The museum’s latest exhibition will go on display from the 26th September until the 23rd February 2025.
The British Museum is set to explore and challenge the modern concept of the ‘Silk Road’ as a simple history of trade between ‘East’ and ‘West’, when fact, rather than a single trade route, the Silk Roads were made up of overlapping networks linking
communities across Asia, Africa and Europe, from Japan to Britain, Scandinavia to Madagascar.
This major new display will look at the journeys of people, objects and ideas along the Silk Roads shaped cultures and histories. In addition, it will focus on on a
defining period in their history, from about AD 500–1000, which saw significant leaps in
connectivity and the rise of universal religions that linked communities across continents.
Silk Roads will be structured into five geographical zones that take visitors on their own Silk Roads journey, the exhibition showcases more than 300 objects from Indian garnets found in Suffolk to Iranian glass unearthed in Japan.
Many of the items will be on display in the UK for the very first time, including the oldest group of chess pieces ever found and a monumental six-metre-long wall painting from the ‘Hall of the Ambassadors’ in Afrasiab (Samarkand), Uzbekistan. The painting evokes the cosmopolitanism of the Sogdians from Central Asia who were great traders during this period.
Visitors will also meet figures whose stories are entwined with the Silk Roads, including Willibald, an ingenious balsam smuggler from England, and a legendary Chinese princess who shared the secrets of silk farming with her new kingdom. Covering deserts, mountains, rivers and seas, the Silk Roads tell a story of connection between cultures and continents, centuries before the development of the globalised world we know today.
Talking about the exhibition, Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the British Museum, comments: “The British Museum is worldrenowned for its gripping, award-winning exhibitions which I’ve always admired. Silk Roads will be the first to open since I became Director, and I was particularly impressed by the way that it challenges existing perspectives while also involving deep collaboration – with departments across the Museum working together to bring it to its ambitious, compelling fruition.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/silk-roads?