The Silk Road acted as a conveyer belt of sorts, moving value items from oasis to oasis, from large settlement to large settlement through a trickle trade of merchants traversing a series of varied terrains and obstacles. Silk and coinage were two of the most common items traded by merchants, but the exchange of artistic techniques and ideas would also affect how glass was made in the ancient world.
There is a significant link between the development of different techniques of glass-making and the Silk Road. Additionally, there is a link between cultural and symbolic representation that grew out of the steady exchange of intellectual and cultural ideas that occurred because of the phenomenon known as the Silk Road.[1]
According to “The Silk Road Encyclopedia,” Chinaincrease excelled at pottery-making rather than glass-making, which illustrates the value that technical knowledge of glass-making could represent in Chinese culture. The flow of Chinese ceramics out of the country in exchange for Western-made glass would have benefited both parties and allowed for the transfer of different techniques.
Glass in the ancient world can be identified by its chemical makeup. Specific methods are more common in different parts of the world. Researchers could speculate the origin of a piece based on its chemical makeup and the motifs applied to the glass itself.[2]
Researchers have commonly referenced two specific chemical makeups: lead barium silicate of ancient china and soda lime silicate of the West collectively.
For instance, pieces unearthed during the Han Dynasty are consistent with the lead barium silicate system and bear imagery influenced by Chinese culture. These pieces act as a sort of baseline, allowing us to easily compare and contrast different pieces of glass from other geographic regions.
Several pieces from the Han dynasty were of the soda lime silicate group and were evidence of imported goods from the West. This influx of Western glass during the Han Dynasty exhibits the functional capacity of the Silk Road. The transportation of valued goods across China and into the West and vice versa allowed for the spread of glass-making techniques.
Access to new technical knowledge represents another benefit produced by the Silk Road. Although glass was a luxury item, it was rarely used as currency in the same way that silk was or even the same way that more commonplace things such as linen were. We can speculate that this may have occurred because fragile nature of glass goods, which would have likely made glass less desirable as a bulk trade item.
Glass along the Silk Road allows us to contextualize the grander effects that Silk Road trade had on the development of commerce and culture in the ancient world. The impact of trading glass along the Silk Road had a much more significant effect on the diffusion of cultural ideas and techniques than it affected fortunes, but the spread of culture made its role so important.
As silk and other items spread across the continent, glass beads and the occasional glass cup or bowl would travel with them, and even though this seems relatively insignificant, it represented the transfer of cultural and technical knowledge that would proliferate across generations and build the foundation for modern glass technique in China.
[1] Brill, 42.
[2] Brill, 52
[3] This is the text of footnote three.
Su-il, Jeong. THE SILK ROAD ENCYCLOPEDIA (Irvine, CA: Seoul Collection 2017) ProQuest Ebook Central,
Brill, Robert and Shouyun Tian. Ancient Glass Along the Silk Road, World Scientific Publishing Company, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central,