km and does not require spinning like the broken threads of wild silk moths as the wild moths are not prevented from hatching where they break the threads surrounding them. They then require spinning which makes them coarser.
One of the reasons Chinese silk was superior, although not the only reason, to the wild silks found around the Mediterranean as well as India was the fact that the Chinese sericulturists killed the silk moth before it could hatch through the cocoon where it breaks the silk threads that it has spun around itself. Therefore the thread can be unravelled as a single fine thread that can, it has been said reach up to 2km and does not require spinning like the broken threads of wild silk moths as the wild moths are not prevented from hatching where they break the threads surrounding them. They then require spinning which makes them coarser.
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
