The Silk Road was a series of ancient trading routes that spanned Asia, reaching as far as the Middle East and Europe. Self-organizing and vast, it fell under the control of various empires—but never for long. The polyglot civilizations of traders who lived along its routes are the subject of legends, and more recently the Silk Road lent its name to an infamous darknet market. Historians usually date the Silk Road from roughly the 200s to the 1400s. But a new study in Nature suggests the trade routes may be 2,500 years older than previously believed and its origins much humbler than the rich cities it spawned.
Historical accounts of the Silk Road begin in China in the 100s, when the Han Dynasty used its many routes to trade with the peoples of Central and South Asia. Han soldiers protected the roads and maintained regular outposts on them, allowing wealth and knowledge to flow across the continent. Monks wandering the Silk Road brought Buddhism from India to China, while merchants brought spices, gems, textiles, books, horses, and other valuables from one part of the continent to the other. Great Silk Road cities such as Chang'an (today called Xi'an) and Samarkand grew fat on wealth from the routes that passed outside their walls.
But Washington University in St. Louis anthropologist Michael Frachetti and his colleagues wondered how people traversed the many difficult stretches of the Silk Road that switchbacked through the mountains of Central Asia. Even though these routes weren't urban or under the protection of soldiers, people used them all the time to pass between Asia and the Middle East. We can see where these travelers camped at over 600 archaeological sites in the mountains. Writing in Nature, Frachetti and his colleagues describe how they had to devise a new approach to track the routes people took between these camps.
The problem was that previous scholars assumed people took routes that resembled what a "least cost" algorithm would draw—essentially the easiest path. This is "largely effective in lowland zones where economic networks and mobility between urban centers are consistent with ease of travel," the researchers write in their paper. But those algorithms won't work in the mountains, on uneven terrain that was often barren.
To predict the Silk Road's high-elevation routes, they argue, means following in the footsteps of nomadic peoples who trekked across these mountains with herd animals for thousands of years. "More than 50 years of research concerning nomadic adaptive strategies in Asia's highland elevations suggests that 'ease of travel' was probably not the dominant factor dictating mobility across the mountains," they explain.
Source: ArsTechnica
Abstract available online:
Michael D. Frachetti, C. Evan Smith, Cynthia M. Traub, Tim Williams, Nomadic ecology shaped the highland geography of Asia's Silk Roads, Nature doi:10.1038/nature21696
(Score: 2) by captain_nifty on Monday March 13 2017, @06:24PM (2 children)
I'm not going to say it was aliens, but it was aliens.
Seriously though this seems pretty obvious, roads follow previously existing nomadic paths, and not some idealized low cost algorithm, humans not 100% efficient in making roads, news at 11.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Monday March 13 2017, @06:54PM
It's not obvious. Nomads route following vegetation and through whatever terrain their goats and cattle like. They don't even care about water sources so long as there's enough green to feed the goats for milk. This, while merchant caravans require water sources at certain intervals and strongly prefer flat roads since they're traveling with carriages.
Then again, my source is some random National Geographic trivia from 20 years ago I somehow pieced together (pulled out of my azz) so don't quote me on this.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @07:01PM
Bees and ants are very very good at finding the optimal path from A to B. I don't think it is an unreasonable assumption to make when you're talking about nomadic movement over very very long periods of time, particularly since it works very well when you're not talking about mountainous regions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday March 13 2017, @06:28PM (2 children)
"Sure, you can take the lower pass and save two days, but it has 50% more sudden snowstorms, 20% more landslides, 30% more bears, 5 more rickety bridges over the deep gorge, 40% more outlaws, and the village witch cursed the last guy who left a dead horse rot near the stream.
Old men take the two-extra-days detour. That's why they get to be old."
(Score: 1) by GDX on Tuesday March 14 2017, @05:10AM (1 child)
Apart from what you tell there is also the problem in what is considered "least cost", in the old travel routes it not was uncommon that between two points there where various alternatives routes and that the people selected one ore another in relation to the transportation method and how loaded they where, if they where in a carriage they took one longer route but if they where on feet or riding a horse they used some alternative itineraries that cut time because the cost of this alternatives weren't much higher in practice and the total cost of the travel most of the times was reduced.
After all the transportation method and the load is crucial to determine the route and its cost but tend to be ignored most of the time.
(Score: 1) by GDX on Tuesday March 14 2017, @05:23AM
I forgot to mention that the routes sometimes also varied or changed depending of the season.
All of this about routes is also valid today, specially in the less developed countries but even in the first world countries are examples like the ice roads.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday March 13 2017, @06:56PM
On a day like today, I wish my work was interesting as tracing out ancient trade routes.
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Monday March 13 2017, @09:00PM
It was the silk worms!
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @10:34PM (2 children)
A few different versions of the great song Caravan,
Early Ellington with Ella Fitzgerald (50's?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ADroVuFwM [youtube.com]
Late Ellington with Mingus & Roach! 1962 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNoLbP5s-68 [youtube.com]
Marc Ribot 1992 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dlN76b2y4s [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 13 2017, @11:27PM (1 child)
Skaravan [youtube.com]
(music starts around 1:10)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:09AM
Cool, that Japanese band is really having a good time, steel drums and all. The audience dancing in sync is almost creepy.
But I'll stick with the Ribot version, have you heard his arrangement of Fat Man Blues? https://vimeo.com/56169574 [vimeo.com]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday March 14 2017, @02:50AM (3 children)
What's with the increased interest in history? Previous story is about Xenix, and now this about the Silk Road. And wasn't there some news about Sid Meier's Civilization recently, an interview with him?
Don't get me wrong, I find history interesting. Just wondering if others are becoming more interested. Which lets me lead into the next question, to crank up the drama. Is increasing interest in the past a sign that our society is stagnating, just like the Galactic Empire in Asimov's Foundation stories??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:12AM
Stagnating? Maybe in some areas, but not in tech. Moore's Law is still working for now.
(Score: 2) by Shimitar on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:28AM
Myself, i have always been interested in history, so i like these detours more than other stories...
My 2c, anyway.
And, great work on the website update! I quite love it.
Coding is an art. No, java is not coding. Yes, i am biased, i know, sorry if this bothers you.
(Score: 1) by Sourcery42 on Tuesday March 14 2017, @04:33PM
I like the track you're on here. God Emperor Orange is some sort of Seldon Crisis for our civilization to overcome.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday March 14 2017, @08:34AM (1 child)
If the paths through mountainous regions don't follow the expected route, there is a good chance that this is probably a strong signal that your expectations might be wrong.
Humans are quite good at optimisation strategies, and routes that have taken decades, if not centuries, to evolve, probably have incorporated some subtle optimisations that you have not thought of. Other posters have given examples. Avoiding bandits, rock-slides, floods, and poor weather are all things that could influence the choice of route. That said, people are creatures of habit, so choices that made sense in the past might still be inappropriately driving decisions made when the reason for the original choice is no longer valid. Tradition can drive some very odd behaviour indeed, and I'm sure we can think of examples.
I'm reminded of a story about a sensible architect, who was asked where permanent paths should be laid on a university campus. The architect's response was to lay turf everywhere and wait for a semester/term, then put the paths where the grass was worn down the most.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday March 14 2017, @04:41PM
It also happens that the longer road attracted the most people by being safer, and therefore got the most maintenance, improvements, and more traveler facilities. Until you get to reliable cars which can go hundreds of kilometers, you're gonna stay on the road where an incident won't leave you stranded hours from everything.