The Silk Road, which we've covered before, might be the most famous ancient trade route but #didyouknow that several others existed?
These ancient systems of globalization connected places of production to those of commerce. From Africa to Asia, this is a thread of 8 such routes
1. The Trans-Saharan Trade Route
The route stretched from N. Africa to W. Africa & was made up of many routes which crisscrossed via the desert. They first emerged in 300 CE.
By the 1100s, camel caravans (thousands of camels) would carry gold, salt & cloth along the routes.
2. Spice Routes
These were maritime paths linking the East to the West
With the Age of Exploration came new sea navigation tech that made these once rare spices accessible to the West, eliminating the need for N.African & Arab middlemen who had controlled the spice trade before
3. The Incense Route
Was used to transport frankincense & myrrh, from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean by camel.
3,000 tons of incense moved along the route annually & it would take 2 months to cover the distance. Caravans had to pay taxes to pass via the settlements
4. The Silk Road
This is the most famous ancient trade route, linking the major ancient civilizations of China and the Roman Empire.
We covered the routes more comprehensively in this thread.
5. The Salt Route
Also known as the Roman Via Salaria, it ran from Ostia, near Rome, across Italy to the Adriatic coast & was used to transport salt
Salt was so precious, it made up a portion of a Roman soldier’s pay
This is how we got the word salary. (Sal, is Latin for salt)
6. The Amber Road
The Romans, who valued the amber stone as decor & for medicinal purposes, developed this road linking the Baltics to the rest of Europe.
Today, you can find traces of the old Amber Road in Poland, where one of the major routes is known as the “Amber Highway.”
7. The Tin Route
It flourished in the 1st millennium BCE. It stretched from the tin mines of Cornwall, over the sea to France, then down to Greece & beyond
From the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, this route provided many with access to a vital ingredient for metal-making: tin.
8. The Tea Horse Road
This route was more than 12000 km long, weaving through the Hengduan Mountains of China, known for its tea, on to Tibet & India.
The main goods traveling the route were Chinese tea and Tibetan warhorses, with direct trades of tea-for-horses and vice versa.
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