Ecology and Empire Along the Ancient Silk Roads

Before the era of mechanized travel, the silk roads were the human highways linking Asia and Europe. Across this vast network of trade routes, merchants plied their wares—silks, furs, gems, metals, and foods from every corner of the known world.

Transcontinental commerce reached its apex in the early seventh century A.D., when powerful and politically stable empires enabled trade to flourish. The demand for exotic goods that fueled this trade was underwritten by a single undeniable feature—the ecology of the Eurasian landmass.

The goal of this map is to provide a way to visualize the ecological context of the Silk Roads. The broad ecological zones of Asia and Europe—the steppes, deserts, montane forests, and alluvial floodplains—are approximated by modern land cover. Traversing these distinct ecological zones is a complex set of medieval trade routes that connected major cities and empires of the day. By examining the complex geography of these trade routes, the map seeks to enrich our understanding of the relationship between ecology, economy, and empire during one of the most important periods in human history.