The Maritime Silk Route as a World System: West meets East

The Overland and Maritime Silk Routes that carried goods from the Mediterranean to India and China 2,000 years ago are world renowned but knowledge of the inter-regional networks is uneven. Southeast Asian archaeologists have established that interaction between Southeast Asians and their immediate neighbours (India and China) dates back to the prehistoric period but interaction with other exogenic groups has never been established. Exotic artefacts in the Southeast Asian archaeological record are interpreted as evidence for long-distance trade. This proposal aims to demonstrate that crafts-persons with complex textile technologies from the Mediterranean are represented at pre-Oc Eo sites in Vietnam.