Silk Trade to Scandinavia in the Viking Age

Vedeler, Marianne

doi:10.2307/j.ctvh1dm0t.8

Cited by 3 publications

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“…It is true that silk and silk clothing were found in many graves, from the north Caucasus to Switzerland and Scandinavia. But most of them were made in Byzantine and Central Asia (Vedeler 2016). Apparently, few Chinese silks were delivered to eastern Europe not directly but from central Asian countries.…”

Section: The Silk Road and Its Mythsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Steppe Nomads in the Eurasian Trade

Khazanov

2019

Chungará (Arica)

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The nomads of the Eurasian steppes, semi-deserts, and deserts played an important and multifarious role in regional, interregional transit, and long-distance trade across Eurasia. In ancient and medieval times their role far exceeded their number and economic potential. The specialized and non-autarchic character of their economy, provoked that the nomads always experienced a need for external agricultural and handicraft products. Besides, successful nomadic states and polities created demand for the international trade in high value foreign goods, and even provided supplies, especially silk, for this trade. Because of undeveloped social division of labor, however, there were no professional traders in any nomadic society. Thus, specialized foreign traders enjoyed a high prestige amongst them. It is, finally, argued that the real importance of the overland Silk Road, that currently has become a quite popular historical adventure, has been greatly exaggerated.

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Section: The Silk Road and Its Mythsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Steppe Nomads in the Eurasian Trade

Khazanov

2019

Chungará (Arica)

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“…prepared by t. kurasiński rasiński, skóra 2012, 57-60; pień -błaszczyk 2020, 125-131; Żukowo -dzik 2006, 85-89). Jednocześnie pojawiły się publikacje o charakterze problemowym i przekrojowym (Janowski, kurasiński 2008;kurasiński 2013-20142015b;2018; w druku a) 2 .…”

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Nie tylko z drewna. Wiadra klepkowe obite blachą w grobach wczesnośredniowiecznych na terenie ziem polskich

Kurasiński

2023

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In this study, information was collected on stave-built wooden vessels (buckets) from early medieval cemeteries in Polish lands, for which the distinguishing feature is metal fittings in the form of strips and / or crescent- shaped applications. In the light of the current state of knowledge, we have information on 33 containers of such design from nineteen cemeteries. The most numerous collection of them was discovered in Lutomiersk, from where eight graves with such vessels are known. Three containers were recorded in the cemetery in Pień, and in Kałdus, Lubień, Komorowo and Poznań-Śródka – two in each. The remaining sites provided single finds. These vessels were subjected to a typological, formal and chronological analysis, taking into account the context of discovery and provenance, and on this basis an attempt was made to interpret their meaning in funeral rites. In Polish lands, the deceased were buried with the type of vessel in question at the end of the 10th century, and this custom disappeared at the beginning of the 12th century.

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The Great Silk Road Which Did Not Exist

Khazanov

2022

journal

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Interregional long-distance trade in silk certainly existed in ancient and medieval times, but the transcontinental and regular «Great Silk Road», whether overland or even maritime, is a myth, a phantom. Its existence is not confirmed either by written sources or by archaeological data. A concept of the Silk Road implies at least knowledge of macro-routes and their final destination, as well as transcontinental connectivity. The latter, if it existed in antiquity and medieval times at all, was much more occasional than regular and intentional. As a rule, such trade involved many middlemen. The «Silk Road» and the trade in silk, even a trans-regional one, are quite different notions. The transcontinental overland trade existed in but a few short-lived historical periods; it was neither confined to silk nor was it even a road. The «silk roads» were only one of many long-distance continental and transcontinental trading itineraries that existed in the Old World in premodern times. It is also important to remember that transcontinental trade was limited only to high-value, low-volume goods. The exotic appeal of long-distance trade in luxuries combined with a striving for political correctness often results in distorted and exaggerated opinions on premodern commerce in general. Not only silk and other luxury and prestige goods, but also people, religions, languages, scientific knowledge, inventions, innovations, new technologies, know-how, chemicals, minerals, metals, plants, medicine, cultural transmissions and artistic styles and fashions, cuisine, and musical instruments moved along its numerous itineraries, but on the negative side, epidemic diseases and epizootics were also disseminated across Eurasia along with them. Finally, it is worth stressing again that the long-distance Eurasian trade not only directly or indirectly stimulated movements of people and created ethnic diasporas. Frequently it was just members of these diasporas who brought new knowledge and technological knowhow and contributed to their practical applications in the new milieus. That was the main achievement of Eurasian trade, with no continuity between the trade in silk in the ancient and medieval times.

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Silk Trade to Scandinavia in the Viking Age

Cited by 3 publications

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Steppe Nomads in the Eurasian Trade

Steppe Nomads in the Eurasian Trade

Nie tylko z drewna. Wiadra klepkowe obite blachą w grobach wczesnośredniowiecznych na terenie ziem polskich

The Great Silk Road Which Did Not Exist

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