This luxury item was thus one of the early impetuses for the development of trading routes from Europe to the Far East. Additionally, the needs of the Byzantine Church for silk garments and hangings were substantial. Silks popularity continued throughout the Middle Ages, with detailed Byzantine regulations for the manufacture of silk clothes, illustrating its importance as a quintessentially royal fabric and an important source of revenue for the crown. Tombs in Hubei province dating from the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE contain the first complete silk garments as well as outstanding examples of silk work, including brocade, gauze and embroidered silk.Īt some point during the 1st century BCE, silk was introduced to the Roman Empire, where it was considered an exotic luxury that became extremely popular, with imperial edicts being issued to control prices. Its production technique was a fiercely guarded secret within China for some 3,000 years, with imperial decrees sentencing to death anyone who revealed to a foreigner the process of its production. Regarded as an extremely high value product, silk was reserved for the exclusive usage of the Chinese imperial court for the making of cloths, drapes, banners, and other items of prestige. The cultivation of silkworms for the process of making silk, known as sericulture, was, according to Chinese tradition, developed sometime around the year 2,700 BCE. Silk is a textile of ancient Chinese origin woven from the protein fibre produced by the silkworm as it makes its cocoon. Science, arts and literature, as well as crafts and technologies were thus shared and disseminated into societies along the lengths of these routes, and in this way, languages, religions, and cultures developed and influenced one another. Travellers along the Silk Roads were attracted not only by trade but also by the intellectual and cultural exchange taking place in cities along the Silk Roads, many of which developed into hubs of culture and learning. In fact, the constant movement and mixing of populations brought about the widespread transmission of knowledge, ideas, cultures and beliefs, which had a profound impact on the history and civilizations of the Eurasian peoples. The vast trade networks of the Silk Roads carried more than just merchandise and precious commodities.
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