The exhibition Silk Roads inaugurated in the British Museum September 26, 2024 and will last till February 23, 2025, a stunning show focusing on a defining period in the history of Silk Roads, from about AD 500 to 1000. This time witnessed significant leaps in connectivity and the rise of universal religions that linked communities across continents.
Rather than a single trade route from East to West, the Silk Roads were made up of overlapping networks linking communities across Asia, Africa and Europe, from East Asia to Britain, and from Scandinavia to Madagascar. This major exhibition unravels how the journeys of people, objects and ideas that formed the Silk Roads shaped cultures and histories. Objects from the Museum collection are borrowed from 29 international lenders, some of whom have never lent to the Museum, or the UK, before. The result is a unique chance to view objects from across Afro-Eurasia together, in one space, where they can be compared and contextualized.
Meanwhile, A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang exhibition was opened in the British Library. The oasis of Dunhuang, at the edge of the Gobi Desert, was once a bustling town on the famous Silk Road connecting China and the Mediterranean. This exhibition provides a rare glimpse into the ordinary lives of people long ago through the remarkable contents of the Library Cave, part of the Buddhist cave complex of Mogao, where a wealth of manuscripts, documents and artworks remained sealed for nearly 900 years. Detailing life in and around Dunhuang during the first millennium CE, the documents include personal letters and wills encompassing multiple languages, faiths and cultures, and span topics as diverse as literature, astronomy, medicine, politics and art.
Source: the British Museum, the British Library